Blog of the Week: Criminal Fraud by VRS Agencies
Here are the facts that I pulled from the two PDFs provided by Bosson.
ICSD PDF
The ICSD PDF states that the FCC-OIG has tracked a"dramatic increase"in payouts to VRS providers from the TRS Fund. For example , in January 2005 - $10.8 million representing 1.4 million VRS minutes was paid. By January 2009 that had skyrocketed to.$51.2 million paid representing 8.1 million VRS minutes.
How were so many minutes generated? The huge increase was the result of fraudelently generated minutes. Fraudulent minutes were generated through non-interpreted "run calls" also known as "revenue calls."
A "run call" was a call to a long recording such as a podcast. At one VRS company, most of the calls made were run calls. Video interpreter logins were even used to make run calls.
That's not all. Video relay interpreters told to provide callers with numbers to call if a call ended.
Hawkins PDF
According to the Hawkins PDF, callers from China were making run calls. These callers were allegedly paid to make the calls. Video relay interpreters could even see that some run callers were making multiple VRS run calls at the same time.
Finally, when the legitimate call volume was low, video relay interpreters called themselves to generate minutes.
Guide Comments
I had seen Ed's blog earlier but was not really aware of what this was about until this morning when an interpreter told me that a VRS agency had been visited by the FBI and that 3 or 4 call centers were closing today. Many young and uncertified interpreters lost their jobs.
According to the interpreter, video relay interpreters who saw what was going on became fed up and complained to the FCC which then called in the FBI because the FCC does not have the authority that the FBI does to investigate criminal matters.
I can't help but wonder what can possibly prevent this kind of fraud from happening in the future. It sounds like it may be easy to commit this kind of fraud. What safeguards, if any, can be built into the VRS system? If you had a business whose profit depended on the volume of calls made to your business, wouldn't you have an incentive to keep that volume up even if it meant fraud? Is the answer to drop the per-minute payment and just make a flat payment to VRS service providers?
In my opinion, VRS fraud happens not because of what the per minute rate is, but because these companies' profits depend on the revenue brought in by the number of minutes. How do you remove that incentive? Do you have to nationalize the VRS agencies, turning them into Federally-run agencies instead of Federally-reimbursed agencies?
Comments
Converting from per-minute to flat fee should help some. However, the fact that these VRS agencies (or at least the 2 mentioned — I don’t know how other VRS agencies operate) are paid by the government is still problematic. Sometimes being paid by the government can lead to fraud — Medicare fraud cases come to mind, for example.
That reminds me….how are the “old-fashioned” relay operators like AT&T Relay paid for? Have there been fraud issues with these?
What company’s call centers are closing today?
With the ‘old-fashioned’ relay like TRS on TTYs, fraud on this scale is impossible because relay users were billed for the calls. VRS, on the other hand, the users are not billed. This type of fraud will go away once the relay users are billed for these calls.
This will happen with the implementation of improved technology for IP # identification and others that would allow one to reliably identify a customer accurately for billing purposes. I know we have the technology to do this but is it really accurate?
Yes, I have heard about this news. It is sad to see those doing it. I think those who done it should be closed and never be served as a VRS provider again. However, I think now is the time for TDI, Inc. to be involved and to oversee the operations of VRS Providers with a code of ethic roles where FCC regulated in the TRS Guidelines. It will help prevent this from happening again. I am sure VRS Providers may not like the idea of having TDI’s involvement but logically this seem to be the right thing because they represent the deaf/hh consumers in the method of our “Communication” devices generally. It is the same with NAD representing us with our advocacy issues. I give praise to this whistleblower person for having the courage to come forward. We need more like them to come forward. Thanks!
“At one VRS company, most of the calls made were run calls. Video interpreter logins were even used to make run calls.
That’s not all. Video relay interpreters told to provide callers with numbers to call if a call ended.”
I would like to caution you that no one has gone to court so no one has been found guilty at this point. Can we let the judicial system come full circle before we publicly hang our fellow colleagues? No one knows what happened. We can only read the papers filed by one agent. There’s been no trial, no evidence submitted in court, and especially no decision by a judge. At least wait until someone is found guilty before slandering them before the entire internet. Just my two cents. Thanks!
It’s not just young and uncertified interpreters that lost jobs, ALL interpreters at those call centers lost their jobs. There were many experienced and skilled VIs employed there.
Well, if this case goes to trial, the accused will tried by a jury of their peers with the presumption of innocent. I have to admit the evidence does look pretty overwhelming and points to a “gulity” verdict.
However, my gut feeling tells me that this case may be settled and pleaded out. The owners of the ISCD company are so dumb, inexperience and clueless that they didn’t think anyone would notice an astronomical increase in VRS minutes and money being taken out of the TRS fund, much less having the interpreters who worked for the blowing the whistle on ‘em.
I’m both shocked and surprised the owners were even able secure such an agreement with Viable to provide Spanish VRS in the first place without any safeguard or oversight to prevent things of this nature from happening.
