Sequoia Research Reports & Reviews

Sequoia Research Reports & Reviews (93)

I live in Florida and too received this survey with login information. I saw several other discarded ones thrown around the general USPS boxes in my apartment complex. I looked up several names and checked them online. They were mostly Republican voters (I'm an independent voter). Not sure who they are trying to target, but over my dead body I wouldn't be doing their survey. There is absolutely no information about the reason behind the survey. It looks shady.

Useful

+15

Well, let me join in the fun! Do I think it's a scam, probably, but not the "normal" kind. This is a political and religious survey, even though my form in the mail said it wasn't. I like surveys, but not anymore. To me, this is a way to know who I voted for, if I was a practicing "christian" and my race...basically. so, since I do not trust anyone, especially these sad days, I feel like they are after those of us who don't answer what they want to know in an effort to make our lives miserablem Someone below said it better. I they if they can "get" Cuomo, they can put is in with Horns guy. Knowing where " we the people" are.

Useful

+19

FYI, one of the larger doners to Sequoia Research is The Center for Voter Information. CVI claims they are non-partisan but their history shows they support nothing but Democrats and try and help get Democrats elected by sending out deceitful mailers trying to tell people how they can vote.
I will not take a survey that is masquerading behind anonymity but claims to want information to better my community. If that was their end goal they wouldn't mail me a survey letter that makes it look like they are a company in Georgia where I live.
And if they truly are only about collecting opinions to make my community better, why are they accepting donations from a Deomcratic PAC and asking mainly political and religious questions?

No thanks, to the trash can this goes.

Useful

+46

Just received a survey invitation here in AZ. I'm actually currently in a Master's level research class and was surprised by how little transparency was provided about the study, who is doing it, and for what reasons. The gift card reward for follow-up surveys was $2, vs the $5 I've seen others post. Can't say if it's a scam, but seems pretty shady to me. After reading the site's privacy policy (buried at the bottom of the questions page), I decided not to participate. Here are some of the the things that made me doubt the anonymity and confidentially they promise:

- They collect full name, zip code, birth year, and email address. Seems fairly standard, though everything is required. However, full name shouldn't be necessary as you have a unique login already tied to your name/address, so that made me immediately question the anonymity (plenty more on this in the next point). Email address opts you in to future communications automatically.

- Personally identifiable information is provided to third parties for some shady reasons:
-- To augment your information by linking it to voting history, available consumer data, and your responses on other surveys (so they're building a more complete profile of you than they claim by getting the info from others)
-- Your opinions, demographics (including ethnicity, political/philosophical/religious views,union membership, health) can be shared in an individually identifiable form with third parties for the vague purpose of "research"
-- They once again state the can supplement the data the have on you, including marketing data from third parties, to enrich analytical data for their "clients' use" (notice the plural possessive)
-- They use both log files and cookies to track your IP, ISP, browser, operating system, date/time stamps, clickstream data, and pages you visited before and after their site (this is all personally identifiable information)

- They use web beacons and "advanced cookies" to track your browsing and provide targeted advertising (but only for research, of course). This information is also combined with your individual survey answers.

On the plus side, if they can actually be trusted, you can email them to opt out of "panel membership" and to request they delete your personally identifiable information (which takes 60 days and must coincide with deactivating your account).

Anyways, read the privacy policy for yourself (must email for data security policies), check your gut, and make your own choice. Good luck!

Useful

+54

I received the 'Nevada Opinion Survey'... You are among a small number of people who have been chosen to participate in the 2021 Nevada Opinion Survey, a confidential, nonpartisan survey of people in Nevada...

Do you honestly think they want my opinion? This is like filling out an employee opinion survey at work, and all responses are confidential... Right! They want to oust you, and expose you. No Thank You. You do not get my opinion from your survey, but you get this opinion here to take your survey and stick it where the sun don't shine! Kiss my grits!

Useful

+20

I'm in Miami and received the same letter with my correct name and address. It is signed for Tracy English, Manager, Florida Opinion Survey, [email protected]. The address listed belongs to a Fedex Store, which is like a P.O.Box. I won't answer.

