Posted on 05/26/2007 12:22:24 AM PDT by XR7
This story is a follow-up on an earlier one, that details of infoUSA (NASD: IUSA) operation used in bilking the elderly:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/business/20tele.html?pagewanted=print
May 20, 2007
Bilking the Elderly, With a Corporate Assist
By CHARLES DUHIGG
The thieves operated from small offices in Toronto and hangar-size rooms in India. Every night, working from lists of names and phone numbers, they called World War II veterans, retired schoolteachers 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 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 lifes savings.
Mr. Guthrie, who lives in Iowa, had entered a few sweepstakes that caused his name to appear in a database advertised by infoUSA, one of the largest compilers of consumer information. InfoUSA sold his name, and data on scores of other elderly Americans, to known lawbreakers, regulators say.
InfoUSA advertised lists of Elderly Opportunity Seekers, 3.3 million older people looking for ways to make money, and Suffering Seniors, 4.7 million people with cancer or Alzheimers disease. Oldies but Goodies contained 500,000 gamblers over 55 years old, for 8.5 cents apiece. One list said: These people are gullible. They want to believe that their luck can change.
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Thanks for your question - and thank you, doug from upland, for the answer!
Bravo! on that.
You know this article made me think about something I saw when the clintons left the white house and bought that house they needed to furnish. Remember there was all this talk about how the Clinton’s had gained so much weight? Well this same guy, this Vinod Gupta sent them a very high quality treadmill. As I recall fat willy was less than grateful .. perhaps they were a bit offended that Gupta thought they needed it. ha!
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