While we debate a better solution, I don’t think it’s necessary to nationalize the VRS agencies into federalize-run agencies. We just need to have better oversight and safeguards. I think it’s worthy of having a debate of converting from per-minute to flat fee rate. Certainly, this will help reduce fraud.
The FCC created a system for VRS that is the equivalent of a “kick me” sign on a nerd’s back, only this one said “defraud me”.
How do you stop run calls? Easy. Have all VRS calls go through a central switch. Calls are routed to different call centers randomly.
You can’t make run calls if you don’t know which CA or call center will interpret the call.
It is really unfortunate that the very companies out there that swear they are for deaf and hard of hearing people(and some are deaf owned and operated) end up destroying something that has helped deaf and hard of hearing people so much. I am an interpreter and I recently worked for a vrs company that was not too happy that I complained about the fraudelent podcasts, of course I no longer work for them. The bottom line for the “greed” I think is that for some reason these companies just don’t get it that deaf people are not staying on the phone all day and certainly not all night long. So call volume has probably leveled out and their call volume is probably where it will always be. So the crooks have figured out a way of bilking the system and forcing interpreters to work in uncomfortable, sometimes painful situations by interpreting podcasts so that they can get paid. I hope the FBI gets all of them and return this wonderful profession and opportunity to the ones who really want to help the deaf and hard of hearing community.
Sue,
You said it in a nutshell. For years I wondered how the heck could VRS be as popular as VRS companies claimed it was? There are more hard of hearing and deaf who don’t sign, yet the demand for text relay was allegedly going way down compared to VRS.
Plus, over the years, there have been complaints and concerns about VRS allegedly “stealing” community interpreters, reducing the availability of community interpreters. I wonder how this scandal is going to impact interpreters, who may find that VRS does not pay as much as it did before. If the demand for VRS has leveled off as you say, then it will not be as “profitable” as before and so the companies won’t be able to pay as much. This could lead to an evening out of things – interpreters will still have the option of working as video relay interpreters, but it won’t have as big a financial advantage over community interpreting.
Hey, hearies folks, stop hurting Viable Company and please leave Deafies alone in workplace of Viable. Most of them are innocent. My heart comes out to Deaf Community – not hearing world! Just interpret for them at all and close your mouth when you are done with Deaf caller. All PERIOD! If you don’t want to interpret in unserious call, just quit SIMPLY from VRS industry.
Please appreciate this.
Hey, deafie…..
When any company defrauds the government they are stealing from all taxpayers.
Sure, the majority of persons involved are innocent but that does not refute the fact that major fraud was occurring.
I must say I am shocked at your attitude As a whole and I hope that this is not represenative of the deaf community.
I can’t wait for the Viable and the interpreting agency lose their license to represent the deaf population. We all pay toward the FCC minutes. I think they should go to jail and lose everything they own. I just hope we don’t the VRS that is funded by the g
Not only has this company defrauded the government. But they have left the Terps from the two call centers ( Towson, MD and Ellicott City, MD ) Without pay since the 3rd of July.
Viable, INC has not been able to pay their employees that still work at their company.
The owner supplied people from other countries with “V-Pads” to make these calls.
They have not paid their insurance premiums for the employees, therefore they have no health coverage.
They did not technically ” Lay-off ” their employees but furloughed them, so they did not have to pay unemployment.
They lied to their employees as to why they were shutting down call centers. ( Was told was because of call volume ) When in all reality, it was because they knew since the end of June that the government stopped funding them, therefore they would not have the money to pay or keep open everything.
They are getting ” Funding ” from someone to pay their employees supposedly.
More like, who is buying the company????
To Deafie…
Maybe you are not aware of the pressure and stress these VRS companies are placing on interpreters. We want to only do our job and interpret but management knows that we have to pay our bills too and that is why we work but the negative attitudes and nasty emails received when call volume logs are sent in became unbearable for me. I was personally blamed because deaf people did not make calls or made very few calls during my 12am-8am shift because they were “sleep”. My boss even went as far as to say “Maybe deaf people don’t like you as why they don’t call”.(extremely hurtful, sexist,bias and racist) This is the kind of pressure and treatment I received while working. VRS management will never accept that the novelty has gone out of VRS calling, it has quickly become “just a phone”. Deaf people have lives, jobs and families just as hearing people do, they are not on the phones 24 hours a day just becuase it is there. They have to make a call when they have to make a call just like everyone else, and when management finally figured this out the podcast calls became the norm. At my agency they had the podcast calls running 24 hours a day EVERYDAY on 2-3 interpreters’ lines. When I complained that I did not feel comfortable placing the podcast calls I was fired. Fired for being ethical. As I have said before if the FBI gets them and puts them in jail or makes them pay back the money they have STOLEN so be it! They created this monster! They fraudulently bill and get paid! Not interpreters!
The simple solution is to not let the caller choose the VRS provider. Until big changes are made, the fraud will creep back in.