I consider this a scam although when you are first approached you are told this is a quick 3 - 5 minute survey . I checked the forum posts and to the best of my knowledge this has not been raised as a topic .
You receive a phone call stating this is a survey and you are not required to buy anything . You are asked if you have heard of various organisations . For example RSPCA , Doctors without Borders , Greenpeace , Heart Foundation Etc . I had been warned by friends about this so went along with the call and said no I had not heard of all the organisations quoted to me bar one . Greenpeace . Roughly 3 weeks later , as my friends had told me , I received a phone call , not from an overseas phone centre but a well spoken guy who represented Greenpeace . He told me . I quote "That 3 weeks ago I had taken part in a phone survey and shown interest in donating money to Greenpeace . "
I put him straight on the fact that I said that I had heard of Greenpeace but in no way had agreed to donate to them . I then told him what a despicable and low way of canvassing money . He was apologetic and explained he had no idea that this is how my phone number came his way . Yeh and his nose grew another inch . We all know about Pinocchio . I threatened legal action and I was advised I would receive no more calls . We will see . One of my ,friends about the same time, received the same "have you heard of this organisation " call and said yes to 20 or more of them . Am waiting to hear from her again . She has already had 8 organisations phone telling her she had shown interest in donating to them .
Asking a person if they had âheardâ of an organisation and telling them 3 weeks later they had agreed or shown interest in donating money to the organisations mentioned to me is âdirty pool " and a new low for telemarketing and 'beggarâ charities . I will not now or ever in the future donate money to any of the organisations that I was asked if I had âheard " of them in the first phone call .The organisations that make the first phone call go by the names of Global Surveys , Interconnect Surveys or similar names . I used Greenpeace as an example and bare no malice or prejudice against them because of the a fore said incident .
Re the above post . As I pressed the Tab to post this topic the phone wrung and it was the Berry Street Childrenâs Foundation following up on a call 3 weeks ago where I had shown 'interestâ in donating money to them . By the noise in the back ground it was a call centre . Berry Street do a great job for the kids but I feel they are all tarnishing their names by these tactics to raise money .
I think the whole âsurveyâ charade is only a way to circumnavigate the do not call registry . I really hope the appropriate authorities look into this but that is probably wishful thinking .
@vax2000 interesting, if anyone calls me to ask if I will do a survey the answer is no! I think your post is a good example of keeping people we donât know out of our business. Thanks for emphasising
I have a rule when answering my phone. If nobody responds to my hello immediately I will hang up as I know a delay in responding to me means it is an automatic system calling multiple numbers and waiting for someone to answer. This means they are looking for money from me which I am not interested in giving since I am already donating to the charities I want to give money to.
This is quite correct. I had this happen too. I was extremely surprised to be contacted for donations by organisations I âhad heard ofâ. I invoked my rule of âno donations over the phoneâ. Like âno purchases at the doorâ it saves stress because I donât enjoy arguing.
Mike @vax2000, my cynical nature has to ask if the unsolicited follow-up calls were genuine from the charities, and could both calls have been from a scam artist?
Hmmm I might hang up on my mother or father in law if I used this technique 
They are both getting slower to respond.
But it is still a worthwhile way of avoiding the long sales babble.
@PhilT No they were the real deal Phil . Today I had another 3 calls , Garvin Institute , Smith Family , Assistance Dogs Australia . I asked them some private information and then verified it through a friend in the Telemarketing industry . He said it was common practice using the survey call to circumnavigate "the donât call registry "
I kept a record from the 10 follow up calls I received over 2 days . The smallest donation was $10 per month . The largest was $48 per month . A fair amount of payout per month . Most of the 10 calls were from the same block of phone numbers i.e ending in consecutive numbers 361 362 363 . I got most of them to admit they were working for agencies representing the charities and that the average payout per dollar to the charity was between 65 and 82 cents .
Iâm lucky I live in a house that was a display home . The triple garage at the front was used as an office by real estate agents . It has multiple landlines coming in . I will now deactivate the one I used for my experiment . When they phone again they will get the standard "this line or number is no longer available .
