Hi Folks,
With the U.S. Census process beginning, The Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises people to be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victum of fraud or identity theft.
The first phase of the 2010 U.S. Census is under way as workers have begun verifying the addresses of households across the country. Eventually, more than 140,000 U.S. Census workers will count every person in the United States and will gather information about every person living at each address including name, age, gender, race and other relevant data. The big question is – how do you tell the difference between a U.U. Census worker and a con artist. The Better Business Bureau (http://www.bbb.org/us/consumers/) offers the following advice. To read the entire article go to http://www.bbb.org/us/article/bbb-alerts-consumers-about-us-census-workers-be-cooperative-but-cautious-10306 .
• If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag and a confidentiality notice. Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don’t know into your home.
• Census workers are currently only knocking on doors 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 U.S. Census. While the Census Bureau might ask for basic financial information, such as a salary range, it will not ask for Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers nor will employees solicit donations.
• Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail or in person at home. However, they will not contact you by e-mail, so be on the look out for e-mail scams impersonating the Census. Never click on a link or open any attachments in an e-mail that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Please pass the above advice along to your friends and neighbors and thank you Better Business Bureau.
Woody
Popularity: 6% [?]
Tags: 2010 U.S. Census
October 30th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
The best way to avoid this is to mail in your census questionnaire when you receive it in March. If you return your questionnaire, then no census worker will come knocking on your door. This also saves the country a lot of money to not have to pay people to knock on individual doors.