Woman with foreign accent claiming to be from Australian Seniors health forium . Asking a lot of questions. My guess is it is just another scam

I no longer answer my landline. I write down the number and thanks to Reverse Australia, I can check it out. I only call back if it is someone I know or who I trust to be genuine eg doctor.

I got a call from a man on 31 January. I asked him why he was ringing as I am on the Do Not Call Register. He said that he was not selling anything and he was ringing on behalf of the Senior's Health Forum canvasing Health issues of seniors in my postcode. Today I received a call from Revitive. I said why are you calling me I am on the Do Not Call register. The woman said she got my information from the Seniors Health Forum! She wanted to have a professional therapist visit me!!! I now have a business liked to the scam and intend to speak with the Seniors Advisory Council about this. I don't want these unethical businesses preying on vulnerable seniors.

Calls such as these have been common in recent years and are called lead generation calls. Lead generation is deemed as telemarketing but the Australian government regulator ACMA. The call centres are usually from overseas such as India and Phillipines and they randomly call people and ask general questions about lifestyle and home to then pass on as leads to businesses in Australia. These businesses are usually of financial nature. Appointments will then be made by these call centres for a representative from these Australian businesses to visit you. It is all about trying to persuade you to spend your money and whatever they are trying to sell you. These call centres will always give a fake business name or survey name and give Australian phone numbers that are not traceable to the country of origin. They deliberately ignore Australian government regulations such as the Do Not Call legislation as it is difficult for the Australian government to do much about them other than sending these call centres letters of notification (that is if they can be identified). Ultimately it is the Australian businesses that are connected with these call centres that are responsible, and as much detail as possible needs to be obtained about these businesses and then passed on to the government regulators such as ACMA which can prosecute them. But it can be difficult getting the details of the Australian businesses as the call centres wont give this information, they will hang up on you. You would have to go through with the appointment with the business to get the details of the business. These businesses can be of a dodgy character. Do not ever be persuaded by these call centres. Just hang up.

Same call....same woman...put the number in the barred callers list on my phone...most phones can do that....I know have barred 16 phone numbers...why can't the powers that be somehow disconnect the number (08) 9274 8638.... I bet they could disconnect my phone number if they wanted

My 89 year mother had this exact thing happen to her. A woman approached my mum while she was in her front garden and said she got her information from the Seniors Health Forum! She was a professional therapist and wanted to ask some health questions!!! Mum was going out so the woman arranged to come back later. Mum thought it must be important as it was medical. She believed she was a health worker and trusted her. The company was called Revitalife. This rep returned to her home and after asking lots of personal health questions and recording her medical history on forms brought out the sales brochures. They managed to convince her she needed a reclining chair at the cost of $7000. This is ridiculous as she is in remission from cancer and cannot recline or lean back at all, she has to be upright or lie on her side, as was pointed out during the intense medical questioning. Mum said she couldn't afford the chair, so they gave her a fabric option. She didn't like the material and said the chair wouldn't fit in her unit. The rep then said not to worry, they could remove her furniture to accommodate it. They then managed to get her to give them her banking details and signed a form. When the rep had gone Mum couldn't understand how on earth she had been bulldozed into it. After a sleepless night she planned to ring the number left to try to cancel it. A woman called Annette at Revitalife called my mother first thing to say they could deliver the chair straight away. Mum said no, she wanted to cancel the order. Immediately, Annette said they could reduce the cost, this was a huge amount less. Mum said no she didn't want it. Thankfully, I found out what was going on and called this company myself to insist they leave my mother alone. I am still very concerned about this scam. To con a vulnerable old lady like this is absolutely disgusting. I am thinking of contacting A Current Affair

I received one of these calls today. These calls are such a nuisance - most of the time I manage to just not respond but I have a bad cold and wasn't quick enough off the mark to hang up on them today! They had our address and my husband's name - it is in the telephone directory. They could not give me a number to call to check their 'market research' but said to look up their website. They said they were in Sydney! When I looked up their website afterwards I just found this site's reference to the calls!! I didn't give much information away but I will be ready for any new nuisance sales calls in the next few days!! It is so bad that a stop cannot be made to these types of calls - it really does prey on vulnerable people.

