MUST READ!!! Potential Scam targeting Gallaudet University Students via IM

I haven’t had alot of time to post due to overwhelming course load but I woke up this afternoon [yes--college students never get up before noon on the weekends ; anyways back to being serious] and received an IM that disgusted me. Apparently these people are going around targeting people claiming to have a list of people who have been scammed, are deaf/HoH, or are poor and they have recovered funds from these scammers and would like to give them to the people mentioned before. It started by me receiving an IM from a friend and fellow Gallaudet  student (now in no way do I think this student is involved–infact I think he/she may have been a victim of this scam and his/her name or screen name will not be revealed or mentioned). I will let you read our conversation here:

Whoever this scammer is that has hacked my friend’s account appears to be the person I know at first. Starting off with a cordial greeting then seeming like a peer with the “sup?”. Not more than 5 secs after she asked me if I had received an IM from him and I replied did I receive an IM from this scammer. Here’s our conversation below (my commentary is highlighted in grey but the conversation has not been altered in anyway) :

 

It’s my belief that they got her password the same way they attempted to get mine by filling out the form via AIM with the AIM password and of course once they got it they quickly took over her account and changed her password. They obviously tried to do the same to me but could not because I had given them false information.Yea that’s right–there’s no real password database that the FBI has to check to make sure I gave them the correct password and why would they care anyways unless I was involved in illegal activities right?!? It seems the target is us “poor deafies” (their words not mine). Our funds are limited typically to SSI or family support because employers often discriminate against us or shove us in the back where no one can see us (but that’s another blog). Even more so college students who are deaf because let’s face it college isn’t cheap and who wants to be in debt from thousands of loans? So sending someone $1500 to $200,000 seems like a small price to pay. I think this person has underestimated the fact that deaf no longer means dumb (as if it ever was true). Unfortunately my friend trusted this person and hopefully at minimum she only got her account hacked and didn’t reveal any personal info about herself that could damage her name and/or credit. gBlog’s are supposed to be all about Gallaudet experience and what better way  to get the word out if someone is targeting Gallaudet students simply because we are deaf.

 My question to the Gallaudet community is What would you do? Would you report all the information you could possibly get to the DC Metro and/or campus authorities? Would you go alittle higher than this and report them to the REAL FBI? Would you just let this go?

This is a pretty elaborate scheme to where they have even gone as far as setting up a website with an actual url just to scam people out of their money by pretending to be people who have recovered funds from other scammers. I think that maybe if the government or the Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov) or whoever get enough complaints they will start seriously investigating these people.

Why did I tranfer to Gallaudet?

As a child I always had a difficult time being able to hear and my mom always called it selective hearing. I learned early on to hide my hearing loss by sitting close to the teacher and learning to read lips very well. I chose to hide my hearing loss because I didn’t want to be different. Even though this was a couple years after Deaf President Now and the ADA laws were just being passed people still had the mentality of Deaf and Dumb. Children can be cruel enough without discovering that you have a hearing problem. I was pretty successful until I got to college and found that sitting close to the professor became more and more difficult because those seats would fill up fast. So I began taking on-line classes which call for very little social interaction and little to no lip reading of the professor. One day while I was working at a Red Lobster in Saint Augustine, Florida I was introduced to this beautiful language known as American Sign Language (ASL). I was so intrigued yet I felt kind of stupid. We got people in all the time who were Deaf but the only form of communication methods we had were pen and paper. I began taking every opportunity I could to learn about the language and culture behind ASL: learning signs from a co-worker who has a sister who is Deaf, picking up books from my local Barnes & Nobles and searching the Internet for helpful websites. I was ecstatic when I found out that my college was offering ASL classes. I immediately enrolled! Never before had I felt so comfortable in a classroom. I began to open up. My family noticed how passionate I was about my ASL classes. My mom says that even as a child I had wanted to learn. It was the first class I had actually taken on campus in years. Towards the middle of the class I started researching Deaf Education and what schools provided the best programs. I already knew that I wanted to major in Education but was having difficulty finding a concentration. I had heard about Gallaudet even before ASL courses but had no idea what it was all about. My state had several good schools including Flagler College which works in connection with the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind (FSDB) but none of the schools I researched were quite like Gallaudet. Gallaudet was a school truly for people like me. People who were Deaf or Hard of Hearing but the school also accepted hearing students who understood Deaf culture and wanted to know more about it. I knew Gallaudet was the school for me. A school where I no longer had to struggle to hear anyone or fully rely on lip reading. A school where I could be immersed in ASL and learn more about the Deaf culture I missed out on for over 22 years of my life.

This summer I get the opportunity to come and even further my ASL knownledge and this Fall I start classes. I plan to major in ASL/English (dual degree) and Elementary Education with a minor in Deaf Studies. I would like to provide students of all ages; Deaf, Hard of Hearing or even Hearing with the opportunity I never had. The chance to get the best education regardless of the students hearing status. If there is anything I have learned on this quest to find myself and figure out what I want to do in life it is that in the words of Gallaudet’s 1st Deaf President, I. King Jordan…”Deaf People Can Do Anything Except Hear” and really with the advancement of technology, Deaf People Can Do ANYTHING!!!