The "Deaf" Scam

[RichS]

I feel really bad for the legitimately deaf. I got those calls all the time back when I sold computers, at least one per month. All scams, never once got a real one.

Same with the store I used to work at. My boss bit on the first one, who wanted multiple amounts of DDR memory, until the scammer gave 2 different credit card numbers from two different names through his e-mail address. The credit card companies and the police were called on that one.

The scammer on the last call I took wasn't too bright - he asked if we sold 'computers or jewelry'. Computers, yes, but jewelry?

I said, "Nice try.", then hung up.

[Ackee]

Nice One

His lawyer drew up a disclaimer we were to read to the operator and then hang up.

Your boss rocks!

[Myra]

I used to get these all the time. They'd ask what cameraphones I have, I'd tell them, then get the inevitable "Here is my credit card number I want all of them. Are you ready?" In which I reply with my inevitable "We don't do over the phone orders and we do not ship orders." They'd just say "thank you" and hang up. They are Nigeran scammers. Pretty annoying, they are.

[draftermatt]

Not a "deaf" scam, but a scam none the less.

Anyone get people calling and asking what type of printer you have, claiming that they do the service on them? They will try to sell you stuff for your office equipment for way more than its worth.

I almost got fooled. Guy wanted to sell me toner for $600, but they would mark it down to $400 because they forgot to send a letter concerning the price change. I mentioned it to my secretary, and she looked up the bill from the last time, and it was $120. Turns out they were just scammers (a real company mind you) but not our company.

Our company phone bill came in with a $30 charge on it. Company claimed they spoke to someone about this service and sent a letter about it. They never spoke to anyone who approved the charge, or sent a letter. Their response "Well sometimes people don't get the letter"

[BookstoreEscapee]

We'd get some of those office supply calls at the store sometimes. Luckily they don't do any of that purchasing at the store level. The stores just order it through BN's intranet order form and corporate purchasing does the actual buying. So when we'd get those calls we'd just tell them they would need to talk to corporate about that.

[Mr. Crow]

I really don't understand how the "deaf" scammer is protected from responsibility. They are the ones saying what they are saying - and the relay operator has a written record - regardless if it goes through another person (who is trained extensively to only report what they are given as far as information) or not.

Becasue they said nothing. They are not beholden to a verbal agreement becsue they never spoke. The operator did, but they are legaly not bound to anything that transpired. So a record exists, but since the law is way behind the technology, what they are doing is perfectly legal.

On a side note, we got a call over this again. This time we told the caller we were on to the scam and hung up. I personaly wished we had made comments that their family only looked for outside genetic meterial from barnyard animals.

[Reyneth]

Becasue they said nothing. They are not beholden to a verbal agreement becsue they never spoke. ... So a record exists, but since the law is way behind the technology, what they are doing is perfectly legal.

Wow, some Deaf Advocacy groups need to get ahold of this.
And I'm still perplexed that a *written* agreement wouldn't hold as much weight as a verbal one. They aren't actually talking, true - but they are typing. They are still the person conveying the original message (and its crummy intentions) so they should be held responsible, regardless of the manner in which it is communicated. What lousy loophole.

ETA - the FBI won't find an email of you threatening to harm the prez any less serious than a phone conversation to do so, so the method of the message doesn't matter there - but they are a little different legally, I suppose.

[BusBus]

"What, I'm supposed to pay $2 for a sticker just because this guy can't hear?"

"HEY! I may be deaf, but that doesn't mean I don't have feelings!


...I mean.... What?"

I was thinking the same thing!

[mscrybaby]

I know that we have had this happen where I work also. It is a really big problem at Christmas time. I feel sorry for the real deaf people who are trying to order and are now told that to place an order they have to give a phone number and we will call back. Stupid managers though don't think that they need to call using the Relay service since they are calling in the customer can answer and talk quite well.

[XCashier]

Becasue they said nothing. They are not beholden to a verbal agreement becsue they never spoke. The operator did, but they are legaly not bound to anything that transpired. So a record exists, but since the law is way behind the technology, what they are doing is perfectly legal.

Wow, some Deaf Advocacy groups need to get ahold of this.

Yes, they should. The laws need to be changed. These scammers are making things difficult for the legitimate users. And they're making the whole Deaf community look bad.

[Lehk]

Yes, they should. The laws need to be changed. These scammers are making things difficult for the legitimate users. And they're making the whole Deaf community look bad.

what's needed is for some deaf advocacy group to put together some sort of secure authentication system for ordering over Relay. i don't know of any businesses that take orders done over Relay anymore and many won't even accept relay calls anymore since they are so loaded with scammers

[FenigDurak]

ASL was very prominent in my High School. It was offered as a language credit, and classes were taught by both teachers and students who were all deaf and fluent in both ASL and written English. It was a very cool set up. I took many a class with deaf students to the point where I'm pretty good at tuning out understated motion in the corner of a room (translator for the deaf student).

What was really difficult was when one of the really cute deaf students took a liking to me and tried to call me. We talked fine, but I had a hard time trying to flirt with him through one of the TDD people. Especially when it was a woman.

[Tigress]

I almost got fooled. Guy wanted to sell me toner for $600, but they would mark it down to $400 because they forgot to send a letter concerning the price change. I mentioned it to my secretary, and she looked up the bill from the last time, and it was $120. Turns out they were just scammers (a real company mind you) but not our company.

Our company phone bill came in with a $30 charge on it. Company claimed they spoke to someone about this service and sent a letter about it. They never spoke to anyone who approved the charge, or sent a letter. Their response "Well sometimes people don't get the letter"

I used to get that all the time at the place I worked at. They would actually ask for the brand and model of our printer or copier. We rented our office machines from an outside vendor, so they would already have that information. And the toner company that we did business with gave us generic cartridges.

So I would either ask, depending on mood, "What company did you say you were with?" or "Why do you want this information?"

Then the conversation would be:

"Oh, we just need to send you some updated manuals (or other innocuous sounding thing)."
"Sorry, we already know how to work our office equipment." / "I'm not giving you that information."
"May I speak to your manager?"
"She's not giving it to you either. And she's not nearly as nice as I am."

"We're new to the area and we just want to send you some free goodies."
"Is it cookies?" (One of our office suppliers gave us free Ms. Fields cookies every time we ordered.)
"Well, no..."
"Then we don't want it."

Or we would place them on hold until the dingbat gave up.

[ContraCorriente]

I don't know how accurate this is, but when I was in college a psych professor told us that some deaf people (especially those who have been deaf all their lives and only used sign language) have trouble with certain words in English, like articles (the, etc.) because they don't exist in sign language (ie SL is not an "exact translation" of the English words). She told us about a university professor she knew who always had trouble with words like "the" in written language because she had been signing all her life and never learned language from hearing it like most people do, so when she learned to read and write certain words gave her trouble because they didn't "exist" for her before then. That may account for some of the typed communication problems (though a TDD operator should be able to work around that, so I could be wrong). Just a theory....

As a HoH ASL student myself, this is true. The question, "Where are you going today?" in ASL would be, "Today go where?" Reading ASL grammar, it hardly even makes sense.

[powerboy]

I was trying to sell my dads Ford Escort, on the web, and had about 3 people ask if I can send it over seas. Damn scammers. They ruin it for everybody.