Officials: Scammers may pose as census takers

Even the 2010 Census, with its questions due to hit your mailboxes this month, likely will be targeted by scam artists who want your personal information, officials say.

But it shouldn’t be hard to outsmart such crooks.

At http://www.2010.census.gov, anyone can read the 10 questions the government will ask of each household in the nation.

The 10 questions include the number of people living in the home, their names, birth dates and race.

The answers are confidential and used only to compile statistics related to government matters such as program allocations and to ensure compliance with anti-discrimination laws, the Web site says.

The questions do not ask for Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, passwords and so on.

The Census Bureau is also mailing out a questionnaire called the American Community Survey. It goes to a small fraction of the population and includes more detailed questions about economic data, but still nothing like a personal account number.

It’s safe to answer the questions and mail the forms back by April 1. Those who don’t will get a visit or phone call from a census taker this spring or summer, says the census Web site.

The Web site says census takers carry official name badges.

The site also encourages people to ask to see the visitor’s photo ID from another source than the federal government, such as a driver’s license — and call 425-908-3000 in this region to confirm that a visitor is an employee of the Census Bureau.

It’s a federal offense for anyone to falsely claim to be a census taker, or impersonate any U.S. government employee, the site says.

As for census takers, they are sworn to keep information confidential — and they can be sentenced to up to five years in prison for unlawful disclosure, the government says. By law, census information about individuals isn’t shared with anyone, including other government or law enforcement agencies.

You can read about the census on the Web site, but census officials aren’t collecting their information via the Internet.

As a result, any e-mails claiming to be from the census are “fraudulent ‘phishing trips’” that should be reported as spam and deleted, said Tom Browning, chief security officer for AlliedBarton Security Services, in a bulletin.

He said fraudulent ‘phishing’ e-mails or instant messages look official, and their senders ask for personal information to commit identity theft.

The messages also may direct potential victims to phony Web sites that look official but aren’t.

It’s always a poor idea to click on a link in a suspicious, unsolicited e-mail, which can install harmful software in your computer, police say.

Legitimate census takers won’t ask for money and will never ask to come inside your home, Browning said.

They also are required to be civil. Anyone confronted by aggressive or intimidating people who claim to be census takers should refuse to give any information and report it to police, Browning added.

John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.