Sign languagecards selling scam tried by woman pretending to be deaf

WELLINGTON: A deaf Wellington man says he is furious after a woman came into his work apparently pretending to be deaf so she could try to sell signlanguage cards.

Deaf Action New Zealand has laid a complaint with police after reports of people in Wellington and Auckland trying to sell the cards for $5 each.

It says the cards, which say ‘‘sign language in the world deaf’’ and have pictures of the sign language alphabet, are not being sold by people with any affiliation to any deaf organisations or clubs.

Speaking through an interpreter, Cameron Ross said one woman had come into his work, selling the cards.

He said he approached her, and it was quickly clear she did not know sign language — and could hear.

‘‘I said: ‘Look, what you’re doing is illegal and completely I disagree with what you’re doing’, and then she just disappeared, basically.

‘‘She didn’t respond to me in anyway except for that first interaction when she said she was deaf, because she couldn’t sign at all.’’

It could damage the deaf community’s reputation and ability to raise funds, he said.

Deaf Action’s secretary Rachel Noble said a similar scam happened in the 1990s, when Inland Revenue thought people collecting money were from New Zealand deaf organisations and wanted to collect tax from that income. People were going into shops and cafes asking for money, Ms Noble said.