There is usually time for two quick helloâs before you have to hang up if it is auto dialled. Maybe you could instruct the welcome callers that they have to breath or sniff or make any sound quick if they call and canât talk quickly? 
I had a similar thing happen but the question asked was âdo you support the work this organisation does?â There were over 40 of them and I ended up asking how much longer this survey was going to last! The very next day the phone calls started and they were really hard sell. âSurely you can afford just a dollar a week? Or could you sell raffle tickets for us?â Some would not take no for an answer so I just had to hang up. I am a disability pensioner and donate to half a dozen charities on a regular basis⊠charities I have chosen, not ones paying people to do their begging for them. Coincidentally After this call I also received begging letters from several of the organisations. Most of them had âgiftsâ, notepads, address stamps, pens, key rings or magnets. If they can afford to send me all this rubbish I am not going to donate to cover this sort of waste. The whole thing is infuriating. Every time I get a call I tell them to remove my name and number but the calls still come, several a week.
@taichichic Itâs really not good enough is it . Something should be done about it either by law or greater consumer awareness that these things are happening . Thanks for the input .
I had a mate who recorded his answering machine message with the disconnected message and related touch tones (USA) followed by 15 seconds of silence and then the beep. If you knew him you knew this, waited for the beep and said hello and he would pick up. All the time wasters hung up well before the beep. it worked brilliantly 
I got a silent number. Well worth the $3 a month.
I used to do cold calling for a market research company. I know from working there that âsilentâ numbers are sometimes numbers that have been recycled, so were not silent before. Anyway, thatâs just an aside from the real point.
If someone rings to do a survey, ask them what company they are calling from and where and if possible get a phone number. If they wonât give you this, then donât do the survey. Market research companies in Australia have to abide by a Code of Conduct which includes not disclosing your name & number to another party without your permission.
Never go in for competitions etc, if you tick the ânoâ box in a questionnaire it doesnât make any difference oneâs name is still forwarded on!
Thanks for the tip - I will pass it on to those of my friends who still have a landline. we killed our landline and now have naked adsl for the internet as the only phone calls we were getting on our landline were scammers and surveyers.
Heres another tip. set up a separate email to use where you expect to get spam mail. reserve your primary email address for friends, family and business associates.
This would seem to be a loophole in the do not call register rules. Every day there is at least one silent call if not three or four. Time wasted answering callers is getting to be painful for a lot of people. Maybe Choice could take this further as it is getting more and more difficult to tell the scammers from the organizations using this method of contact. I am thinking of elderly people who could be taken in by these callers and not even be aware that some of them are likely to be crooks. Considering the privacy laws that govern day to day communication between government organisations. Itâs laughable that private companies can sell information to others in order for the buyers to persue and hound people for money for charities.
I feel basically these days we have less control over the phone system than we do over email. More âspamâ & âscamâ via phone than email.
We ditched our landline since subjectively 9 out of 10 calls were BS of some sort, and now if my mobile doesnât recognise the number odds are I wonât answer.
Completely agree! It is a major loophole in the Do Not Call Register rules.
Weâve actually launched a joint campaign with National Seniors on this issue because it affects so many people (89% based on our nat. rep. survey).
Weâre calling for changes to the Do Not Call Register so that all consumers can control who calls them. You can support the campaign here: choice.com.au/controlthecalls
And for those who are interested, hereâs a link to our research into nuisance calls in Australia. The number one source of nuisance calls? Charities. Or really, the for-profit marketing companies calling on their behalf.
I do the same. I also sometimes leave the answering machine on when Iâm home (it doesnât switch on immediately) to see if a message is left. If itâs someone I know (or want to speak to) I then answer. Most callers donât leave a message which is a fair indication they are trying to sell something, seek a donation etc. Sadly, a lot of the charities have become their own worst enemies. They repeatedly send emails or snail mail even though I have told them I only want to donate once per year. Or they repeatedly telephone pestering you for more. In the finish, a number have just been crossed off my donation list even though the charity itself seems like a worthy cause.
