Small Business Owners -- beware of misuse of TDD

At around the same time as mentioned in this story, someone calling themselves “jkbrown01@yahoo” tried to scam a friend of mine who runs a floral shop in the same geographical area referenced below. I posted about it on the thread “Personal accounts of scams," and Ralph provided a link to a similar matter on the thread "Various Financial Scams": viewtopic.php?f=26&t=4982 and Ralph's link therein.

TDD is an acronym for Telecommunications Device for the Deaf

This story is from the Saturday, December 12, 2009 edition of the Press Enterprise.
< Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, USA >

Police: Scam used phone service for deaf

HEMLOCK TWP. A suspected scammer used a phone service for deaf people to order 180 Caesar salads from Charlie Brown's Steak House, police say.

The 180 salads were to cost $1,800, and were to be picked up a week later, Hemlock Township Police report.

The suspect, who called herself Marge Jump, told the restaurant manager the shipping agent should be paid an additional $980, according to police.

But when workers e-mailed Jump for payment information, they got no response, according to a report.

Managers never spoke to Jump because the suspect used a service called TDD in the Dec. 4 call.

In TDD, an operator relays typed messages from a person with impaired hearing.

Police say someone tried a similar scheme at a pizza shop in Lewisburg.

hi! my husband owns a small auto repair business and today he received a phone call via tdd, and the caller was identified as "Marge Jump" and she wanted to have a vehicle towed and repaired by his business. She requested that he email her, and as i usually take care of that for him, i sent an email to her asking her to explain what she needed. this was the response:

This is MRS MARGE JUMP that called you on relay call about the repair
of my car .Ok I will give you my credit card now to put through for
$2,980 so that you can keep $1000 as deposit for the repair pending
your estimation ...and you will send the remaining $1,980 through
western union,i have to paid the tow guy but I AM BACK FROM THE
HOSPITAL I WAS DOWN WITH A DIAGNOSIS OF CANCER OF THE LUNGS;AS SUCH I
HAD TO SPEND SOMETIME IN THE INTENSIVE CARE that why i want you to
card for the towing company that will tow the vehicle to your workshop
as a personal favor because I need the car to be ready for pickup by
the time i leave the hospital,are you ready for my credit card now and
i want to know the types of credit card that you accept .hope to hear
from you as soon as possible"

i sent a message back and asked not to provide credit card info because my email is not secure, and we would not ever consider taking a credit card payment in excess of repairs, and certainly not before the car was diagnosed and repairs were even considered. After i re-read her message, i thought it sounded like a scam, because it reads like someone who does not speak English. I googled "Marge Jump" and your site came up. I just wanted to post our experience.

Hi Lori

Welcome to Scamwarners.

I am glad to find that you had the good sense to check it out and find that it was a scam.

In that case, the credit card where the money will come from will be compromised, the money will reach your account however some time later the real owner of the account will realise there is a payment for which they know nothing about, they will no doubt contact their bank who after investigation will reverse the payment to you leaving you out of pocket by any money you sent by Western Union.

Could you please post the emails from This Marge with your own details removed as this may well prevent somebody else from being scammed.

Thank you for posting, If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to ask.