Useful

+29

Tracy English also listed on the Virginia mailer. I consider it a red flag when a company feels the need to disguise what exactly they’re doing…hidden agenda for sure.

Useful

Tracy English is also the manager of the Georgia Opinion Survey, with a virtual mailbox set up with Staples in Macon, Georgia.

Useful

Tracy English apparently is also the manager of the Nevada Opinion Survey, [email protected]. The address in North Las Vegas is a box in a Staples store. There aren't any incentives offered that will encourage me to receive more spam emails than I am already exposed to. Shred pile it goes!

Useful

The AFL-CIO has been one of the highest-spending and most politically active unions over the years. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the AFL-CIO spent almost $9 million on independent expenditures and communication costs during the 2012 campaign cycle. The vast majority of its spending has gone to either support Democrats or oppose Republicans.

Useful

+14

The AFL–CIO engages in substantial political spending and activism, typically in support of Democrats and liberal or progressive policies. The AFL–CIO was formed in 1955 when the AFL and the CIO merged after a long estrangement. Membership in the union peaked in 1979, when the AFL–CIO had nearly twenty million members.

Useful

+10

Not satisfied with that kind of uncertainty, Kalla and Broockman teamed up with Working America, the political organizing branch of the AFL-CIO, to conduct nine more field experiments in a 2015 primary, a special election that year, and the 2016 general election. These were large-scale experiments that radically increased the evidence base they had to work with — “by about a factor of 10," Kalla and Broockman write.

Useful

+10

Nice research! As I received my letter 2/21/22 in Dallas, it's definitely an ongoing activity.

Useful

- Grantville, GA, USA

Scammer's address unknown
Country United States
Victim Location GA 30220, USA
Type of a scam Other

The mail notice offers a gift card to complete the survey; well on FUTURE surveys. They claim it's just for my state and that I was randomly selected. The only option is via website, there is no phone number to call, and questions go to "edward" at xxopinion.org. The "xx" denotes state abbreviation, as I have discovered multiple instances of other states abbreviations being used. All with the name "edward". Seriously what kind of superman would you have to be to be able to handle surveys from all 50 states? As the only way to contact "edward" is to send an e-mail, thus giving out my e-mail address (NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN), the only recourse is to report the scam. Please shut this shyster down.

Useful

+16

I live in Iowa and I got the same letter. I have no intention of taking this survey because from what I've read it asked for political and religious viewpoints. My religion is private as are my politics, unless I'm in the voting booth alone, and if and when I choose to worship. This thing is not only a scam, it is an invasion of personal privacy.

Useful

+14

They are hitting Iowans with the Iowa Opinion Survey. The survey looked very legitimate. Had a graduate course on doing social research and this pretty much followed what was taught, so I can't tell if this is a scam or not. The secretiveness does make one wonder. Most survey firms are above board on who they are, maybe not, probably not, tell you who their client is. Other than an email address no personal information was asked for, but the question is where did there get the mailing address for the letter (probably bought voter lists from the Iowa Secretary of State.)

Useful

Sequoia Research, LLC is a validly-formed Delaware LLC. It has qualified to do business in at least one state - California - and those who received the Opinion Survey will note that the USPS Postage Permit is #1935 from Sacramento, CA. (You can bring your mailpiece to your local Post Office to obtain more information about the permit, if you are interested.)

The two individuals named in the California filing (https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/Document/RetrievePDF?Id=201825510046-24895162...⇄ are David Broockman and Joshua Kalla. David is a professor who works "with politicians, political activists, companies, and more to design randomized field experiments that help understand how politicians, voters, and consumers decide," and Joshua is "an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Data Science at Yale University [who studies] voter behavior, public opinion, and political advocacy, generally through the use of randomized field experiments."

The addresses listed at the bottom of each mailer are third-party mailing centers used to receive mail - like private post office boxes. I suspect the survey designers used regional addresses to provide a greater sense of local comfort and social proof to respondents - a good idea.

All in all, I do not think this is a scam. I think it is likely a valid survey that will be used for political purposes for the upcoming 2020 general election.

