Internet scammers target deaf Portland community

WOW-- This could happen in our Community, please be careful!


By ANNE YEAGER, KGW-TV

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Mary Beth Meyer, 42, is a smart woman. She has two master degrees and she teaches physical science and geometry at the Washington School for the Deaf.

So imagine her surprise when she became a victim to a scheme, associated with the Nigerian scams that are so widely prevalent in the news.

It was Sunday night when she was on AOL instant messaging a friend, when her friend’s screen name popped up.

“We started chit chatting. She said you have to talk to this man, he told me I had won $70,000. “Said Meyer. “I thought what??? Are you crazy? She said no, this guy is an honest man.”

Turns out, it wasn't her friend at all. Instead it was someone posing as her friend, using her screen name.

So Meyer started talking to the guy on the other end of the screen. He told her he was working with the United States government, trying to provide funds to the deaf community from Nigeria. He told her she was eligible, but then started asking for personal information.

“He asked for my screen name and password. I was like, what? “Meyer said. So she sent an instant message to her friend, or at least the person she thought was her friend, for advice.

“I told her, this guy is asking me for my password. And my friend, Leah, said yes, do it, he’s an honest guy.”

He wasn’t.

As Meyer soon found out, he was a scam artist who had just taken $100 of her hard earned money. The same con men took thousands from her friend Leah, who was too embarrassed to talk about it.

“They are targeting a specific group, the deaf community. We rely on instant messages; we rely on the internet to communicate. We are a tight knit group.” said Meyer.

Her mother, who just moved with her daughter from Las Vegas, was furious.

“My daughter and the deaf community have to work four times as hard to be accepted into society, and to take advantage of that just makes me livid.” said Margaret Meyer.

They called the FBI, who told them this was a new scam.

Special Agent Alan Peters said it’s inclusive of a sweetheart swindlers-type scheme.

“These people gain your trust and then an emergency pops up and they need your money.” Said Agent Peters.

More: Report Internet crimes to the FBI

He says the Nigerians aren’t always Nigerians.

“They are dangerous, they’ve gotten more sophisticated, and not all of them are from Africa. There are some posing here in the United States”

Anyone who has fallen victim should contact the FBI and the state attorney general’s office.

Mary Beth is speaking out. She wants the deaf community to know this is going on.

“These people are fakes, they are crooks.” she said.

The FBI tracks Internet crimes at the Internet Crimes Complaint Center website.

Have you seen DEAF IDOL?

Check it out! Talented People WOW!!!!

CLICK HERE:

http://deafidol.deafnation.com/

Check out this great Blog: Ka'lalau's Korner

Deaf culture as an authentic culture

Every community has an undercurrent of feeling that is unique. So does the Deaf community.

What I mean by an undercurrent of feeling is not psychological but rather philosophical; it is about "personality" that is reflected in our thoughts, behavior, communication, and even physical bearing (non-manual expressions). Every person shares in it to some degree in how they develop their own individual feeling within the community.

continue reading this blog...clickhere:
http://carl-schroeder.blogspot.com/2008/07/deaf-culture-as-authentic-culture.html

Happy National Deaf Week!

A lot to improve in Deaf people’s Human Rights

According to the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) the situation of the approximately 72 million Deaf people around the world is still shocking especially in the developing countries where about 80 % of the Deaf live. Social services, education and interpreter service system are often out of reach especially for African Deaf.

“Due to the fact that good command of sign language as well as education reached in sign language opens doors for Deaf people’s integration into the society, one should provide Deaf children with an opportunity to acquire the local sign language and guarantee the right to education in this language”, asserts Mr Markku Jokinen, President of the World Federation of the Deaf. Based on new research information the bilingual approach to education is common in only 27 % of the countries. This means that students are taught in sign language as first language and written oral language as
second language. Almost half of the education is still accomplished using the oral method which jeopardizes access to information and services for Deaf leaving them in the margins of the society. For most Deaf in developing countries university studies are still something to dream about and initiating vocational studies is almost as rare. Prejudices towards sign languages as well as lack of competent teachers in sign language complicate organizing education in the
way that would be the most optimum way for Deaf.

