Yes those email scams are a pain. However, I am sure that this subject has been talked about on this forum before, but since I am fairly new here I thought that I would add this to the discussion. I work, as a relay operator and over 70% of the calls that I get through my system are scam calls from Nigeria. They call these businesses, pretending to be deaf, asking for 1000 spark plugs to be sent to Nigeria. It is really frustrating to me and all other relay operators ( we have ways of messing them up by the way , HA HA ). However, this is something that I wanted to address and it is one of the reasons that I signed up on here. I took my job, as an opr, because I felt like I was doing a good service. ( I love it when a family member voice user says thank you for your help, or a deaf user types to me thank you for your help opr. It makes me feel like I am doing the job that I was meant to do). But, when I get a call to a business, that says, "HELLO GOOD DAY THIS IS REV SMITH IN NIGERIA DO YOU SELL SPARK PLUGS QQ PLEASE EMAIL ME THE PRICES OF THE SPARK PLUGS SO THAT I CAN PAY YOU QQ I AM DEAF ," I want to throw my computer into the wall. The phone system of relay is designed for Deaf people to make phone calls, not for overseas criminals to call businesses and people, tell these people that they are deaf and try to scam them. Now, I love my job ( when it is legitimate) but I HATE and DESPISE these scam calls. Now, another case in point,I get children, playing on the computer, when I announce the relay to them that say things in the background like " Oh this is that thing for the deaf but the opr has to say everything that we tell them to," Then they type vulgar profanity so they can laugh at me repeating it.
Here is my point, I took my job so that I could help Deaf People out. I took my job, so that I could be of service to people that have to use the relay for their sole independent source of communication. But, it is being abused unfairly. Sometimes, I have customers, who have been waiting for a very long time to get an opr on the phone because our cubicles are backed up with fraud calls. I had a lady, the other day ,that was needing to make a medical appt for her children that told the doctors office that she had been waiting 20 minutes to get an opr and had been trying for hours to get through. This was in all likelihood, because we were busy with scam callers.
There must be some way that they relay system can be fixed. Why I am writing this, is because I think that the deaf community and the relay operators should ban together to create changes to the phone service and restore it to what it is meant to be for. Sorry if I am starting a new thread on this forum, but I think that everyone needs to be made aware of this problem. Many businesses are refusing legitmate calls because of all of this crap. One case in point, the other day, I had a Deaf caller that wanted me to call a store and find out what time that they opened. When I called the place, ( it was a drugstore) they said "Yes we have had 20 to 30 relay calls in five days and they are all scammers in Nigeria wanting us to ship them blood pressure monitors,". The store hung up on me, and would not take my call, after being instructed to redial the store a couple of times, I broke the rule. Rather than identify myself as an opr ,I said " This is a phone operator with a Deaf customer on the line that needs to know what your store hours are,". I still had difficulty with the call because of the Nigerian Scam callers. How can we do something about this ?
