Federal court records show that data brokers have used a specific internal label — “opportunity seekers” — to describe people who respond to sweepstakes, astrology, auto warranty, dietary supplement and government grant solicitations. Those lists, built from ordinary consumer behavior, have ended up in the hands of criminals running fraud schemes across the country.
The clearest example comes from Epsilon Data Management. According to Epsilon’s deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice, the company’s clients included businesses sending deceptive solicitations, and Epsilon employees referred to the people targeted by those offers as “opportunity seekers” and to the clients sending them as “opportunistic.” The filing states these opportunity seekers were frequently older and vulnerable Americans.
DOJ says Epsilon used transactional data and algorithms to identify “responsive buyers” — people statistically likely to respond to certain offers — across a database covering roughly 100 million U.S. households. Epsilon ultimately agreed to pay $150 million, including $22.5 million in criminal penalties and $127.5 million for victim compensation.
Two former Epsilon employees, Robert Reger and David Lytle, were convicted for their roles. A federal judge sentenced Reger to 10 years in prison and Lytle to four years. DOJ says the pair sold nearly 100 lists of names and addresses to a single fraudulent client, who used the data in a scheme that defrauded more than 218,000 people out of more than $23.7 million — with more than 12,000 victims defrauded more than 20 times each.
A pattern across multiple companies
Epsilon was not alone. KBM Group entered a deferred prosecution agreement requiring a $33.5 million victim compensation payment and an $8.5 million criminal fine, after DOJ said employees knowingly sold data on millions of Americans to more than a dozen clients running fraudulent mass-mailing schemes.
Macromark, a Connecticut direct-mail services company, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, admitting that lists it supplied to fraudulent clients caused at least $9.5 million in losses. Wiland Inc. later entered a non-prosecution agreement that included $4.4 million in victim compensation tied to data sold to fraud operators. By June 2025, DOJ said its Consumer Data Victim Compensation Fund had returned more than $129 million to more than 100,000 victims nationwide.
The problem is not confined to the past
In May 2026, a federal judge sentenced Troy Murray of North Carolina to 121 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. DOJ says Murray collected and sold lists containing names, phone numbers, home addresses, and in some cases ages and email addresses of older Americans — with customers that included people in Jamaica running lottery fraud schemes.
From 2016 through 2023, DOJ says Murray sent scammers at least 22,000 lead lists containing information on more than 7 million older Americans, typically selling for $500 per 100 to 300 names. Murray made more than $5.2 million, DOJ says, while his victims lost more than $9.5 million.
Legal lists, familiar language
The government has not alleged that every list of this kind is fraudulent, and buying or selling marketing data remains legal. But the wording used to sell some current lists closely echoes the language described in the Epsilon case. As of September 2026, Geon Media was advertising a list called “Prime Opportunity Seekers — Buyers Only!” containing 397,532 names of people who purchased business opportunities after responding to marketing campaigns, with filters by age, income, net worth and location. NextMark was advertising a “Sweeps Winners Only” list, describing its audience as “highly impulsive,” for use in sweepstakes, lottery and credit card promotions. Exact Data, with listings updated in September 2026, offered categories including “Sweepstakes Opportunity Purchasers” and “Gambling, Lottery, and Sweepstakes Enthusiasts.”
The FBI says people over 60 filed more than 201,000 fraud complaints in 2025, reporting more than $7.7 billion in losses. The FBI has not said how many of those cases involved marketing or lead lists, so no direct causal link can be drawn — but the DOJ prosecutions show scammers have repeatedly used such lists to identify likely targets.
What consumers can do
- Search your own name, phone number and address online and look for people-search sites displaying your information; the FTC says you can request free removal, though it may need to be repeated.
- Read the privacy policy and official rules before entering any contest, and watch for prechecked marketing-consent boxes.
- Consider a separate email address for contests and promotional sign-ups to keep your main inbox out of marketing databases.
- Remember that legitimate prizes are free — the FTC says any request for taxes, fees or bank details to release a prize is a scam.
- If you’ve lost money or data to a scam, contact your bank first, then report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, or IdentityTheft.gov for identity theft. Americans 60 and older can call DOJ’s National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-372-8311, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern.
No public database will show every marketing list carrying your name, and no removal service can retrieve information criminals have already obtained. But limiting how much personal data circulates — and treating unsolicited prize offers with skepticism — remains the most direct defense against becoming the next name on one of these lists.
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