I am trying to verify a phone number that a friend gave me, and I tryed it in the reverse phone number lookup and no hits came up.
The number is 812-218-4061 and the party stated it was the US Census office. The party was asking about family and job as they said there was a problem in scanning the info into the system. My friend got suspisious when the party started asking about bank accounts, and asked to speak top a supervisor. The supervisor gave a name of Ramona Gilbert and gave the above phone number. My friend called the number back and got the original party that had questioned him, and the phone was aswered as the census office.
We find it odd that these questions would be asked,
Anyone have an Idea on what this could be?
Do you know that if you type a phone number into Google it will do a reverse lookup and give you the owner (assuming it’s in a phone book, as a governmental number would be)?
Putting 812-218-4061 into Google turns up nothing. 812 is an Indiana area code, BTW. So it’s unlikely to be the Census Bureau. Of course, the Census Bureau would never ask any questions about bank accounts in the first place. Purely a scam.
The phone number “(812) 218-4061” is a New Albany, IN based phone number and the registered carrier is Ameritech Indiana. However, due to number portability, some numbers have been transferred to a new service provider other than the registered carrier.
The census office does not have an office in New Albany, Indiana. It is a scam as suggested.
The 812 area code is for Southern Indiana. A reverse lookup did not produce anything. This is not uncommon if the number truly is for a US Census office because many internal government numbers are not listed.
However, the nature of the call you made raises the BS meter. The Census bureau has its regional office for Indiana in Chicago. If you are that concerned, contact the Chicago office and ask them if they have an office in southern Indiana.
I’d call the US Census Bureau and report it and be sure to give them the number. They can at least tell you if it’s really one of their numbers. The census does hire people to do work for them from home to track people who either didn’t turn in their forms or who’s forms are unreadable. They also hire people like that to track the homeless. They could tell you if the name you got is one of those people.
I’d guess it’s a scam though. I have gotten to the point that I never give out any information to anyone who calls me.
Nice work. I’m coming here the next time I’m on some super-secret government op and the bloody paper pushers at NCIC can’t get me the information I need fast enough because they just don’t get what it’s like out here on the street, man with bullets flyin’ and people dyin’ I need information I can count on and I need it pronto!