Pranks

Yes, there are a lot of pranks. I've chatted with Micheal Jackson himself! Bad speller, by the way. I also had two today right off the bat... one wanted Jesus's cell phone number and another wanted to make beef jerky out of my flesh. I would say about 80% of my live searches are pranks. If you know it's heading that way, I just tell them that the sessions are monitored and if they don't have a valid search, you'll need to end the session. If they get perverted or obscene or abusive, hit that REPORT ABUSE button. If they're just being annoying or rude, make sure you delete any links you sent them and then just thank them for using ChaCha, "have a nice day" and log off. They can't rate you if you didn't provide them with any links when you end the session.

I've encountered normal to very weird pranks. I do not mind the pranks because I get paid anyway. I try to act as professional as I can. If it's someone who's depressed and lonely, I try to talk to them and ask if they need any information to a crisis hotline or a counselor. If they want me to search for adult content, I say that it's against ChaCha policy and they might be monitoring the session. And if they persuade me or act aggressive for me to search for adult content, I say I can get fired for doing it. Usually, when I say this, they stop talking or they end the session. It works!

All of these suggestions have been great! I was wondering how people deal with these situations. I'm new, and of course I've gotten a lot of pranks. I now know what to do, and won't fall victim to their little games, LOL

I get pranks all the time. After awhile you'll start to notice that a lot of them use the same keywords. You just have to take it all with a grain of salt and don't let them get to you. As the previous poster stated, just make sure you report them if they become abusive and don't send them any links. Lately I've had a lot of people that seem to be doing valid searches, I give them the information they want and then they'll end the session right away and give me a bad rating. It gets tough sometimes but just hang in there, I'm sure after awhile people will get sick of sitting there all day pranking us...at least we can hope they will!

Yes it happens all day! Don't get into a discussion with them because they copy and paste the "pranks" and post it on forums! They have whole sites dedicated to this! They post the whole chat and some guides have been reprimanded, or FIRED. Always be a representitive of ChaCha when in a discussion and on your best behavior. SOme of those searches tempt you to tell them off, it makes my blood boil. Just report abuse if you need to.