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Generic

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So yesterday I get a telephone call for the B&B (while I'm actually at that Dutch corporation that sells Chinese Goods with Swedish names and draped in the Swedish flag) from a group that says that they mandated to do a survey for the ministries or tourism and employment and she starts to ask me questions. So I halt her and I say "It's nice that you want to do this, but I have no proof of who you are and I get lots of these calls and most of them are fake. So, prove to me who you are and then I will consider answering the questions."
So, she sends me the questionnaire in email and some of it is downright personal, asking me for sales figures and the like. But no where is there any proof that this is the government, that my privacy rights are protected and well that this is legitimate. I check their website, they have the government logos on there, but anyone can put up a government logo, even someone doing phishing. So I call the government today and they are going to look into it for me.
Is it just me? Or do you get this phone calls as well? Want to know how many employees I have, how much revenue, etc. Information that I wouldn't give a competitor and they think that I should give to them?
 
Not from the Gvt., but from Done & Braddddstreeet (D&B). I refuse to answer any of their questions or e-mails. It's no one's business!
 
Not from the Gvt., but from Done & Braddddstreeet (D&B). I refuse to answer any of their questions or e-mails. It's no one's business!.
When my parents were in business and I was the accounting department, we would get faxes from D&B asking us to tell them about other companies etc. We sent back a form to them asking for reciprocity... and that was the end of the story. They want all the information, but they aren't willing to share anything.
But lately it's been people saying they were doing it on behalf of government.
 
Dumb me, I got stung today when I opened an email that really looked like an order cancellation from Amazon. When I clicked on what I thought was the link to the Amazon site it was to an offshore pharmacy offering to sell me pills I can't use. Hopefully all that will do is open the spam floodgates for awhile.
 
Dumb me, I got stung today when I opened an email that really looked like an order cancellation from Amazon. When I clicked on what I thought was the link to the Amazon site it was to an offshore pharmacy offering to sell me pills I can't use. Hopefully all that will do is open the spam floodgates for awhile..
I have been getting a ton of these! All saying my order was cancelled. I don't use any of the accounts these got sent to for ordering online.
Same thing with the incessant LinkedIn and foursquare emails everyday.
 
Our local tourism office had an independant survey company send out a survey with some very personal questions. I knew this was legit but still chose not to answer. As you say, none of their business. Most of the hoteliers also chose not to answer so they took general stats to come up with the results they wanted.
They were trying to prove that the amount of tax money they were recieving was bringing in X times the revenue. We all know that a good analyst can work any figures to come up with results they want. This was no exception.
 
Our local tourism office had an independant survey company send out a survey with some very personal questions. I knew this was legit but still chose not to answer. As you say, none of their business. Most of the hoteliers also chose not to answer so they took general stats to come up with the results they wanted.
They were trying to prove that the amount of tax money they were recieving was bringing in X times the revenue. We all know that a good analyst can work any figures to come up with results they want. This was no exception..
We all know that a good analyst can work any figures to come up with results they want. This was no exception.
As we all know - Liars figure and figures lie!
 
Not from the Gvt., but from Done & Braddddstreeet (D&B). I refuse to answer any of their questions or e-mails. It's no one's business!.
When my parents were in business and I was the accounting department, we would get faxes from D&B asking us to tell them about other companies etc. We sent back a form to them asking for reciprocity... and that was the end of the story. They want all the information, but they aren't willing to share anything.
But lately it's been people saying they were doing it on behalf of government.
.
I've also been called by D&B and the others for impromptu surveys. Sorry, no send something in the mail and I will look at it. I also have had legit business survey from the govt. Participation in those was mandatory, and they came via the mail. Seems like they already had access to all that info, but nothing like having me fill it all out again......Recently had to fight an estimated payment and late fee and interest on employees we didn't have last year. Apparently they did not believe that we didn't have any? (They did reverse it, including the penny in interest penalty).
 
