Check out Scam alert warns of phony census workers

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Scam alert warns of phony census workers
Friday, January 8, 2010 3:14 AM
By Tracy Turner
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Census tips
To protect your identity, the Better Business Bureau and the Census Bureau want the public to know:
• Legitimate census workers carry an identification badge, a hand-held device, a Census Bureau canvas bag and a confidentiality notice. Residents should ask to see their identification before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don't know into your home.
• Census workers are knocking on doors now only to verify address information. Do not give your Social Security number, credit-card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the census. Legitimate census workers might ask for a salary range. Other financial information, such as account numbers, is not being sought. In addition, census workers do not solicit donations.
• Census workers might make contact by telephone or mail or in person at home, but never by e-mail. Consumers are advised to be on the lookout for census-themed e-mail scams and are cautioned not to click on links or open attachments in such e-mails.
• Consumers can call the regional census center at 1-800-432-1495 to confirm whether someone claiming to be a census worker is employed by the Census Bureau.
Sources: BBB, Census Bureau
If a census worker comes knocking at your door, the Better Business Bureau wants you to answer. But it's warning the public to be sure that the person is a legitimate census worker, not a con artist looking to steal your identity.
The census, which is an official count of the population, is conducted every 10 years. The field workers, also known as enumerators, go door to door to help residents complete census forms.
Census forms will be mailed in February and March and will ask for a person's residence as of April 1, the official count day. Between April and July, census workers will visit households that did not return a census form by mail.
But people shouldn't speak to anyone who can't produce a census ID and confidentiality notice, said Joan Coughlin, spokeswoman for the central Ohio BBB. And no census worker should ask for Social Security numbers or money.
"Most people are rightfully cautious and won't give out personal information to unsolicited phone callers or visitors," Coughlin said.
However, the census represents an exception to the rule, and scammers are gearing up to take advantage of that, she said.
"Scammers know that the public is more willing to share personal data when taking part in the census," she said, "and (they) use it as an opportunity to ply their trade by posing as a government employee and soliciting sensitive financial information from consumers."
Census spokesman Kim Hunter said the public should know that Census Bureau ID cards don't contain the workers' pictures, but residents can ask for a state-issued ID card from workers to compare with their census ID.
Hunter said that most residents won't see a census worker at their door until at least May, and then only if they have not filled out their census forms.
No census-related scams have been reported, he said, but "that doesn't mean they aren't out there."
tturner@dispatch.com