This number has called my cell 4 times in the last week. They claim to be from the CDC and performing a survey on smoking. Today they called again and I spoke with a real person, who again claimed to be with the CDC, performing a survey. I asked what CDC stands for, and she said "Center for Disease Control". I said that the CDC is a federal agency and calling my cell phone; that is very unusual. Also told her I did not believe she is from the CDC. She said I could opt out of the survey, and I told her I wanted them to stop calling my cell phone. She hung up.
When I Googled the phone number I got FORCS Study at 490 Fleet St in Rockville, MD, but nothing mentioned about the CDC. I wonder why they feel it necessary to misrepresent themselves. I smell a telemarketer scam.
Have been receiving hang-up calls (on the answering machine) from this number every evening for the past week or two at least. Finally got a call from them while I was home, and found a live person on the other end.
They said that the DoNotCall list (which we're on) doesn't pertain because they're doing a survey on health for the CDC, as stated by others here, and not selling something. Caller finally said he was from Westat in Rockville Maryland (http://www.westat.com/about_us/contact.cfm), and we could opt out of future calls by calling (888) 878-0494.
This is the third call I have received from this number. The first time they left a vm saying they were from the CDC. I deleted the vm. Last night they called, but didn't leave a message. Same thing tonight.
...aaaaand here we are on May 24th, and the morons at Westat are continuing to call daily, sometimes more than once per day. Had another terse conversation with a perky female who promised to "pass our number along to the person in charge" who can supposedly stop the calls. She seemed fixated on determining whether I had actually gone through the ENTIRE survey already, with the clear implication that if I hadn't, then it wasn't THEIR fault if we continued to get their calls.