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InfoUSA Knowingly Sells Lists of Elderly to Criminals

Posted on May 22, 2007 by Michelle Pastor

An article in The New York Times describes a truly harmful practice.  Companies that maintain data on individuals often create lists of the elderly, those with cancer, even those that gamble and then sell those lists to companies that have been known to commit fraud.  An unethical company can then buy the lists and telemarket the elderly or sickly individuals with the intent to drain the victims’ accounts.

"Only one kind of customer wants to buy lists of seniors interested in lotteries and sweepstakes: criminals," said Sgt. Yves Leblanc of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. "If someone advertises a list by saying it contains gullible or elderly people, it's like putting out a sign saying 'Thieves welcome here.' " 

Even though the executives at companies such as infoUSA, a company that sells lists, have been warned that they are contributing to ongoing crime, they have not changed their practices and still continue to sell lists to companies that have been convicted of fraud. 

The elderly will often talk to telemarketers because they are lonely and that makes them easy marks. All it takes is for them to give out their bank account number and the person on the other end can easily write checks against the account.

Criminals can use such banking data to create unsigned checks that withdraw funds from victims' accounts. Such checks, once widely used by gyms and other businesses that collect monthly fees, are allowed under a provision of the banking code. The difficult part is finding a bank willing to accept them.

The article goes on to explain that Wachovia Bank is willing to process the unsigned checks even though executives there have been warned of the scams involved.