Ever see hits for quality assurance calls? I have a suspicion about these.... There is a type of affiliate marketing call PPC or Pay Per Call. Basically, a company (let's say STD testing) wants to generate leads to the phone lines in order to sell tests, etc. So, they offer affiliates $5 per each phone call that lasts over a certain amount of time. My theory is that sometimes big requeters post these hits for their clients, without even realizing what is happening. You, are a pawn, and a generating $ for the requester. The quality assurance thing is a blanket / eg: there is no quality assurance. They are just trying to generate leads via you talking for X amount of minutes in order to get the company to pay them $. AKA - Fraudulent marketing activities and such tasks should be banned by mturk. Thoughts?
The only ones I have done were quality assurance calls to Apple. Them were legit. Never tried any others and I forget that requesters name. As for banning them there is a hard to decipher line between what is legit and what is not the way I see it. Amazon needs to screen the requester like they do the worker at least. Hell you can join up as a requester with any ole name you want and whatever bogus info you want to put in there. Long as your credit card is good they just don't really care. That is my view on it.
As long as they're allowing even the most blatant scams, I can't see them putting a stop to anything it's harder to spot. I agree with Andy that they ought to. I just also agree with 2Much that they don't give a shit.
Some of them I'm sure they are big scams but the ones I've done, ADT home security and another I can't remember but were really a well-known brand, were both real quality checks. I've seen some pop up lately that I didn't touch because they seemed fishy. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it's probably a duck!
I have recently done three "secret shopper" calls. All three were legit. They were for: a college, a cable company and an insurance company. I was paid quickly for them too! Definitely not a scam in any way, as far as I can see.
The company or companies can be super legit, they often are. Then they provide a personalized number to their affiliate (EG: the requester). The requester is suppose to advertise the number on billboards, print, online, etc. However the requester is PAYING YOU to call the number which is an unqualified/forced/bribed lead. http://www.cj.com/paypercall EG: The advertiser loses out as the requester breaks the ToS. Again, these can be super legit companies, but the requester is not super legit. I'd say 99.9% of 'quality assurance checks' on mturk are bogus. Of course they do pay you, because the companies pay them, but it is not beneficial in the long run. EG: The companies don't ACTUALLY Know that the requester is BRIBING fake leads that WONT result in sales. The company thinks the requester is putting the number on 1) a bill board or 2) flyers, etc. Not FORCING people to call the number and paying them for it. From CJ.com.. The "We are checking for quality assurance" is total BS in an attempt to get you to actually 1) Talk on the pone to them for 3-5 minutes or however long it takes for them to get the lead and get paid, and 2) To keep you out of the loop as to what is actually happening.. It's not a scam, per se, but it is unethical in terms of the requester and the companies who are supporting this (IE: some of the larger requester who have shady people under them). I just wanted to bring this to all of your attention just as sort of an FYI as to what is actually happening. They could care less about the feedback you give. I'm 99.9% sure this is happening on 99.9% of the quality assurance calls. You guys can have your own suspicions, etc but I just wanted to lay out for you what is going on.
Wow! I really had NO idea it could even work like that! I am really very gullible like that. I try to believe in the best of everyone but then people mislead you..... good grief! I would never have even thought someone would set something up like that! Thanks for the heads up Andy!
Quality Issurance Calls should pay a lot more $5-$10 to do the "hit". You can get very legit work doing these with mystery shopping.. I have done them, but I dont do the college ones, as I am currently shopping around for a program to take from the online schools.
Andy, I've been looking around at this type of thing since you mentioned it. It reminds me of the "pay per click" mills, too. I think you're right that it's on the ethical borderline - it may not be exactly illegal but it is pretty unethical, to me at least.
I will not touch these with a 10 foot "phone cord"! The couple I have read through seemed a little odd to me. Not to mention that the Company I am calling will then have my phone number from caller id. NO THANK YOU! I do want to thank you, Andy for posting this! I was never really positive about how it all worked since I just had a "odd" feeling, but its great info for others!!!
Yeah sorry, and I know my posts are a bit confusing, so will try to lay this out once more. It is not necc. a "scam", but they are being dishonest (the requester NOT the company you are actually calling). They don't give a crap about how you review the actual person, they just need you to stay on the line for 3-5 minutes so that THEY are paid by the company you are calling for driving a 'lead' 1) A company decides to pay affiliates $ to generate 3-5 minute leads via phone 2) One of their affiliates, requester A, gets the bright idea to post it on mturk 3) Requester A designs the hit as such that it looks like it is for quality assurance testing 4) Company detects that a 3-5 minute call has been made via their affiliate phone number 5) Afiliate receives $5 commission for driving 1 lead that stayed on the line for 3-5 minute 6) Affiliate aka Requester pays the mturker The only loser here is the company who launched the affiliate initiative. You have to remember, the company can record calls, so WHY is there is a need for a secret shopper? Answer: there isn't. 100% of real companies review calls made by real shoppers. Use common sense. Anyway, these types of hits should be banned from mturk as the requester is exploiting a marketing tactic. Want to participate in this?? Join a PPC program, get your affiliate phone # id associated with your account, create hits on mturk asking to QUALITY ASSURE lmao and take some BS feedback... thats exactly what they are doing.
Sure sounds like a scam to me. These affiliate/requesters are using us to defraud a company. If that's not a scam, I don't know the meaning of the word. Please give me the correct definition.
Oh so they are making money by outsourcing, in a way. Paying us pennies to do their work that when they are paid dollars. Well, someone's always the pigeon and someone's always the statue
@Ohsostrange - I guess they aren't scamming you, per se, because they are paying @Clogan98 - Yes, most requesters do this, haha. But thats not the problem. This is basically the same thing as asking you visit a website with ads on it and click the ads and do "quality assurance" on the ads. lol.
I've done them for OLA.. to Apple for repair issues. Take 15 minutes, the set up is great and they approve and pay within 30 minutes and they are $5.00. I would do them anytime! These were calls to set up a repair by mail... I can't see a company paying for some one to call in and make the company incur costs by sending out a shipping box, and providing in warranty unpaid tech support.
Just because we're not the ones being scammed, that doesn't mean it isn't a scam. They're defrauding the companies who are paying them. So someone is being scammed. It's not the same as outsourcing, because we're not doing their work for them if their work is to get people interested enough in becoming customers to make a phone call to the company. Turkers who make these calls aren't going to become customers. It may not be something a district attorney would bother to prosecute someone for, but it's still fraud.
http://www.warriorforum.com/ <<< those DBs are probably behind it (don't go there, guys - really - it's a bunch of jerkoffs trying to sell you information on how to make money online with cold calling, generating leads, and circle jerking referrals)