Protecting Your Identity During The US Census

With the upcoming United States national Census coming up in 2010, there’s a fair amount of concern considering the personal information you’ll be required to give to the government, and the ways it could be easily used against you by the wrong people.  The problem here is that identity theft is a problem that’s only growing worse with every day of the digital age, and the fact that it’s actually not very difficult for a thief to pose as a U.S. Census representative.  But there are a few things that you can use to your advantage, and that you can do to ensure that in all likelihood you won’t fall victim to a scammer posing as a Census agent.

First off, this is the United States Government we’re talking about here, so no U.S. Census employee will ever ask for your Social Security Number information, as they already have all that info on file.  A Census employee will also never ask for anything regarding your credit card numbers, or any sort of bank account information, so don’t give out that information if asked.  Even if you are talking to a real U.S. Census employee, there’s no reason that any of that information would be required.

Secondly, remember that there are only two ways in which a U.S. Census employee will contact you, and that is either in person or through your telephone number.  Anything you receive in your email is absolutely a scam, and you should completely disregard any Census information you receive in your email account.

Thirdly, no employee of the U.S. Census has any right to request money from you for any purpose.  So be sure that you don’t hand anything over to a Census agent requesting money for any purpose, and report the incident to your local authorities.

And finally, be sure to get documentation from the Census employee that you met with clarifying their identity.  Any Census employee is required to provide this when asked, and that way you can cover yourself by having on file all the information regarding your meeting with the Census employee.  Just one more thing you can do to verify identity, and ensure you won’t accidentally give a vital piece of information to the wrong person.