The secret list that tells scammers you're an easy target

Somewhere in a marketing database, something you did years ago could still be helping a company decide what you might respond to next. Maybe you entered a sweepstakes or signed up for a business seminar. That kind of response can become valuable data.

Federal court records show just how far that can go. In a case involving data broker Epsilon Data Management, employees had a name for people targeted by certain solicitations: "opportunity seekers." Those opportunity seeker lists became especially valuable when they reached people running fraud schemes. And as you'll see, the idea of sorting people based on what they are likely to respond to has not disappeared.

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