i've got about 5 calls on my cell phone tonight from some 866 number. they tell me their operator number and ask if i'm familiar with relay calling or whatever. they say it's like a person typing on a computer somewhere and the operator will tell me what they say and then i say my response and the operator types it back to the person.

i played along with the first one and it went like this:

them: hello
me: hello
them: you there?
me: yes
them: what's up?
me: what the fuck? i don't have time for this shit bye

then i got another one, went like this:

me: hello
operator: blah blah blah are you familiar?
me: look, i keep getting these calls and i don't know what the hell they are. this mess needs to stop. i don't have time for it and it's on my cell phone. it better stop now.

haven't gotten another in a little while, so maybe they got the picture. what kind of scam is this shit?

11/3/2008 9:09:41 PM

I used to work at an INTERNET HELP DESK and got one of those.

11/3/2008 9:10:33 PM

i mean, i understand for deaf people, but i don't know any deaf folks and i don't want to talk to anyone who just says shit like "you there?" and "what's up?" in a situation like that. probably a friend of mine fucking with me.

11/3/2008 9:11:52 PM

deaf person with a wrong number?

11/3/2008 9:12:43 PM

that crossed my mind too

after a little googling it appears to be a popular prank. it's fucked up though because apparently deaf people have to wait a long time for an available operator because they're all busy dealing with stupid teenagers.

[Edited on November 3, 2008 at 9:16 PM. Reason : i'll use stupid instead of dumb because the dumb (not talking kind) might actually need this lol]

11/3/2008 9:15:48 PM

dumb teenagers grow up to become dumb on the internetz

11/3/2008 9:16:31 PM

my friend used to be an operator for one of these things

made like $12/hr to read hilarious shit into a phone to strangers

sometimes deaf people would have phone sex and he would do his best to read it with the proper inflection

11/3/2008 9:16:48 PM

lolz

11/3/2008 9:32:30 PM

it's a great masking tool for scammers too

fyi

hard to have that nigerian accent when someone's reading your text

11/3/2008 9:34:03 PM

We used to prank the hell out of each other in college with this... Ahhhhhh good times

11/3/2008 9:47:17 PM

Relay was the cool shit all the way back in Jr. High

We use to call the teachers house with "nigger nigger nigger cunt cunt double cunt" and they would say it out loud

made for lots of lols

11/3/2008 9:49:29 PM

Somewhere a deaf person has a wrong number.

That wrong number happens to be your cell phone.

11/3/2008 9:50:32 PM

We used to call each other just to fuck with the operators

11/3/2008 9:50:53 PM

i call people sometimes during american idol and make them say "omg she has such a pretty voice'

11/3/2008 9:52:53 PM

hahaha, that took me a minute

11/3/2008 9:55:37 PM

back in the day getting pizza deliveries from the people was teh agony

They'd always call at like 6:08 on a Saturday night.

You pick up the phone and hear the little tune and know you are fucked.

You'd think that they would realize that the whole relay thing was going to take a bitch ass long time and so they would keep their shit brief, e.g., I want a delivery large pepperoni that's all paying cash my address is blah blah blah you got all that? tks bye.

But instead they invariably are asking for the specials, and then asking questions. Are the tomatoes fresh? Is the ground beef kosher? Do you have any more specials for 2 pizzas? why so long for delivery?

11/3/2008 9:58:08 PM