Is Tobin Research a Scam? Received Text Message

This sounds like just another far-left scheme to selectively claim "political endorsements" while looking for personal information to exploit.

Sad get a life

I looked up the organization which seems legit - begun in 2005. https://tobinproject.org/about/. Note it has a .org suffix so not a for profit. Also, when I typed in the full address for the opinion poll on my own instead of going through the link, it did take me directly to the poll.

Where did they get my phone number with my name? I'm not answering!

How does this work because it's not working

I entered the www address and nothing came up to interact with. Suggest people ignore.

It asked for a password but one of the letters has a little mark over it (that is used in a foreign language) that's not on my keyboard so it wouldn't accept it. Made me suspicious

https://www.tobinproject.org/about/
I started answering the questions, which were about political leaders in Wisconsin, and never finished it.

https://www.tobinproject.org/about/

I got one too and will be tearing it up. There is nothing I could find to legitimize it

I received a legit looking postcard from Tobin Research inviting me to take the Wisconsin opinion poll. It said I was one of "a small number of people who had been chosen to participate. You were randomly chosen to represent the opinions and experiences of people in your area. It is not affiliated with any political party or candidate."
To access the survey, it gave a website address and a password. It asked me to respond by April 18, 2023 to ensure my opinions were represented in their survey. However, when I enter the website address (www.wiopinionpoll.com), it doesn't exist.

I had the exact same experience… I’m a little behind on my mail, so when I got to this it had an official looking (a small imprint of the state surrounded by “WI Opinion Poll” lettering) so I figured “why not?”
I entered the same website address on the postcard in a search and although several possibilities were listed, the wiopinion address did not come up. I looked at the card more closely, and noticed that the middle initial of my name wasn’t right. ALERT!
I think I’ll do some checking on TOBIN RESEARCH in Fort Worth, TX.

I also received this and experienced the same result when trying to access the website given on the post card.

I too have received the post card for Wisconsin opinion poll. Will not be going to the website.

When asked where I get my news they listed several TV and others. C-spam was excluded. If more people checked what is happening on C-span our country would/could be in a better place!!! C-span doesn’t lie it’s real government!!!

Lol

It’s a political poll asking if I agree Joe Biden is a failure.

If that’s the case, I WILL reply!

After all these years of comments it is still Jen from Tobin. Got two messages from them, second was a "final reminder". At best it's shady political polling by complete liars, at worst it's a phishing attempt to confirm a match of my name and zip code to my phone number. Don't click the link even if it's harmless on its own.

Text ••• HI Annie! It's Jen at Tobin Research again. You were selected for a 3 minute survey. Will you make sure that people like you are heard? http://www.georgia-survey.net/id=jLZc8 Text STOP to end
Reply ••• People like me? Could you please elaborate? 😂

I am also suspicious. I didn’t open. I do not share my opinions so easily like that. I don’t know nor want to know who “Jen” is

I got the text also, afraid to click on it because I have never heard of them.

I took the survey. The link is safe. Political questions. Reasonable.

They stole your birth certificate, didn't they?

I got a call from them today, they just asked me a couple questions about politics. Harmless enough I suppose. Phone surveys are odd, but it was a real person on the other side so I guess it's harmless.

Seems like it's a GOP poll asking about Joe Biden and the legitimacy of the 2020 election...

Waste of time.

I just looked up the site of the link "Jen" provided & it led me to Pollus, a for profit company that does polling and surveys for basically anyone that pays for their services
Has NOTHING to do with Tobin

From what I’ve discovered it’s a survey wanting to know what candidate you support. That’s not their business

I guess Jen must get around, because she texted me also. I so rarely give out my cell phone number, I have no idea how this person/organization got it (whoever they really are). I am going to block the number. I would never, ever click on a text from someone I don't know, anyway. But all of you who added comments were really helpful to me. It is looking more and more like this is a straight-out scam by some political organization. Thanks, everyone!

Secretary of State(Michigan)sells your information.

Jen does seem to be awfully busy. I must have given her my number in my drinking days. Lol! Really, tho, glad to read these comments. Thanks!

"Hi, it's Jen at Tobin Research. We're texting Michiganders with a short confidential survey. Can you help? hxxp://www.michiganopinionpoll.link/id=7X98W Text STOP to end"

I'm inclined not to participate, as no info, or background was shared. Where did they get names?
Jen works with them, not necessarily a Tobin....(My opinion)

So I completed the survey they don't ask you for any personal information or any identifying information what it does look like though is an attempt to gather false poll data because the way the questions are set up it seems that they want you to disagree with your local representatives and the current president so I can only guess if the number is florida-based which presidential party this is for

Even if the survey doesn't ask for personal information, it is odd that the postcard I received is addressed to me personally, not "resident" or "occupant". So, I don't appreciate the attempted invasion of my privacy, no matter which party this may be for. None of their business.

They have attempted and are still trying to contact me through 3 different numbers and I block each one and report them as spam to my cell phone carrier. I don’t care who they are, I’m tired of unsolicited text messages.

Tobin is at Yale, and the number that called me has a Jacksonville Florida area code, increasing my suspicion, but I am still not sure whether this is a legit survey or not.

So Tobin appears to be a legitimate non-profit survey organization "Founded in 2005, the Tobin Project is an independent, non-profit research organization motivated by the belief that rigorous scholarship on major, real-world problems can make a profound difference", But this survey is paid for by an organization with a partisan bias. Happens to be biased toward my views, but I am only interested in whether the survey has an inherent slant. Hard to say. It would depend on how rigorous Tobin is about insulating their study from the interests of the funder.

It is also possible, despite the plausible-looking message returned after completing the survey, that Tobin has nothing to do with this, and someone is using their name and reputation in a fishing attempt. I am not going to respond unless I decide to do some more research (like contacting Tobin), and it looks both legit and reasonably unbiased (recognizing that absolutely unbiased is probably not achievable.

Unfortunately, all the suspicion created by ubiquitous hackers seems to be making it very difficult for anyone to conduct a good scientific poll.

Tobin Research is not the same as the Tobin Project.

I keep receiving them too...but I refuse to open them. DELETE is the universal go to for ALL unsolicited texts and phone calls. I DON'T KNOW YOU JEN AT TOBIN RESEARCH AGAIN! And my goodness how confidential can it be Jen at Tobin Research Again, if you know my name and you're using my name over and over again to tell me MY voice will be heard. This is America and I'm Black, the only thing America has ever confidentially selected me for let's just say, "..it was not my opinion...and quite frankly, it's more than apparent my opinion (just like my life) does not matter in the grand scheme of anything. Stop texting me Jen, I will never reply....EVER!

If it is an unsolicited message, I would not click on it, since I do not know who is actually asking me to do a survey.

"Welcome, North Carolinians!
Thank You!
Thank you! We appreciate your time, and we look forward to hearing from you again in the future. Have a wonderful day.

Paid for by America Votes Action Fund, www.americavotes.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee."

This is what is shown after completing the survey.