As the 2010 U.S. Census count continues, officials warn people to watch out for more than just questionnaires in their mailboxes.

Census officials are alerting residents about potential scam artists – people who pose as census workers, knocking on residents’ doors to collect information.

“It’s not common, but it does happen,” said J. Clayton Barbour, media specialist for the Charlotte (N.C.) Regional Census Center. “We’ve had a couple of cases of it.”

Census questionnaires have been mailed to residents, and officials last week began mailing replacement questionnaires to people who had not completed and returned their census forms.

Census workers will begin going door to door in May, collecting data from households that do not return their questionnaire through the mail. Workers will begin traveling earlier to some areas, such as very rural regions or vacation resorts.

Locally, if someone claiming to work for the U.S. Census Bureau comes to a person’s home before May 1, “I’d say they’re probably not from the census,” said Linda Chambers, manager of the local Better Business Bureau office.

“We are anticipating that is going to happen,” she said, “and we do have some protection (tips) for people.”

Chambers suggests residents look for the census worker’s official badge, request a phone number for his supervisor and do not give out Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers – real census workers will not ask for that information, Chambers said.

Also, a census taker should not ask to enter the home, she said.

“If you suspect this person is not a valid census taker, you should call the police,” she said.

People will pose as census workers to check out a person’s house and locate valuable items, such as televisions and computers, to steal. Census scammers also try to get information, such as bank numbers, to steal people’s identities and empty their bank accounts.

“Unfortunately, we have too many of them (identity thefts),” Chambers said, “and we all need to be very careful.”

Still, several legitimate census takers will be knocking on doors starting next month, and some people have misconceptions about properly identifying a census worker, Barbour said.

For example, census takers will not carry photo identification or hand-held computers, he said.

“We just want people to know how to identify a census worker,” he said.

Tips for identifying a census taker:

• Census employees wear an identification badge with the words U.S. Department of Commerce, the census taker’s name and U.S. Census Bureau.

• They will provide you the telephone number of their supervisor or the local census office upon request.

• They only will ask questions that appear on the 2010 census form.

• They will not ask for bank account information, Social Security or credit card numbers or for donations. They also will not ask about your citizenship status.

• They will not contact you by e-mail, but they might contact you by phone in some cases.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau