From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 17:50:03 +0800
To: Damaged Justice <frogfarm@yakko.cs.wmich.edu>
Subject: Re: (fwd) Strange telephone call
In-Reply-To: <199609192333.TAA25736@yakko.cs.wmich.edu>
Message-ID: <32423366.3D24@gte.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Damaged Justice wrote:
> Okay, this is the story.  I just received a strange telephone call.
> My caller ID system shows only 'OUT_OF_AREA-----000-----'.  The female
> voice claimed to be taking a survey for the Department of Defense and
> that she was acting as a representative of my government.  She did not
> say US Government or State Government, just 'your government'.
> When I said that there was no way for me to verify she was what she
> claimed, she gave me a business name, supervisor's name and an 800
> telephone number.  She claimed this survey had to do with a Department
> of Defense program named 'YATS' and told me that if my household did
> not qualify, then our telephone number would be removed from the
> calling list.  She then ask the same question three different ways.
> The question was 'Is there anyone in your household between the ages
> of 16 and 24?'.  When I said no for the third time, she said we did
> not qualify and hung up.
> So here are my questions.
> Was this a legitimate call?  The government should already know
> exactly how many people are in my household.  It is on my tax forms
> every year and many other places.
> Why would any government office or representative of a government
> office be making cold calls to unknown telephone numbers for any kind
> of survey?
> Who or what is 'Westat'?  This is the name of the company this woman
> supposedly represented.
> The telephone number given to me is 1-800-638-8778.  The same woman
> answered it as called me.  Seems like a company doing a survey for the
> government would have more than one employee.  Her supervisor's name
> is Chris Martin.  Is she Chris Martin?  In a single person office, I
> guess you would be your own supervisor.  The woman never gave her
> personal name.
> This survey was supposed to be for the Department of Defense for a
> program named 'YATS'.  What is YATS?
> My biggest question is, Is this a new face on an old scam?  Instead of
> posing as the local fire department looking for donations, are the
> scam-artist now posing as the government?  What a way to case a home
> in preparation for theft or running yet another scam of questionable
> legality.  Yes, I am a very suspicious person.  I have seen too many
> scams being run.

My GTE WATS line for internet is 800-638-xxxx, so maybe they're related.