I'm currently studying marketing research. Last week, the topic in the text book was ethics. The book stated very clearly that "research" should be objective, and the data from surveys etc should not be used to directly attack customers with sales pitches. I laughed when reading this, as it reminded me of a terrible job I had when at university. Yes, I was a cold-caller!!!
Here is the scam I willingly took part in:
First, we called people and did a "survey" about vacations. We called right during dinner-time, and we got the data straight from the phone book. We were given a page or two each and just told to start at the top. There were 10 or 15 questions, some harmless, others rather more sinister. The 3 'key' questions were "do you own your home", "how often do you go on vacations abroad", and "what is your yearly household income". Strangely enough, some people would refuse to tell a complete stranger this info...
The goal was to get people to answer the survey, and not to just put the phone down or tell you to bugger off. If, in a 3-hour stint, you could get 10 completed surveys, you were a bit of a star cold-caller.
Of course, that was not the end of the scam. At the very end of the call, we were trained/drilled to say 'as a special thankyou for answering our questions, we will put your name into a draw to win a luxury holiday!'
10 days or so after completing the survey, the unwitting person who had answered the call would then receive another call, explaining that they had actually WON the contest they had been entered into. Some were surprised. They shouldn't have been, as all who completed the surveys went on to become 'winners'!
They were invited to a luxury champagne winners lunch at a hotel. There, the details of the holiday they had won were explained. Flights and food were not covered, but accomodation for a week was free. At the time, this accomodation had a value of around 100 pounds. What was not made clear was that the accomodation was in a time-share resort. For the duration of their vacation, the 'winners' would be constantly harrassed by the representative from the time-share company, whose goal was to get them, while relaxed and enjoying themselves, to sign for something they didn't really understand.
"Now, why did you do it then? Do you have no morals? Don't you feel guilty", I hear you ask. Well, I was poor, and needed the money to pay my rent, would be one way of trying to wheedle out of taking responsibility for my actions. However, I have a clear conscience. I started this job on a Thursday evening, after finishing my other summer job. I didn't like it, but needed the cash. On the Friday, I went to my regular job. At work, a couple of friends of mine arranged to go out for drinks after work. I now had a tough choice: a crappy, deceitful job I didn't want to do, or pleasant drinks on a balmy summer evening with some mates...The choice was not a tricky one, so my cold-calling "marketing research" career ended after only one day.
Posted by Gary at July 9, 2004 07:32 PM