The Department of Home Affairs took to social media to warn that scammers may target Australians with techniques to extract personal data under the guise of working for the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
“These individuals may present fake documents from Home Affairs and request personal information or documents, biometric information, such as fingerprints or photos, or money,” the department said.
Similar warnings have also circulated on social media, with posts claiming that groups of people have been visiting homes asking for personal information and money.
“Someone will come to your house and say I want to take your photo/fingerprint according to some scheme,” one post said.
“They have a laptop, a biometric machine and a list of all the names. They show the list and ask for all this information.”
The scams reportedly include door-to-door visits to collect biometric data and photographs, something the ABS does through field officers during the census.
The National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC) has confirmed incidents involving door-to-door scams.
The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed to the media that it does not conduct these checks, but warns that, as they are a real practice, Australians should remain cautious come census time.
The ABS site currently says it is unaware of any scams related to the census, but reiterates that it will never ask for financial details such as banking details or credit card information, passwords, identity documents, or tax file numbers, adding that it will never ask for money or donations.
It also outlined how census staff can be identified.
“Census staff can be identified by their Australian Bureau of Statistics identification card. Census staff will wear identification at all times when undertaking census work,” the ABS said, adding that staff are permitted by law to enter common areas of apartment buildings to leave census materials, in line with correspondence with building management.
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