Kim R.

Upon encountering a Facebook page purportedly associated with the Institute of Surveys, the content therein delineated an offer ostensibly in collaboration with PetSmart, soliciting participation in a survey entailing the promise of a complimentary bag of dog food upon completion, contingent upon payment of shipping costs. Regrettably, subsequent interactions revealed the inauthenticity of this endeavor, as articulated by multiple Trustpilot reviews detailing similar experiences of deception. Having unwittingly engaged in this misleading scheme and provided requisite information from a Visa gift card I had on hand, I promptly endeavored to address the situation by directly contacting the Institute of Surveys via their Facebook platform. Regrettably, their response was not commensurate with rectifying the issue, as assurances of reimbursement were proffered but not realized, followed by a unilateral blocking action. Faced with this disconcerting predicament, I proactively sought recourse by reaching out to PetSmart through various social media channels, elucidating the circumstances of this fraudulent activity. In a response indicative of their commitment to integrity, PetSmart promptly disavowed any association with the Institute of Surveys, pledged to escalate the matter internally, and assured further investigation into the deceptive practices at hand.

This company was using a fake survey scam to get people to send them money and to enter their debit card, credit card, or gift card information into their website via a form that the company created by a company called Tally. I notified Tally about the scam and they deactivated the Institute of Survey's web form that was being used to collect victim's card information. However, the company hosting www.instituteofsurveys.com, Wix, will not remove the website because they don't believe that whoever is behind the Institute of Survey's website is doing anything illegal. I contacted Facebook by reporting the page for the Institute of Surveys, but it is still active.

The Better Business Bureau was unable to process my complaint against the Institute of Surveys because, according to them, the business is unreachable or out of business. I got the contact information for the business from looking up the WHOIS information for the website's domain. Apparently, that contact information is fake because they were unable to contact the Institute of Surveys.