How to Avoid a Census Scam

The United States Census Bureau performs a vital service for the United States, surveying the population to make sure the government has accurate information on the people it represents and helps to direct government spending and programs. To that end they ask a lot of different kinds of questions in their official surveys. The Census Bureau works hard to make sure they keep your information private and to be trustworthy so they can do their job. Unfortunately, some fraudsters try to use that trust and the fact that census workers ask so many questions to their advantage. They will try to impersonate census workers in order to try to steal information from people to use in scams.

To that end, the Census Bureau has put out a publication warning about the issue and providing some tips on how to verify that someone really is form the Census Bureau, and not an imposter.

For example, they point out that the Census Bureau will never ask you for things like: your full Social Security number, your full bank or credit card account numbers, your mother’s maiden name, and they will definitely never ask you for any money or donations. The Census Bureau advises that if you have any question about someone claiming to be from the Census Bureau, or a piece of mail or email claiming to come from the Census Bureau you should call the National Processing Center, or your Regional Office to verity that it is legitimate. You can also forward suspicious email to ois.fraud.reporting@census.gov. We recommend reading the full set of tips from the Census Bureau.

Unfortunately these kinds of impersonations are common among scammers, and some of them are quite adept. They won't just try to impersonate census workers or other government officials either. They may try to impersonate another business, or they might try to make a totally fake business look legitimate, only to disappear once they have your money. These kinds of crimes happen all over the world. If any business or person you're looking to do business with seems slightly off, or if you just want to be sure your money won't be wasted give Smith Brandon International a call. We routinely conduct due diligence and background investigations for our clients to help them protect their information, money, and investments.