Phishing in the 21st Century Published March 16, 2010 By Capt. Jennifer Kindred 436th Airlift Wing assistant staff judge advocate DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- Most people think of fishing as a relaxing pastime that takes place near a body of water. Like many words and phrases, the term phishing takes a new context in relation to the Internet. According to the US Census Bureau, 'Phishing' is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, social security numbers, bank account or credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail and it often directs users to enter sensitive information at a fake web site whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Phishing scammers are using the 2010 Census as a means to obtain personal information such as social security numbers, passwords, credit card information, bank account information and user names from unsuspecting citizens. Beware of potential phishing scams as the Census Bureau begins counting citizens and obtaining demographic information about American households. The 2010 Census forms have been mailed out, if the forms are not returned, expect a census taker to come knocking at your door. The Census Bureau will not do the following: The Census Bureau does NOT conduct the 2010 Census via the Internet The Census Bureau does not send emails about participating in the 2010 Census The Census Bureau never: Asks for your full social security number Asks for money or a donation Sends requests on behalf of a political party Requests PIN codes, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts. The Census Bureau is seeking general information about households such as household size, income level, race, mobile phone ownership, age and contact information. The government is not interested in your PIN codes, passwords, credit card information or social security number. The Constitution requires the government to perform a census every 10 years. The census provides valuable information on the population and is used to ultimately determine the number of representatives in the United States House of Representatives. For more information on census scams visit http://www.census.gov/.