On Tuesday of this week, we sent out a press release about the 2010 Census and how workers would be going around collecting basic personal information from every home in the country.  Since that time, I have received a couple of questions about the forms that are going around for people to fill out, so I wanted to give everyone a little more peace of mind.

The primary form you will be asked to fill out is a questionaire that contains 10 questions and then additional basic information for the rest of the members of a household.  A copy of what that questionaire looks like is here.

You may also see a confidentiality notice as well.  It basically tells you that the worker who is taking down your information is under oath and that your information is protected by law.  That form looks something like this...

The reason I wanted to show you these 2 forms is so you would know what a couple examples of a legitimate U.S. Census form look like.  That way, when the time comes, you know what to expect when you fill out your questionaire.  Also, if you see a form like the 2 above, they are not a scam and you can trust that your information is secure.

That doesn't mean if you see a different form, it is automatically a scam.  I'm sure there are a few other legitimate document out there that I haven't seen, but if you have a question, don't be afraid to call the Department of Commerce.  They are happy to answer your questions...believe me, I've done it myself.

 It's annoying enough to get spammed with e-mails throughout the day with information you don't want, but what about the ones going to your phone?  The term "smishing" is being used now to describe these spam text messages that people are receiving on their cell phones.  The problem is that some people are visiting the URLs that are given in the message or calling the phone number the message contains.  There are a couple of problems with this...

First, if you are visiting the listed Web site, whatever product or service listed is probably a scam.  Second, the overall goal for the person who spammed you in the first place is to get your personal information so they may have just succeeded.  If you call the phone number listed in the text message, the person on the other end is getting confirmation that the number they spammed is active so it's just better to delete it and put it out of your mind.

Unlike e-mail, cell phones don't have advanced filtering systems to weed out spam so "smishing" may see an increase in the next few months.  A good rule of thumb to follow is that if you don't recognize the number that the text message is sent from, don't open it...just delete it.

Welcome to what I will call the "Grand Opening" of BBB serving Central, Coastal and Southwest's interactive blog.  Yes, I said INTERACTIVE.  One of the great things about BBB is that it's a medium for you as consumers to be able to get valuable information and create a dialogue with us.  That being said, I welcome your comments and questions on every post I make here and I promise I will read and most likely respond to each and every one.

You might be asking yourself, "I get all the press releases that BBB sends out, so why should I read the blog too?"  A great question, and the answer is that throughout the day, we run across things in our offices that aren't quite press release material, but are topical and informative for people to know.  This blog is where you can come to get that information.  Here is a great example...

Below is an e-mail a consumer received and forwarded to us as suspicious and just wanted to know if it was a scam.

I am Engr. David Zuma, I work with the Energy Department of South Africa as an engineer. I have been directed to contact you after due consideration to assist us in a proposition. This deal, we will make a fortune. So if you are interested please reply with your Full Name and Telephone number and I will contact you with more information.
Contact me via my email address.

 I get things like this forwarded to me ALL THE TIME.  There are many versions of this  scam, but they all are formatted the same.  Basically you receive an e-mail like the one  above or you may even get a letter in your mailbox.  It promises a large sum of money  because of this business endeavor or it could be that you are somehow the beneficiary  of millions of dollars from some royal family in a random country.

Trust me, I would love to stumble across some long lost filthy rich person from a random country who wanted to just give me a ton of money, but that's probably not going to happen so just recognize that really what these people are trying to do is get you to contact them so they can get personal information from you and steal your identity.  With the economy in the state that it is in, an offer like this may widen your eyes, but just use a little common sense, and it will go a long way to keeping your good name safe.