Survey on the future of Amtrak

[John Santos]

Look at the email from sender. If it doesn't have Amtrak in the e-dress then it is likely spam.

That is something you should always do when responding to an unsolicited offer, but there are two difficulties: 1) companies often outsource surveys to a third-party that no one has ever heard of, so an email from an unrecognizable source is not a guarantee that is not legitimate and 2) email headers are easy to spoof, so even if it says something like "[email protected]", it could still be fake. If the link in the mail is to an Amtrak.com address and uses https:// (not http://, the "s" is important!) then there should be a signing certificate which you can look at using a usually obscure icon in your web browser (such as a little padlock on the address bar, but this varies by what web browser you are using.) The holder of the certificate should be listed and is much harder to fake. Most newer browsers and add-on security products (such as anti-virus packages and malware filters) will check and block bogus certificates.

As the sergeant in one of those old cop shows used to say at the conclusion of the morning briefing, "Be careful out there!"

 

[Eric in East County]

Here is address of the survey I received. Is this legitimate or a scam?

From: [email protected]

 

[traindreamer]

I recieved an email about this survey today, so i went to fill it out. But the survey never loaded. So I went back a few hours later and it said I had already answered the survey. Well , I hope I get my 25% of coupon which was promised in 4-6 weeks. I'm always interested in saving money on Roomette/Bedroom fares

Thanks,

Paul

Unfortunately, the 25% off is for coach only. I received a second email saying the link had been fixed. i may go on today and fill it out. We travel once or twice a year on the rails. don't care about the 25% off because we always get a bedroom, but I do want to share my thoughts.

25% off any fare, including sleeping accommodations, seems suspiciously generous. Did you have a chance to check the fine print?

Fine print said coach only. check email address. it isn't Amtrak.

They are sending new emails with a link that will work....

Coupon not good for sleeper travel or upgrades...

It's spam. Check the sender email.

 

[John Santos]

Here is address of the survey I received. Is this legitimate or a scam?

From: [email protected]

Impossible to tell. That is an email address, not a web link (URL). If you click on it, it will bring up your email client and fill in the recipient's address. If you try to send the email you create, it almost certainly won't work because the subdomain is "email-sendonly", which is most likely a legitimate Amtrak address they use for sending email when they don't expect or want replies. Any email you send there will either bounce or be silently discarded.

What you need to check is the link in the email. If you hover over it, your browser should display the URL for the link as "https://amtrak.com/surveys/..." or something similar. The "https://" part is what tells you it is using secure HTTP protocol, and might be legitimate. Never click on anything from an email if it says "http://" (no "s"!) or there is no "<prefix>://" as the default is http://.

Unsecure HTTP is it original web protocol and doesn't support signature certificates or encryption and is very easy to spoof, and has been obsolete for decades. But many private and internal-only networks and web sites still use unsecured HTTP because it easier to set up and doesn't require signed certificates which can be expensive and a little onerous to obtain. It is technically still fine an functional if you don't care about privacy or secrecy and aren't doing any financial transactions or sharing copyrighted material. I.e. if you don't care if someone steals and claims your videos of your cat as their own IP!

If the web site's address is https://, you still need to check the authenticity of the site's certificate (most browsers and security software will do this for you), and that the owner of the certificate is either Amtrak or someone legitimately acting as an agent of Amtrak. The Amtrak web site (https://) should be able to tell you that, but it might be hard to find. Also, this assumes the Amtrak web site hasn't been hacked and the hackers inserted fake credentials there. But this is too much effort and tech skills for most scammers to bother with. Their low hanging fruit is people who don't know how to check or don't bother checking.

 

[Eric in East County]

Impossible to tell. That is an email address, not a web link (URL). If you click on it, it will bring up your email client and fill in the recipient's address. If you try to send the email you create, it almost certainly won't work because the subdomain is "email-sendonly", which is most likely a legitimate Amtrak address they use for sending email when they don't expect or want replies. Any email you send there will either bounce or be silently discarded.

What you need to check is the link in the email. If you hover over it, your browser should display the URL for the link as "https://amtrak.com/surveys/..." or something similar. The "https://" part is what tells you it is using secure HTTP protocol, and might be legitimate. Never click on anything from an email if it says "http://" (no "s"!) or there is no "<prefix>://" as the default is http://.

Unsecure HTTP is it original web protocol and doesn't support signature certificates or encryption and is very easy to spoof, and has been obsolete for decades. But many private and internal-only networks and web sites still use unsecured HTTP because it easier to set up and doesn't require signed certificates which can be expensive and a little onerous to obtain. It is technically still fine an functional if you don't care about privacy or secrecy and aren't doing any financial transactions or sharing copyrighted material. I.e. if you don't care if someone steals and claims your videos of your cat as their own IP!

