How names of ‘suckers’ are traded between conmen

NAMES and addresses of the most vulnerable people in Britain are being traded on ‘suckers lists’, it can be revealed.

The details of those who have fallen victim to postal frauds sent through Royal Mail are being sold and traded by data brokers on behalf of fraudsters.

Scammers pass their ‘suckers lists’ to these brokers to offer to others who want to target the same people – many of whom will be elderly or suffering from dementia.

‘Competitor’ conmen then share their own ‘suckers lists’ in return.

As a result of this illegal trade, an elderly or vulnerable person who has been defrauded once is usually bombarded with hundreds of further attempted frauds. In many cases, they are preyed on by con- men from across the world – in some cases losing life savings or even their homes.

One data broker, German Lars Muhlschlegel, told an undercover Daily Mail reporter he could sell her the names of ‘very elderly people’ who had responded to fraudulent letters.

His firm – Liebetrau List service based in Cologne – openly boasts it

‘specialises in targeting seniors’, and has previously offered for sale a list of 8 4,000 people in a ‘difficult personal situation’, as well as a list of 444,000 with ‘pain related to ageing’. And in an advert for its services, it showed an elderly couple with the words: ‘Is this your target group? Then get in touch with us now.’

Mr Muhlschlegel said the ‘most valuable customers’ were a small group of people who ‘buy everything everywhere’. He described them as ‘very old people’ adding ‘these are the people who are going to read mailings because they have got the time’. He admitted the claims made in the letters were ‘a lot of make believe’, saying: ‘It’s a kind of fraud.’ Mr Muhlschlegel failed to respond to the Mail’s requests for comment.