# Personal TTY phone conversations...weird **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 4, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840 "2011-07-04T20:24:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840/21 "2011-07-05T19:09:26Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > How else would you use a land-line to speak with a deaf person, unless you happen to have your own TDD handy? Oh I guess you’re right. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840/22 "2011-07-07T09:46:12Z")
There’s a new level to this if you realize TTY is commonly pronounced ‘titty’. ---
**Author:** ![CoffinMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@CoffinMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoffinMan)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840/23 "2011-07-07T22:11:38Z")
Somewhat off topic, but at my funeral home we have been experiencing scam calls similar to those so-called Nigerian Internet scams that have come through via TTY presumably to mask foreign accents. Calls pretending to be from bereaved family members who have lost a relative overseas, like in Dubai or Pakistan, who need help in getting their loved one’s remains back to the states. Wonder if anyone else has received these sort of TTY scam calls? ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840/24 "2011-07-07T22:18:18Z")
> [@CoffinMan](#): > > Somewhat off topic, but at my funeral home we have been experiencing scam calls similar to those so-called Nigerian Internet scams that have come through via TTY presumably to mask foreign accents. Calls pretending to be from bereaved family members who have lost a relative overseas, like in Dubai or Pakistan, who need help in getting their loved one’s remains back to the states. > > Wonder if anyone else has received these sort of TTY scam calls? Scams via TTY have a long history. ---
**Author:** ![CoffinMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@CoffinMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoffinMan)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840/25 "2011-07-07T22:34:58Z")
Somewhat off topic, but at my funeral home we have been experiencing scam calls similar to those so-called Nigerian Internet scams that have come through via TTY presumably to mask foreign accents. Calls pretending to be from bereaved family members who have lost a relative overseas, like in Dubai or Pakistan, who need help in getting their loved one’s remains back to the states. Wonder if anyone else has received these sort of TTY scam calls? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840/26 "2011-07-07T23:10:07Z")
> [@jamiemcgarry](#): > > You have a number of friends who worked as TTY relay operators? Do you have any connection to the industry or to the deaf community? Otherwise I find this an odd statement. I have tons of friends who have had that job too, because we have a location nearby. ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840/27 "2011-07-08T01:23:04Z")
Back in the late 90’s I worked as an operator for an answering service and often had to deal with TTY calls as well as typing out callers text messages that would be sent out to alpha-numeric pagers. There were things I was amused to hear and things I was utterly revolted to hear. After a while you get used to it and 10 mins later I couldn’t tell you what the messages were. Very, very few were worth remembering. ---
**Author:** ![CoffinMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@CoffinMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoffinMan)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840/28 "2011-07-08T02:53:20Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > Scams via TTY have a long history. It has gotten to the point at our mortuary that we now refuse to take TTY calls to initiate a case. I had no idea prior to this experience that TTY calls had been used as scams so I spent some amount of effort on one before it occured to me that I was dealing with a Nigerian type, so called 419 scam. The Secret Service basically told me that there was little they could do, even though it was a classic attempt at wire fraud. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840/29 "2011-07-08T03:05:37Z")
> [@jamiemcgarry](#): > > You have a number of friends who worked as TTY relay operators? Do you have any connection to the industry or to the deaf community? Otherwise I find this an odd statement. I don’t, yet I grew up with my best friend’s parents being Dr & Dr Wolff who did a lot of stuff in child development. I can somewhat read sign language because they unconsciously would sign as they speak … and they would have people from the university out for dinner and parties so we got exposed to it even more. I can read lips because I spent my youth having ear infection after ear infection, and worked as a machinist so I am missing a lot of the midrange wavelengths in my right ear. I also worked in telephone customer service for over 10 years and fielded probably 20-25 TTY calls, and several people I know are TTY operators… And yes you are right that vid chatting can make communicating much easier for hearing as well as hearing impaired. If I mis hear something I can get it through a combination of context and asking for clarification =) ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840/30 "2011-07-10T00:12:02Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > I think one of them got a job and recruited her other friends, some of whom were also in my social circles. There’s a TTY relay service in town (Nordia, I think it’s called). Yeah, there’s a fairly small number of companies that provide this service on a widespread basis, operating a few big call centers for this purpose. If you happen to live near one of those call centers, there’s a good chance you’d know several people who did this job; if you don’t, you probably wouldn’t know anybody. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840/31 "2011-07-10T02:29:46Z")
I remember a Doper posting, a long time back, about having to speak on behalf of abusive partners and clear scam artists, and not being able to do anything about it, legally. Sounds like an awful predicament. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840/32 "2011-07-10T04:58:24Z")
> [@CoffinMan](#): > > Somewhat off topic, but at my funeral home we have been experiencing scam calls similar to those so-called Nigerian Internet scams that have come through via TTY presumably to mask foreign accents. Calls pretending to be from bereaved family members who have lost a relative overseas, like in Dubai or Pakistan, who need help in getting their loved one’s remains back to the states. > > Wonder if anyone else has received these sort of TTY scam calls? A small computer store located west of Cleveland has had calls like this come in trying to place orders for expensive monitors. The callers gave stolen credit card numbers. The owner took the orders, but spoke to his credit card merchant service provider and was able to determine that filling the order was a poor idea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-tty-phone-conversations-weird/587840.md?page=1)