Strange CDC Survey

[Shadoobie]

My wife got a call last night from the CDC about a survey dealing with vaccinations. They asked the typical demographic information (although she thought it was odd that they asked for income outright instead of giving range options, like most surveys). They were interested in finding out how well children under 3 were being vaccinated.

What bothered her the most was at the end. They wanted our child's pediatrician's name so that they could get a copy of our child's medical records regarding vaccinations. They didn't ask for our child's name but they wanted to know month and year of birth. Her maternal instinct kicked in and she refused to give them the info. Eventually she just hung up on them.

I know people who do medical surveys and this did not seem the typical way of doing one. Any thoughts or am I just being paranoid?

Greg

[mzteris]

1. sounds suspicious to me........

Call the CDC office and see if they have someone doing surveys, if not, contact your local PD and have a phone check run. (You don't have caller ID, do you?)

[Extend a Hand]

2. weird

I wouldn't have given them that info either.
Did you call CDC back and ask about the survey?

[SmokingJacket]

3. Seems really odd to me.

But if they weren't who they claimed to be, what would they want with that info?

Very puzzling.

[thecrow]

8. Identity theft

They already have your address, phone number and name before they call. You supply the rest of the information.

If you want to take part in a survey, call the company directly yourself.

DO NOT give out any information over the phone.

[fasttense]

4. Sounds like a scam to me.

Trying to get your personal info to sell to companies. I get a call about once a month from some person with an Indian (as in country) accent. They tell me I have been selected to get $12,000 from the United States government. I ask what branch of government and they get snappy and say the United States government. Any questions I ask and they get rude. They don't show up on my caller ID. I tried auto redial and it couldn't connect me. I just hang up now.

[lectrobyte]

5. Phone surveys. Just do what I do, and say no thanks. No need to

give anyone data, and are you sure, even with caller ID, they are who they claim to be?

[marions ghost]

6. there is no way

I would give that info to a stranger on the phone. No legitimate medical survey would ask to get a copy of your medical records over the phone. Call the CDC immediately and report this.

[preciousdove]

7. She did the right thing; Caller ID can be fooled;Protect the kids first...

We had unidentified calls blocked at our home after we had gotten a series of heavy breathing calls. I needed to call home from wall phone in office building and I had no way of knowing what that number was so I inputted a family members phone number and it went through and our phone showed the number I entered not the number I was calling from. Security my Aunt Fanny!

[CornField]

9. Vaccination records are in a database

I think the database is called IRIS -- it's something like that. The last time I was out geocaching, I had some trouble and wasn't sure if I'd had a tetnus shot. I went to the local health department (because it takes weeks to get into my regular doc -- but that's another post) and the receptionist was able to pull up my information on the computer.

In light of this, the call absolutely sounds suspicious. If the CDC or any other government agency was in search of vaccination data, wouldn't they just query the database?

[1932]

10. there's no way that that was the CDC.

[McCamy Taylor]

11. There really is a national survey like this. Here is a link.

The site also has frequently asked questions info. Contacting the pedis office is part of the survey.

http://www.cdc.gov/nis/

The National Immunization Survey (NIS) is sponsored by the National Immunization Program (NIP) and conducted jointly by NIP and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The NIS is a list-assisted random-digit-dialing telephone survey followed by a mailed survey to children’s immunization providers that began data collection in April 1994 to monitor childhood immunization coverage.

The target population for the NIS is children between the ages of 19 and 35 months living in the United States at the time of the interview. Data from the NIS are used to produce timely estimates of vaccination coverage rates for all childhood vaccinations recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Estimates are produced for the nation and for each of 78 Immunization Action Plan (IAP) areas, consisting of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 27 large urban areas. The official estimates of vaccination coverage rates from the NIS are rates of being up-to-date with respect to the ACIP recommended numbers of doses of vaccines. Vaccinations included in the survey are: diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and acellular pertussis vaccine (DTaP); poliovirus vaccine (polio); measles-containing vaccine (MCV); Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine (Hib); hepatitis B vaccine (Hep B); varicella zoster vaccine, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), hepatitis A vaccine (Hep A), and influenza vaccine (FLU).

The NIS is conducted for the CDC by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. If you have any questions about the National Immunization Survey (NIS), please call toll free at 1-866-999-3340.

[Walt Starr]

12. I would report the call to the FBI immediately

Sorry, I can't buy it being anything other than a scam. Protect yourself and your family by reporting the call.

[McCamy Taylor]

13. Try calling the CDC number first see if they called you.

[Shadoobie]

14. I called the CDC

Following everyone's advice, I called the main information line for the CDC. They ran a check and said that they thought the survey was bogus. They took my information and were going to send the complaint to upper management (?).

I also talked to my medical friends and they said most national surveys are not run this way. Usually, they are done by mail or at least an announcement letter before a call is made. They seemed surprised as well.

Should I still call the FBI or a state official or let the CDC handle it?

Greg

[Gormy Cuss]

15. As someone who used to work in the business..

(I mean the legit research business, not the fraudulent one.)
Your wife should have been told upfront not just the sponsorship but the name of the contractor. The National Opinion Research Center or NORC is one of the largest vendors for this sort of study, and another poster listed the most likely survey name as one conducted by NORC.

As for the income question, sometimes interviewers get creative with the demographics to save time, and asking income rather than reading the categorized brackets was a favorite shortcut. It's one of the reasons interviewers are monitored by supervisors, to ensure that all respondents were presented with the same question in the same manner.

Your friends are correct that medical surveys are usually preceded by an announcement letter, except when the respondents are chosen through a random digit dialing sample (RDD.) With RDD, the names and addresses of potential respondents are not known ahead of time so prior written announcement is not practical.

I would call NORC and ask to speak to someone on the immunization study staff, relay when your household was called, your phone number, and why you are concerned. They will know if the call came from their phone banks, and they will care if the interviewer did not convey the legitimacy of the study. If they tell you that your number was not called for their survey, then pursue it with your state fraud agency (usually the AG's office.)

[Shadoobie]

18. Thanks for the background.

Thanks, Gormy Cuss. I think you hit the nail on the head. What you described seems to be exactly what may have happened. I'll contact NORC later but at least I feel better about the whole situation.

Greg

[Shadoobie]

19. I called the NORC

They confirmed that we were called last night and were even able to tell me when the survey was ended. What a strange experience, but at least it turned out to be legit.

Greg

[texpatriot2004]

16. I would call the authorities if I were you. I would NOT trust CDC

to take care of it.

[Shadoobie]

17. Thanks for the info from the earlier post

My friend tracked down the number as well as and called and talked to the investigator doing the survey. Apparently, 65% of those surveyed get a letter and the other 35% get a random call. The study was contracted through the NORC. I guess there is a slim chance it could have been fraudulent but I don't feel as paranoid now. Thanks for the information.

Greg