WIERD

Give him 40 bucks not too.

Hi trout,

The thing is legit -- as legit as the US Government gets! lol There's a part of me that resist any effort by government to gather data on citizens. I'm not anti-census or anything like that. But when it gets into private behaviors I tend to balk. Still, it's hard to get a teenager to share concepts like "freedom from government intrusion" when 30 bucks will buy a nice video game. Nonetheless this family will have him pass on this bit of cash.

Better you than me. I would have told them no thanks and move on. Did you check with the Feds on this. Sounds a little scamish to me.

Hi Forum,

So about a few weeks ago this letter arrives in the mail from the Department of Health and Human Services. It says that a contracted agent will be stopping by the house and asking if we would be willing to take some kind of survey on health-related matters. And here's an interesting part. If we do the survey, we get $30 cash!

Now all of this is official. It's real Federal Government stuff. So the Agent comes by -- but not on the date specified. She wants to know about the whole family, but says only those members that fit the profile they are looking for will be able to take the survey and get the 30 bucks. They ask a handful of questions and punch you into a computer to see if they need your demographic or not.

Well, only my teenage boy meets what they are looking for. The questions they want to ask him involve a "confidential" survey basically on teen alcohol/drug/mental health related matters. My son is willing to take it. What kid doesn't want 30 bucks! We are not so sure.

Thoughts? Any speculation about what this is really all about in terms of Government data? Did you get a letter like this? Curious stuff.