Rheumatoid Arthritis Research Survey - incentive?

[Penguin]

I had an email last night from [e-mail] asking me to fill in a survey that would take about 25 minutes on behalf of Cello Health. "The research will take the form of an online survey lasting approximately 25 mintutes. As a thank you for your time, an incentive of £5 will be offered on completion." (Mintutes is their error not mine!) I love filling in surveys - I'm odd like that - so I would have done it for free ... but I object to being TOLD there'll be a payment when in fact there wasn't one - they don't even ask for contact details so I can't see any way they could make a payment if they wanted to.

Just thought I'd let anyone else know in case they really wanted/needed that £5, and because it's just wrong to say you're offering an incentive if you don't! (And yes, I did get through the first section and was told I fitted the profile they were looking for and asked to fill in the whole thing - so I did complete the entire survey.)

[medway-lady]

I posted about this last night and asked NRAS for help, I hate this type of thing and usually refuse but at first thought it was real, it clearly wasn't. No idea if its a hack or just opportunist. I've had no response from NRAS but am actually aghast that this supposed secure site has been accessed for somewhat dubious means. My question is just how secure is the site.

[Penguin in reply to medway-lady]

Sorry I missed your post! I did have a quick look this morning to see if anyone else had posted but I'm obviously not that great at navigating HealthUnlocked!

Good question re site, especially as 'research at healthunlocked' is not an email to which you can respond. Seems to me it's a real survey (no one would go to all that trouble to put it together for a laugh) but somebody somewhere along the line is being dishonest about the incentive.

[medway-lady in reply to Penguin]

Its ok, just that I know the site can't be monitored 24/7 but it may hold details that could be useful, to say a pharmaceutical company. And I so agree, I don't mind helping any sort of research but only the real ones. I looked the company up too and am not sure as it could be selling this type of info for their own advantage. Just not on.

[Penguin in reply to medway-lady]

Quite sure they are selling the info - they're quite frank about that on the introductory page of the survey - 'We're working for a pharmaceutical company' etc. and I don't mind that if they're open about it. I just object to being told there's an incentive when there isn't. In the survey itself there is no mention of an incentive - only on the mysterious email we got. All very odd!

[SimoneHU HealthUnlocked]

Thank you to everyone that has raised this. We can confirm this is a HealthUnlocked survey, in partnership with a research agency.

We are really sorry to hear that there are issues with it and that the reward system has failed. We have removed the survey and are looking further into this.

A further update will be posted in due course.

medway-lady

[medway-lady in reply to SimoneHU]

I received this earlier on , I hope that you will advise us why you allowed this without permission from NRAS as I'm now very very disappointed that this group appears to be being used to gather information. Very unhappy and fail to see any justification in allowing this to happen.

"We at NRAS are very displeased with HealthUnlocked and are investigating why and how they have done this. NRAS did not know anything about this survey and it has gone out via our NRAS community without our permission. I sincerely apologise for the upset it has caused and please believe me we are taking decisive and immediate action with Health Unlocked.

Thank you for flagging up your concerns they echo our own and will give us the evidence of the upset Health Unlocked have caused our community users."

Kind regard

[sylvi in reply to SimoneHU]

If you don't or can't answer a question they keep sending you back to it and i gave up in the end as it was too much trouble.xxx

[Hidden]

We are currently investigating this and wish to assure you that NRAS did not know about this survey until late last night. We will post a fuller response shortly.

[medway-lady]

Can I just point out that had they given a reward, to get it people would have parted with bank details, this clearly had not been thought through. Giving such details through a webpage is extremely dangerous.

[AgedCrone in reply to medway-lady]

If anyone did release their bank details health unlocked should insist they are deleted & be much more careful who they allow to access this site in future.

I looked at the first few pages of the questionnaire ....didn't see anything about the £5 offer......but decided it was a commercial venture & deleted it!

[Penguin]

There really isn't a problem with giving your bank account and sort code online provided you don't give anything else ... and it could have been paid through PayPal etc. so that your own details wouldn't need to be viewed - PayPal can act as an intermediary.

[AgedCrone in reply to Penguin]

You'd be horrified what mayhem can be caused if someone with ill intent has access to your bank account details. Unless you are 100% sure who you are dealing with never reveal any financial details.

I received an email saying that a paedophile had moved into the area.......I called the police help line & they knew about it .....it was a scam which if you clicked on to the link led into some sort of illegal but very feasible sounding financial venture. Scary!

[Matilda_1922]

I had a message to complete a survey when entering the healthunlock website and not an email and didn't notice a cash incentive. I went into the survey but was on a bus so didn't have 25 minutes to complete the survey so logged off.

[Hidden]

We have got to the bottom of this and HU will be responding shortly to you all who have commented on the survey.

[matt]

We are very sorry for the confusion this survey has caused and extend the apology to NRAS.

This survey was being done from a respected research partner HealthUnlocked were working with. They were looking to better understand real experiences of RA and the drugs people take. The survey is not related to NRAS.

The email was sent to people we believed would be interested in taking part. The majority of HealthUnlocked members are interested in finding out about research, which is one of the reasons we occasionally invite people to participate. We would like to reassure you that there was no obligation to take part in this and no data, information, or anyone’s email address, was passed on to the company. We (HealthUnlocked) would never do this under any circumstances.

We have sent an email to everyone that was initially invited to take part in this research with further details and more information around the compensation and technology issue. We are reviewing our processes to make sure this doesn't happen again. Thanks for those of you who flagged up the issues with the survey,

[Astral]

It's worth doing the survey, I got a £20 Amazon voucher!

[Scottishlad]

Never saw the reward option on the survey but this would not have motivated me.

A couple of the questions are IMO are very badly designed. They require you to read about 10 statements and allocate 100 points between them. I have a post graduate degree from the Open University and like filling in questionnaires, I almost gave at this point!! There is no way anyone could really answer these questions in meaningful way. The options are way too complex. I am afraid I just put some answers in to enable me to move on to the next question!!

[Hidden]

am so glad I didn't do this . I got asked via email then I got a snotty email saying there was a fiver incentive . I don't like snotty people so I'm so happy I didn't take part. I'm so sorry for the innocent people who did but when it sounds too good to be true by offering a cash incentive it probably is. I'm not typing what kind of people are offering this or bullying as I would rather express because I'm polite but a few choice words are in my tongue right now ! 😡

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Oh dear . Wish I'd have read the other replies ! Whoops ! 😫