I know this is some credit card scammer, but this one is the weirdest of all. First I get this call from some lady who says she is the operator and that she is relaying an e-mail message, so she reads me the message, which basically says some person is looking for a price on a multi channel amplifier and then she says do you want to respond, I said tell the person to give me their e-mail address which is, after a few back and forth messages i finally get this --> [email protected] so I send the person an email just because I am curious and say I need more information before I can give you a price, and further that my dealer agreements prohibit me from selling out of my area. The guy responds, but now wants a 70-inch Samsung plasma that they don’t even sell in the States, I tell the guy, you are emailing me from out of the country, he responds with what is seen below. ( bet he means Georgia south Africa)


Good Morning David Gray,


Thanks for the mail.


Am not from overseas,Am from georgia.


Could you please give me the price of the below Models for the Items:



Programmable 24 bit Digital Audio Enhancement System

Theater Processor with Active Balanced Video

Kindly get back to me as soon as possible so that i can give you the
quantities that i want to order.


Thanks hope to read from you soonest.

Regards

Bob


I am used to getting BS e-mails from scammers but I have never had one of the call me before

last place I worked we would get calls like that about every month...


complete waste of time, they don't know what they want, and they usually want 12 of them, pay with a credit card, delivered to the other side of the country.

boss told us to just hang up...kinda rude, but each call would last an hour and they would not understand when you tell them to find a dealer in their area for more helpful advice.

I actually had this same exact call come in.I hung up on them immediately the first time,and I told my boss about it.He said that if they call back,take the call,be patient and deal with it.I did as he asked,and when I asked why we should deal with it he said that he thinks it could be someone trying to stir up a complaint of discrimination against diabled people.Apparently,he feels that if a person calling for service needs to use an in-between to communicate properly,we should at least appear to be accomodating so that we aren't targeted in a lawsuit as refusing to service the disabled.I have no idea if this is true,but I guess we aren't the only place getting these weird calls.

Looks like that email was put through google translator.

You sure this isn't the deaf relay operator scam? We used to get those calls all day at Sound Advice. Hang up on the bastards! Nobody is gonna sue you.

I have received emails from people wanting me to sell them multiple displays. I tell them to contact someone in their area. However, I have received phone calls similar to yours from disabled customers. They use a third party company that reads you what the customer is typing. When you speak back to the operator, you must say over or something like that. It's weird, but it is for real.

I have not had a real one yet! Sound Advice told us to ALWAYS hang up immediately.
I still get them all the time wanting to buy 20 Alpine CD players. I have not sold car stuff in 6 years. SCAM!!!

More than likely it is a scam, there are plenty of stories about this. Like the Nigerian who want to give you 200 gazillion dollars because he trusts you.

I don't think I would hang up right away just in case it was someone legit whom had a disabilty. But if they did, why would they want to buy a donzen 60" plasmas??

Just be careful..

We get these calls occasionaly and we try to tell them the same thing, but the "translator" tells us they have to speak everything their hearing impaired "client" types. Therefore we can't get a word in and end up hanging up on them. It is frustrating trying to help someone who is most likely a scammer.

Just so you'll know, I have a deaf brother. When he needs to make an important call with someone hearing he goes through a TTY operater. He contacts the operator with his TTY device. The operator makes the call, and repeats what he my brother has typed to the person who picks up, but identifies himself (or herself) first as a TTY translator (or operator) with a TTY call from (my brother). Since the Blackberry came out, most deaf people use them for communication. It may be that those same operators can be contacted via email or instant message from a deaf person's Blackberry for the same service. Of course anyone can use a Blackberry or any email/IM software to do the same, so the operator may not know (or care) if the message comes from a deaf person.

It is true that the operator has to relay everything typed by the sender. It is however standard for the caller to end each sentence with GA (for Go Ahead) so the listener knows when to respond. The operator should say "Go Ahead" when he/she reads that GA.

You can say STOP, and say it repeatedly if necessary to stop the reader so you can then interject your comment to the caller such as "Tell him to contact someone in his local area. Goodbye. Signing OFF."

99% of these things are West African scam artists with stolen credit card numbers who are working from internet cafes.

Don't waste your time with them, and while you're at it, tell your boss that he's an idiot.

When I get them I give the customer a full retail price plus shipping and handling charges. Then I demand payment in full with cashiers check or money order prior to shipping any product. They never seem to send the check.

Yeah, go tell your boss that he is an idiot. Wait, who are we talking about??

This was on MSNBC last night. The same guy that does "To Catch a Predator"

The scam is easy to detect (as are most) it is just scary that this is the crazy world we live in.

Why would a deaf person be interested in any kind of audio equipment?