I have put a message on my phone saying that scammers are calling this number regularly. And I say to my friends and family please leave a message as I am no longer answering this phone. As soon as the message is heard, they hang up!

Overseas scammer "Australian Health and Wellness Forum" using a spoofed (fake) number from the Philippines. Diverted to the scammer answering machine.

I just had a call from the so called Senior health forum, asking a lot of health questions re a survey they were doing and wanted me to say yes to some health information documents-- I refused to agree they would help in any way, they would not provide me with a phone number but told me to Google them which I did and found this site and a few others -- looks like they are yet another scam!

I do like to know how they know the numbers to call. With a number of support centres for major Australian Business's including Telstra it is very easy for details to be passed on.
I know by previous callers that Telstra day service detail list was supplied to a scammer to make calls. They just think we are too weak to notice it.
Australian government must act.
Australian Business's having service support offshore in poor countries run a very serious security risk.
Do not give them any support data.
This number tell them to put their hands in the air and shout I surrender!

Just another scam call claiming to be calling re Seniors and wanting to do a survey wanting to know age groups etc. Don't give any information......

Caller: Revitalife

I monitor my elderly 88yo Fathers bank account and help pay his bills as he has some dementure I visit most weeks, two weeks ago i visited and all good , no mention of a purchase etc then I notice a check drawn in his account for $5500, I asked him what it was , He cant remember so I pushed the matter and discover he's had a visit from Revitalife and he bought a chair. WTF!! When my father was a bit younger and more with it he would never have spent that kind of money on a chair that has electric foot rest and recline. The only evidence I could find was a small receipt from Revitalife and a single page instruction. My Father lives alone and is easy prey for them as he is easy to talk into something like a lot of our seniors potentially are. I've a good mind to organise a sales visit for myself .

My elderly parents were almost scammed by Revitalife. Please ignore the 'survey' from Seniors Health Forum. It is a scam / data base to prey on vulnerable elderly people. My parents thought the 'survey' they completed over the phone was a government agency.

A few days later a 'sales rep' from Revitalife entered their home to sell them a bed for $8,000.00.

The contact person at Revitalife was most unhelpful and dishonest. I'm surprised this company can continue to operate.

Revitalife: Annette Whelan - Customer Care Manager - (07) 3085 0127
Email: annette.whelan @ revitalife.com.au

Annette is at the forefront of these dishonest acts to vulnerable elderly people convincing them they need expensive beds / reclining chairs.

Scammers.

Someome from a different phone number (07 prefix) called Dad from Australian Seniors Health Forum. He thought he was doing a Government survey so participated. Now he has had a visit from Revitalife trying to sell him expensive equipment to make his life more comfortable. Fortunately Dad will not buy anything without making further enquires. I spoke to a Revitalife representative and she admitted they "bought" Dad's details from Australian Seniors Health Forum. My advice is to stay right away from both these organisations.

who are they?

Wanted to start asking questions for a survey. I hung up and googled the business. This is the site that came up

I also received a call from a foreign speaking lady saying she was calling on behalf of the Australian Seniors Health Forum . Call was closed by lady after I asked questions, though she had a lot of our details, allegedly provided by Telstra!

The guy called "Geoff" who sounded Indonesian wanted to know if I was a senior. I told him no although I am. He wanted details about my health and other seniors in the household. when I started asking questions he said thank you and ended the conversation. A definite scam!

Thankfully I googled whilst talking to the woman to find about it was a scam. My approach was to question her questions such as where from did she my name and telephone from, my age bracket (I am a senior) and back problem information. She could or would not provide answers and courteously ended the call,