ED. I attended a ’seniors day’ fair some years ago and filled in a sweepstakes form. Within a week, I was receiving phone calls from a local time-share outfit. I complained to the organizers of the fair.
RCMP probe US senior scams
Toronto link alleged in use of database lists to plunder cash from frail hands
May 21, 2007 04:30 AM, CHARLES DUHIGG, New York Times
The thieves operated from small offices in Toronto and hangar-size rooms in India. Every night, working from lists, they called World War II veterans, retired teachers and thousands of other elderly Americans and posed as government and insurance workers updating their files.
Then, the criminals emptied their victims’ bank accounts.
Richard Guthrie, a 92-year-old U.S. Army veteran, was one of those victims. He ended up on scam artists’ lists because his name, like millions of others, was sold by large companies to telemarketing criminals, who then turned to major banks to steal his life’s savings.
The Iowa resident had entered a few sweepstakes that caused his name to be added to a database advertised by InfoUSA, a major compiler of consumer information. InfoUSA sold data on elderly Americans to known lawbreakers, regulators say.
InfoUSA advertised lists of "Elderly Opportunity Seekers," 3.3 million elders "looking for ways to make money," and "Suffering Seniors," 4.7 million people with cancer or Alzheimer’s disease. "Oldies but Goodies" contained 500,000 gamblers over 55, for 8.5 cents apiece. One list said: "These people are gullible. They want to believe that their luck can change."
As Guthrie sat home alone - surrounded by his Purple Heart medal, photos of eight children and mementos of a wife buried nine years earlier - the telephone rang day and night.
"I loved getting those calls," he said in an interview. "Since my wife passed away, I don’t have many people to talk with. I didn’t even know they were stealing from me until everything was gone."
continued ….
InfoUSA maintains records on 210 million Americans, according to its website. In 2006, it collected more than $430 million from clients like Reader’s Digest, Publishers Clearinghouse and Condé Nast.
But InfoUSA has also sold lists to a variety of marketers with more dubious intentions, including World Marketing Service, a company that a U.S. judge shut down in 2003 for running a lottery scam.
With files from Philip Mascoll