Not from the Gvt., but from Done & Braddddstreeet (D&B). I refuse to answer any of their questions or e-mails. It's no one's business!.
When my parents were in business and I was the accounting department, we would get faxes from D&B asking us to tell them about other companies etc. We sent back a form to them asking for reciprocity... and that was the end of the story. They want all the information, but they aren't willing to share anything.
But lately it's been people saying they were doing it on behalf of government.
.
I've also been called by D&B and the others for impromptu surveys. Sorry, no send something in the mail and I will look at it. I also have had legit business survey from the govt. Participation in those was mandatory, and they came via the mail. Seems like they already had access to all that info, but nothing like having me fill it all out again......Recently had to fight an estimated payment and late fee and interest on employees we didn't have last year. Apparently they did not believe that we didn't have any? (They did reverse it, including the penny in interest penalty).
.
You may find the employee thing comes up again every quarter. Be sure ALL gov bodies have YOUR EIN and not the EIN from the previous business owners. No matter how many times we fought this and everyone said, 'Oh, yes, we have YOUR info,' every quarter we got nasty letters from the tax man saying all of our assets were going to be seized for non payment of payroll taxes.
DH spent DAYS at the IRS trying to get this sorted. We were paying, the IRS was crediting the account of the PO's even tho it was our EIN on the forms. (No one reads. Anywhere. Ever.)
We also had to fight with the town as the PO's simply cashed the check and walked away from everything here. They never let anyone know they had moved, didn't close any business accounts anywhere, never told the contractors they had that they weren't here any longer. (We got a couple of driveway plows and few lawn mowings done before we could figure out who to contact to tell them to stop. Or at least come over and talk about how much this was costing us!)
 
Not from the Gvt., but from Done & Braddddstreeet (D&B). I refuse to answer any of their questions or e-mails. It's no one's business!.
When my parents were in business and I was the accounting department, we would get faxes from D&B asking us to tell them about other companies etc. We sent back a form to them asking for reciprocity... and that was the end of the story. They want all the information, but they aren't willing to share anything.
But lately it's been people saying they were doing it on behalf of government.
.
I've also been called by D&B and the others for impromptu surveys. Sorry, no send something in the mail and I will look at it. I also have had legit business survey from the govt. Participation in those was mandatory, and they came via the mail. Seems like they already had access to all that info, but nothing like having me fill it all out again......Recently had to fight an estimated payment and late fee and interest on employees we didn't have last year. Apparently they did not believe that we didn't have any? (They did reverse it, including the penny in interest penalty).
.
You may find the employee thing comes up again every quarter. Be sure ALL gov bodies have YOUR EIN and not the EIN from the previous business owners. No matter how many times we fought this and everyone said, 'Oh, yes, we have YOUR info,' every quarter we got nasty letters from the tax man saying all of our assets were going to be seized for non payment of payroll taxes.
DH spent DAYS at the IRS trying to get this sorted. We were paying, the IRS was crediting the account of the PO's even tho it was our EIN on the forms. (No one reads. Anywhere. Ever.)
We also had to fight with the town as the PO's simply cashed the check and walked away from everything here. They never let anyone know they had moved, didn't close any business accounts anywhere, never told the contractors they had that they weren't here any longer. (We got a couple of driveway plows and few lawn mowings done before we could figure out who to contact to tell them to stop. Or at least come over and talk about how much this was costing us!)
.
Wow. Good thing about our place, it was vacant for a year and everyone saw a BIG change when we got it. Local rumor is now that we got a 2 million dollar grant to fix it up and that we bought it for back taxes. I stopped trying to stop the rumors, kind of like beating my head against the wall. I told DH "I kind of like this one, it makes us sound much smarter than buying the place and using our money to fix it!"
The EIN was for our business, I don't know how they managed to mess it up, but yours is a thought worth checking---thanks. I know he never let the county know he had closed, name of the business is now slightly different.
 
eric i would not answer. someone may have a 'mandate' to ask, but i have no 'mandate' to answer.
 
We have an annual survey from the Tourist Board which we can fill in or not as we fancy. They are quite general though ie how many rooms do you have? average occupancy etc not any revenue figures. I don't mind complying as they use the information to help with marketing and it usually takes about 30 minutes to fill in. However as it comes every year I am expecting it and know the drill wouldn't answer anything else.
 
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