According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) that entered into force in May, state governments shall recognize sign language as an official language in the Constitution and/or special legislation, ensure professional interpreter services and guarantee bilingual education to Deaf people. Solely this way the Deaf people’s Human Rights - still so blatantly violated around the world - will be assured in the future.

Facts on Deaf people’s situation in Asia, South-America, Central America and Africa:

• almost all Deaf people have the right to vote, get married and have children – in reality for instance voting can turn out to be impossible because most of the Deaf people are illiterate

• 1 % of the documents that States provide are available in sign language – this prohibits most of the Deaf access to information

• 32 % of the Deaf are denied right to drivers licence – they are considered as a threat to the traffic in many countries

• sign language has an official status in the legislation either guaranteed by the constitution, other legislation or policies in 42 % of the countries. However, in practice the resources for providing services are nil

• in 6 % of the states the decision makers believe that Deaf people don’t have any right to education at all

• states have problems in providing education in sign language in all phases of the system, especially for kindergarten age children and young adults



Additional information:
World Federation of the Deaf, Mr Colin Allen and Ms Meri Hyrske-Fischer, tel. +358 50 4388370
Legal Seat – Helsinki, Finland
This information was founded by: WORLD FEDERATION OF THE DEAF
An International Non-Governmental Organisation in official liaison with ECOSOC, UNESCO, ILO, WHO and the
Council of Europe
PO Box 65, FIN-00401 Helsinki, FINLAND
FAX: +358 9 5803 572
www.wfdeaf.org
PRESS RELEASE
19.8.2008

Akron's Carousel Dinner Theatre presents....

The Wizard of Oz!

A member of our deaf community has made arrangements for an interpreted performance on Saturday, October 4th at 6pm.
Get your tickets now! They're selling fast!

http://www.carouseldinnertheatre.com/season08.htm#Oz

The New York Times, "Hands That Speak, Hands That Rhyme"

ON the fourth Monday of every month, the spoken word gives way to the signed at the Bowery Poetry Club. Jason Norman, the host, casts his microphone stand to the side and introduces the A.S.L. Slam, a free-form poetry and storytelling night for the American Sign Language community.

“This,” signs the puckish M.C. with cropped brown hair, “is your stage.”

On a recent evening, participants included a white-haired gentleman in a yarmulke, a Harvard-educated actress in her late 20s named Shira Grabelsky and Bram Weiser, a hearing computer specialist for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority who is an aspiring interpreter. Many favor humorous anecdotes in lieu of poems.

American Sign Language, which is more than 150 years old, is a language that its users say is entirely independent of English, though it is not universally recognized as such. Indeed, A.S.L. is also entirely independent of British Sign Language, and has more in common with French Sign Language.

“Sometimes I wish we had a rule book,” Mr. Norman said of the poetry, through an interpreter, “but A.S.L. hasn’t really even been accepted as a language.”

Repetition of certain hand shapes can represent rhyme just as sounds in spoken poetry produce structure; the pattern of holds and pauses recalls the meter and rhythm of spoken verse. Yet these devices represent approximations.

“I think there’s rhyme in A.S.L.,” Mr. Norman considered. “Or maybe not rhyme. Maybe it’s a beat.” He performs his poems with intricate physicality, with careful and detailed expression.

The event at the club, on the Bowery near East First Street, attracts as many as 50 people, a mix of the deaf and hearing A.S.L. students. On this evening, as with many, some told stories rather than poems, performing with a wit that delighted the room.

Paul Mitchell, a young man wearing baggy jeans and a baseball cap, mimed the perfect impression of how, after a stumble on the street, a white guy might cower while a black guy might morph his misstep into the perfect mock layup. Applause, expressed visually, came as the waving of both hands.

People who can hear, Mr. Norman says, often see A.S.L. as “beautiful” in its movement, dancelike, yet devoid of the precision of speech. But of course language is meant to be understood. “To say A.S.L. is beautiful,” Mr. Norman said, “is a compliment with an insult behind it.”

Still, a language’s youth carries benefits for poetry. “Its rules aren’t frozen yet,” Mr. Norman said. “It’s living and breathing. Deaf children are natural storytellers.”

More Articles in New York Region » A version of this article appeared in print on September 7, 2008, on page CY4 of the New York edition.

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