Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Word of Warning about Census Scams

At your door:

An official Census enumerator will never, ever insist on coming into your house. A real Census enumerator can do everything they need to do there at your front door. Anyone who tells you that they're a Census employee and absolutely has to enter your home is a fraud. Always ask to see ID and proper Census credentials. If in doubt, contact the Census Bureau Regional Office or call the police.

On the phone:

If you receive a phone call from the Census Bureau, the call will originate from one of their regional offices or the national processing center. The caller should have stated in the message from which place they were calling. If in doubt, terminate the phone call and then contact the National Processing Center (301-763-INFO or 301-763-4636) and they will assist you.

By email:

Like most phishing scams, the email will attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, social security numbers, bank account or credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity and direct the email recipient to a fake website. Also, don't open any attachments which may contain code that could infect your computer. Before deleting a fraudulent email, the Census Bureau asks that the bogus email be forwarded to their fraud reporting division at ITSO.Fraud.Reporting@census.gov.

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