Sucker list
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A sucker list is a list of persons who have previously been successfully solicited for something.
The major areas of "sucker lists" are solicitation of donations and fraud.
An early example of "sucker lists" made public is given in the November 18, 1929 issue of Time Magazine[1] in an article about the United States Senate probing into one lobbyist.
People who become victims of, say, a telemarketing fraud, often are placed on a sucker list. Sucker lists, which include names, addresses, phone numbers, and other information, are created, bought, and sold by some fraudulent telemarketers. They are considered invaluable because dishonest promoters know that consumers who have been tricked once are likely to be tricked again via the "reloading". As a result, these persons became flooded with letters, e-mails and phone calls with various lottery wins, investment plans, get rich quick schemes and work from home offers.
Yet another usage was described in the movie Sucker list, a part of the 1941 United States series Crime Does Not Pay. The subject of the movie are fraudulent racetrack touts, who, in particular, used to call people known to be in deep debt and give them false tips.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Sucker List", an article from the November 18, 1929 issue of Time Magazine
- The article contains some material from the US Government site "Reloading Scams: Double Trouble for Consumers" created by the Federal Trade Commission
- Les Henderson, "Crimes of Persuasion: Schemes, Scams, Frauds - How con artists will steal your savings and inheritance through telemarketing fraud, investment schemes and consumer scams" 2000, ISBN 0-9687133-0-0 (paperback)
[edit] External links
- Q&A: how to avoid becoming a sucker an article on sucker lists in Times Online