(I still can't quite figure out why the survey operators targeted me and my spouse. I suspect it has something to do with a recent donation to the Congressional Black Caucus via ActBlue, but that data is not showing up in FEC filings yet, so I have to believe that it is either ActBlue sharing data with the survey folks, or some other scraping method.)

Useful

+28

Thank you for a level-headed and concise analysis. I also do not think this is a scam but rather a survey being conducted for political purposes. I suspect the "targeting" is either from voter registration lists or political contributor lists, if there's any targeting at all. More likely random. The letters are being sent via Presorted mail from Sacramento.

By the way, I received my letter as a Dallas (TX) opinion survey in Feb 2022, so this is an ongoing thing.

The thing I would like to know is: who are they selling this information to? They are taking on expenses both in bulk mailing and the $2 gift certs, so the answers have to be valuable to someone. I wonder who?

Useful

You can add Kentucky to the list, as I got one today. But if this is a phishing scam, what are they phishing for? And who's funding it, cause giving everyone a giftcard after all the expense of sending these mailers is going to be expensive. However, anyone who has taken the survery on this page seems to say it's just political stuff. So I start to wonder what group wants opinions, but doesn't want to reveal who they are so that people will answer regardless of their feelings about the source of the poll. I'm registered independant, so I tend to get stuff from both parties trying to swing my vote. Just some thoughts.

Useful

+11

3 July 2020 - received a letter to take survey "Maine Opinion Survey, respond by July 13th at meopinion.org..." "signed" A. Edward Wright, Manager, Maine Opinion Survey, [email protected]. A project of Sequoia Research, LLC - 3330 W 26th St, Ste 4-265 - Erie, PA 16506". 3330 W 26th, Erie PA is a PostNet Mailing & Shipping. Not taking the survey -
if not a scam, why not be aboveboard about The who, what, where, why...

Useful

+11

Sequoia Research, LLC is *NOT* a legitimate entity in MN. Go to Minnesota secretary of state business search page and "sequoia research" returns no results. The address, 1113 7th St NW Rochester, MN is the address of a small shipping store, UPS/FedEx/DHL dealer, #1024 is likely a mailbox inside the store. The website also has a whois guard so you cannot see who the site is registered to. This is not a legitimate research organization. I would NOT answer this survey. Probably some George Soros voter fraud attempt.

Useful

+16

Same letter, same company, different State... SCAM

Useful

+12

Got this in the mail today. 7/2/2020.
Montana opinion survey... I decided to look it up and couldn’t find anything. After a couple googling minutes, I saw this site, which confirmed my suspicion. They had my correct name, but no apartment number. I’m not even going to the website. It’s either phishing scam, or considering our current political climate, it’s some form of a mail-in voter suppression thing.
DON’T GO TO THE WEBSITE !

Useful

+14

Got this letter in Kentucky. Claimed to be about understanding "issues important to our community" but then asked me what news channels I watched and followed up with a long sequence of questions on my thoughts about the Senate and presidential candidates, my political party, and who I will be voting for. Not sure how any of that is meant to "help the community".

100% a scam to just harvest people's information and opinions, though why I don't know. Maybe to sell information. The address they gave is some unrelated business in Minnesota and the company doesn't seem to exist.

It was sent in a pretty official looking type of envelope, but it's clearly fake.

Useful

+15

Also, looking them up on ICANN was a dead-end. They used namecheap.com to register the website domain and have a Panama-based privacy service preventing people from seeing their identity/location.

Useful

I and my girlfriend also received the survey saying it would help understand views of people like us in Maine on important issues in our community. After starting the survey I found it not to be as portrayed in the letter, mostly political in nature and unrelated to the real issues of our community. The further I got into it the more and more I began to feel it was politically motivated and not pointed to issues what I wanted to answer so I closed the browser.

Useful

+16

Sequoia Research Contacts

Sequoia Research associated photos:

View Photos

Address:

1113 7th St NW #1024, Rochester, MN 55901

Website:

mnopinions.com
iaopinion.org
meopinion.org
www.miopinions.org

E-mails:

If you know any contact information for Sequoia Research, help other victims by adding it!

Sequoia Research