The 2010 census will be kicking off soon (Census Day is April 1, 2010)Â , however one thing you will need to understand is that with this starting people will also be phishing for your social security number and other personal information. If you get an email claiming to be related to the Census it is a scam and just delete it. We have seen these types of scams run with almost every topic in the news that relates to personal information or money, such as the Government Grants that came with the Kevin Hoeffer scams, the mortgage scams that ran and more.
I expect to start seeing an influx in emails that tell you to go fill out the census online and will give you a website that will look official, do not trust these sites. It is recommended that if you are going to go to any site from an email that you type the site in by hand.
Email is very insecure as well, you should never send any important information over email as the protocols used to send and receive emails was never made to be secure. So I do not recommend sending any personal identifying information with email.
Scam artists are getting smarter and following trends in the news, so since this is starting to become a trending topic I expect to start seeing these floating around in force soon. Remember before entering any personal information anywhere make sure you know where your data is going, this could be influenced by the privacy policy or terms of service on a site.
CNN has more information on this at Will your privacy be compromised online?.