If the web site's address is https://, you still need to check the authenticity of the site's certificate (most browsers and security software will do this for you), and that the owner of the certificate is either Amtrak or someone legitimately acting as an agent of Amtrak. The Amtrak web site (https://) should be able to tell you that, but it might be hard to find. Also, this assumes the Amtrak web site hasn't been hacked and the hackers inserted fake credentials there. But this is too much effort and tech skills for most scammers to bother with. Their low hanging fruit is people who don't know how to check or don't bother checking.

Thank you for this detailed information which I have copied for future reference.

Here is the URL for the Amtrak Survey I received:

https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/survey-on-the-future-of-amtrak.87722/page-2#post-1047219

 

[Alice]

Thank you for this detailed information which I have copied for future reference.

Here is the URL for the Amtrak Survey I received:

https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/survey-on-the-future-of-amtrak.87722/page-2#post-1047219

Read the pasted link, it is this forum. Take another look at your email invitation.

 

[gregg_vw]

So could anyone that has had success doing the survey perhaps please tell the rest of us what it is actually about? What sort of questions does it have? Thanks.

Were you from an area in your state listed in the very restricted list which was constructed based on what I can;t tell. The Florida list did not have Palm Beach which has Amtrak service and it had Daytona which does not. And of course Melbourne Palm Bay was missing.

Some of it gives several alternatives for traveling between two cities (bus, auto, fl, train) varying departure times, frequency of service, cost, etc. and has you choose your preferred mode, given the varying parameters. Weirdly, the proposed costo taking the train was estimated significantly higher than the other modes in many of the

 

[gregg_vw]

Some of it gives several alternatives for traveling between two cities (bus, auto, fl, train) varying departure times, frequency of service, cost, etc. and has you choose your preferred mode, given the varying parameters. Weirdly, the proposed costo taking the train was estimated significantly higher than the other modes in many of the

(sorry, my reply got truncated)...hypothetical comparisons. In my case, they focused on travel between Milwaukee and Minneapolis/St. Paul. The survey writers seemed unaware of the Borealis. All proposed prices but one were way out of line with what Amtrak currently costs for this trip. It was also maddening that they wanted the hour and minute of your last departure, how many hours and minutes it was late to depart and arrive. Who keeps those data handy, and doesn't Amtrak already have a record of its own performance? Plus, instructions had not been proofed, e.g., why say hit Continue when there is an arrow rather than a Continue button? The whole thing was a mess.

 

[jis]

(sorry, my reply got truncated)...hypothetical comparisons. In my case, they focused on travel between Milwaukee and Minneapolis/St. Paul. The survey writers seemed unaware of the Borealis. All proposed prices but one were way out of line with what Amtrak currently costs for this trip. It was also maddening that they wanted the hour and minute of your last departure, how many hours and minutes it was late to depart and arrive. Who keeps those data handy, and doesn't Amtrak already have a record of its own performance? Plus, instructions had not been proofed, e.g., why say hit Continue when there is an arrow rather than a Continue button? The whole thing was a mess.

Those questions seem familiar. I think I came across this survey sometime last year, though don't recall exactly when. But it came from an obscure non-Amtrak email address. It might have been distributed to the RPA council or some such. Don't exactly recall the details, but the questions sound familiar. So now that I know the connection, yes I did participate in a similar survey but from a non-Amtrak email address, but was verified trustworthy by off line means.

 

[Brian Battuello]

I haven't received or seen the survey, but regrettably it doesn't sound like a scam. I've used up my snark quota for the month.

 

[Cal H]

I haven't received or seen the survey, but regrettably it doesn't sound like a scam. I've used up my snark quota for the month.

It’s a new month Brian, have at it!

 

[traindreamer]

Very poorly designed survey. Not easy to fill out and difficult to understand at points. How the data will be helpful or enlightening for Amtrak is a mystery. The botched roll-out is but an example of the lack of thinking and testing that went into this project. A missed opportunity.

It's bogus. Amtrak email in sender window is not an Amtrak email.

 

[Harmon Shay]

Same here, I don't live in any of the areas listed in my state and it ended there. Too bad, all the areas listed have Amtrak service and I was looking forward to telling them there are lots of people in my part of the state who would love to have Amtrak near

I have a feeling that Amtrak really doesn't care about any of this. It has long-ago pre-conceived notions about what it wants to do and those notions are never going to change, except perhaps under direct Congressional orders.

 

[Joe]

I just took the survey. I clicked on my age group and next. I then got a message that due to an overwhelming amount results the survey is now closed.