Small Business Scammers Pretend to Be Deaf

Con artists have a diverse bag of tricks for defrauding small businesses, including impersonating electric companies and climbing onto convenience-store rooftops. In Wisconsin, thieves recently dusted off an old ruse for duping small merchants: They’re pretending to be deaf.

The so-called relay-operator scam, which relies on a telephone service for the hearing-impaired, has been around for at least a decade. At its most basic, a crook uses a stolen credit card to pay for a large order, then cancels the order, hoping to receive a refund before the original credit card transaction has settled.