Sucker list

A sucker list is a list of people who have previously fallen for a scam such as a telemarketing fraud, lottery scam, high-yield investment program, get-rich-quick scheme, or work-at-home schemes, or, as used by charities, someone who made a donation. The lists are usually sold to scammers or charities.[1][2][3]

After the list is sold, the victims may be called by scammers promising to recover the money they lost or the prize or merchandise they never received, in an advance-fee scam.[4][5]

An early example of sucker lists is mentioned an 18 November 1929 article in Time which described a list of people who contributed to a lobbyist fund.[6]

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.[7]

  1. ^ Brenoff, Ann (July 27, 2017). "How A Billion-Dollar Internet Scam Is Breaking Hearts And Bank Accounts". HuffPost.
  2. ^ Palmer, Kate (May 16, 2015). "Are you on a charity sucker list?". The Daily Telegraph.
  3. ^ Reloading Scams: Double Trouble for Consumers. 1998. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  4. ^ Holdren, Wendy (April 7, 2019). "BBB warns of "sucker list" scams". The Register-Herald.
  5. ^ "Refund and Recovery Scams". Federal Trade Commission. 14 December 2023.
  6. ^ "Sucker List". Time. November 18, 1929.
  7. ^ "Sucker List (1941)". IMDb.