The Census Project Blog

by Terri Ann Lowenthal

Ask Americans to name an objective and independent consumer advocate, and chances are the Better Business Bureau would be high on the list.

So when a “warning” from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) about how to avoid census scammers started circulating on the Internet, many educated and otherwise savvy people bought the message and passed it along. Several well-meaning friends sent the missive to me, asking in an innocent effort to be helpful (and maybe to impress their census-crazed friend), “Is there anything we should add before sending to our e-mail list?”

My answer: TRASH IT, before this doctored message hoodwinks more unsuspecting readers! Yes, folks, the right wing has misappropriated the BBB’s name to spread falsehoods about census participation that might scare people away from the count or encourage a lack of cooperation with census takers.

Oh sure, the e-mail includes just enough truths to lend it an air of legitimacy for the average person, such as not giving out social security numbers and bank account information to people claiming to be with the Census Bureau. But the red flags are everywhere … except most Americans don’t know enough about the census to spot the glaring errors.

Aside from misusing the BBB’s name (hello, FBI Cyber Investigations Unit?), the message is outdated and factually incorrect: It confuses the 140,000 handheld device-carrying address listers of last spring with the million enumerators expected to knock on doors armed only with paper and pencil in May 2010. Oops!

And then there’s the tell-tale reference to that bain of Republican’s census existence, ACORN. Be alert, the faux BBB staffer says, because no one from this former census partner organization should be asking you for census information. Uh, okay, we’ll keep our eyes open.

More alarming, though, the e-mail assures Americans (in CAPITAL letters!) that they need only offer up the number of people in their household. (Is it legal for Rep. Michele Bachmann to moonlight as an anti-census consultant?) I may be sensitive, but this sounds like an invitation to violate federal law. No wonder the real authors prefer to remain anonymous.

The message ends as so many e-mail scams do, with a friendly nudge to “share the information with family and friends.” And apparently lots of people want to be helpful, judging by how far the e-mail has spread.

Here’s my suggestion: If you receive this sham e-mail, write a letter to your local newspaper, warning others of the scam and setting the record straight. I frankly don’t care if the 6^th district of Minnesota is undercounted (you get what you vote for!), but I do care about the rest of the state and historically hard-to-count communities around the country.

For more information about the phony e-mail and a statement from the real Better Business Bureau, visit http://www.bbb.org/us/article/phony-bbb-e-mail-spreads-fiction-about-2010-census;-get-the-facts-14542.