[fwdude]

Advice and similar experience appreciated.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

Install an IP camera so you can watch/get pictures if she visits?

[stylin19a]

contact the local “Census Bureau” directly, in person first and see if this is standard procedure.
-reconcile bank accounts: checking\savings
-check for missing valuables
-ask your mom did she sign anything.
-ask the police if there any reported scams with census workers.

good luck...

[arrogantsob]

Make sure she didn’t give her her social security number.

I smell a rat.

[rigelkentaurus]

and be sure to be there for any upcoming “visits”.

[mad_as_he$$]

https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/are-you-in-a-survey/fraudulent-activity-and-scams.html

[be-baw]

You need to immediately stop her from meeting any more with this person until you know more. This is highly unusual and someone needs to intervene to find out what is going on.

[GreenLanternCorps]

This sounds odd.

It could be legit if they were conducting some sort of ongoing survey comparing data from every six months. But I’m not sure if the Census Bureau does that kind of research.

What are the questions she is being asked?

[InABunkerUnderSF]

She could be a part of a survey. These are programs that seem to exist to keep bureaucrats employed between decadal censuses. If you have concerns or questions I’d get the lady’s name and contact the regional office to check her out. I think Texas is handled out of Denver.

[I want the USA back]

I don’t think the Census bureau sends people around like that outside of the regular census time. I’d make sure money and jewelry are locked up.

[BenLurkin]

Sounds most peculiar.

[Mozzafiato]

It may be the National Crime Victimization Survey (Methodology). It says the survey can be collected in person every six months, but over a period of 3 years (not 7). Possibly harmless or your mom probably would've been cleaned out financially by now. Definitely you should follow up and clarify who exactly is visiting your mom. Good luck.

[mass55th]

If this person has been contacting her on the phone, and in home visits for the past seven years, your mother should have a name for this so-called worker, so you can verify this person's identity, and if they really work for the bureau. The fact that this person has been in your mother's home is enough to scare the be-Jesus out of me. I'm 70 and female, but spent my career as a Correctional Officer and Sergeant, so my security senses are higher than most other people. I trust few people, and nobody gets into my apartment that I don't know. Your mother is leaving herself open to becoming a victim.

If you contact the Census Bureau to try to ascertain who this person is, and can't get any satisfaction...contact your Congressman or U.S. Senator's office. That's what they have aides and interns for, to help constituents and their families on stuff like this. Years ago I spent a lot of my vacations at the National Archives looking up Civil War soldier's pension and military records. You'd be surprised how many of their pension records are still being held by the VA. I contacted my Congressman, whose office contacted the VA, who then got in touch with me, and made arrangements to gather the files I needed so I could go to the Buffalo VA office to look at them.

Back in 2011, I had a census worker that periodically kept coming to my door. I'd sent the original form back, having filled in only what was required. I'd tell her I wasn't providing any more info that I already had, she'd leave, then come back another time. The last time she showed up on my doorstep, she caught me as I was just returning from Rochester, NY, where my sister had just passed away. I sent her packing, not nicely either, and she never came back.

[Calvin Locke]

My elderly parents had to put up with that bs in the past.

I made up a cheap picture frame with the quote

"A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti."

for them to put up in entry way.

They were too chicken to put it up.

[mass55th]

One other thing. Someone here said to review her checking/savings accounts. If you aren't listed as a co-owner on the account, the bank won't provide you with the info. When my sister got ill, she gave me Power of Attorney, and co-owner of her checking/savings accounts. She eventually passed away, and with a copy of her death certificate, I was able to move her money to my checking account, and close her accounts out without any problems. We both had Bank of America accounts at the time.

When I left Bank of America, I opened a new checking account at a regional bank. I had my youngest son made co-owner of my account, so that he would have access to my bank account in case I was incapacitated, or died. He moved to Indiana a few years ago, and I'm now looking to put my oldest son on as a co-owner too, as he lives only a couple of hours from me.

[mass55th]

Another thing that came to mind was the group ACORN. They were involved in the 2010 census, and if you’re mother claims this person has been contacting her for at least 7 years...the time frame fits. I hope it turns out that this is a legitimate person, but you just never know.

[Radix]

I have been targeted twice in recent years for the American Community Survey, an actual offshoot of the Census that is nowhere in the Constitution authorized.

I always throw their correspondence in the trash, and they threaten me with big fines and federal prison for my non compliance.

I will never ever cave to those tyrannical bureaucrats.

My Ma did not raise me to kiss their asses.

[OldMissileer]

When I was still stationed in North Dakota in 1991 a real Census worker showed up at my door (lived downtown) and started asking questions. About six months later he came to ask more and then in 1992 he showed up again. He was really a Census worker. That same year I was transferred to DC and never heard from the Census Bureau again.

When I ended up having a contract with the Census Bureau I mentioned that guy and one of the heads of the bureau said they should have tracked me to keep up the interviews but they obviously dropped the ball.

Now that I have retired out of the Military I refuse to answer the long form Census ( I only fill out the Constitutionally required items). If some dork shows up at my door he will be escorted off my property and I have done so twice when someone came by to try to force me to fill out the long form.