Census Still Counting

Hi
I have received a phone call on my answering machine on Sunday, July 4th from someone claiming to be from the U.S. Census Bureau. (On a nat'l holiday?) I googled it and it seems to be a fraud. I had completed and returned my forms months ago. I will not return their calls, but am worried about others. See something, say something...right?

The number they gave me is 866-851-2050.

Thanks for your help. I love the blog!

Theresa

Dear Theresa,

We had called the Census Bureau Garden City Office (559-7520) to ask if they are still collecting information. They are still calling and visiting homes to collect information and do quality checks. The phone number they have is 866 861 2010. If anyone else receives calls with the other number for a return call, please call the Garden City Census office and they will report it to the authorities.

A census taker is a person from your community who is hired by the Census Bureau to make sure that your neighborhood gets represented as accurately as possible. The census taker's primary responsibility is to collect census information from residences. Most of these residences have not sent back their 2010 Census form.

The Census Bureau provides the census taker with a binder containing all of the addresses that didn't send back a filled out census form.
The census taker then visits all of those addresses and records the answers to the questions on the form.

If no one answers at a particular residence, a census taker will visit a home up to three times and attempt to reach the household by phone three times. The census worker will leave a double-sided (English and Spanish) NOTICE of VISIT in the doorway that includes a phone number for the resident to schedule an appointment.
The census taker will ONLY ask the questions that appear on the census form.

The census taker who collects your information is sworn for life to protect your data under Federal Law Title 13. Those who violate the oath face criminal penalties: Under federal law, the penalty for unlawful disclosure is a fine of up to $250,000 or imprisonment for up to 5 years, or both.

The Census Bureau will never ask you your social security number.

Fraudulent Activity and Scams
The Census Bureau uses a workforce of trained federal employees to conduct a variety of household and business surveys by telephone, in-person interviews, through the mail. They understand your personal information is sensitive, and go to great lengths to protect the data they collect. Although they cannot stop or warn against all bogus or false collections of data -- here are some tips to help you recognize fraudulent activity or unofficial data collections.

If you are contacted for any of the following reasons -- Do Not Participate. It is NOT the U.S. Census Bureau.
Phishing:
'Phishing' is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, social security numbers, bank account or credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out by email and it often directs users to enter sensitive information at a fake web site whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.

Other Scams:The Census Bureau does NOT conduct the 2010 Census via the Internet

The Census Bureau does not send emails about participating in the 2010 Census

The Census Bureau never:
Asks for your full social security number
Asks for money or a donation
Sends requests on behalf of a political party
Requests PIN codes, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts.

How to report scams and bogus Census web sites
If you believe you have been contacted as part of bogus or fraudulent activity falsely representing the Census Bureau:

In Person Scam
Check for a valid Census ID badge
Call your regional office to verify you are in a survey

Email Scams
If you think it is a bogus email, do not reply or click on any links within the email.
Do not open any attachments. Attachments may contain code that could infect your computer
Forward the email or web site URL to the Census Bureau at ITSO.Fraud.Reporting@census.gov.
After you forward the email to us, delete the message. You will not receive a confirmation email after forwarding the information to us. However, the Census Bureau will investigate the information and notify you of its findings.

Mail and Phone Scams
Contact the Federal trade Commission
Is your survey legitimate?
You may further verify if a collection activity is legitimate by calling your regional census office regarding mail surveys, and the National Processing Center for phone surveys.

U.S. Census Bureau.
National Processing Center
1201 East 10th Street
Jeffersonville, IN 47132

If you have not been contacted about a survey and are looking for general Census Bureau information, please call 301-763-INFO (4636) and they can better answer your questions.

If you:

want to verify that the person who called you is a Census Bureau employee,
have a question about a survey form you received, or
need to return a call about one of our surveys
please contact them at one of these numbers:

Hagerstown, MD: 1-800-392-6975
Jeffersonville, IN: 1-800-523-3205
Tucson, AZ: 1-800-642-0469
Additional language specialties may be available.

If you have questions about any of their telephone center operations, you can contact them via NPC.Call.Center.Info@census.gov.