Sucker list
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A sucker list is a list of persons who have previously been successfully solicited for something.[1]
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[2] 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".[3] 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.[1]
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.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
- Trigger list
- Piers Harris
[edit] References
- ^ a b Q&A: how to avoid becoming a sucker - Times Online
- ^ "Sucker List", an article from the November 18, 1929 issue of Time Magazine
- ^ Reloading Scams: Double Trouble for Consumers
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