A sucker list is a list of persons who have previously been successfully solicited for something.

The major areas of "sucker lists" are solicitation of donations and fraud. Solicitation is a crime; it is an inchoate offense that consists of a person inciting, counseling, advising, urging, or commanding another to commit a crime with the specific intent that the person solicited commit the crime. ... Donation is a gift to a fund or cause, typically for charitable reasons. ...

An early example of "sucker lists" made public is given in the November 18, 1929 issue of Time Magazine^[1] in an article about the United States Senate probing into one lobbyist. November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ... Lobbying is the practice of private advocacy with the goal of influencing a governing body, in order to ensure that an individuals or organizations point of view is represented in the government. ...

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". 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. Telemarket Office // Early History Telemarketing is a registered trademark owned by Nadji Tehrani who founded TeleMarketing Magazine in 1982. ... Reloading is a form of fraud, whereby a victim of one scam is repeatedly approached with more aggressive con artists, often until sucked dry. This form of fraud is especially hurtful for senior people, because they are more susceptible to pressure after the first losses, partly because of hopes to... Get-rich-quick schemes promise high rates of return for a small investment. ...

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. Alternative use: Race track Racetrack is a pencil and paper game, nominally for two players. ... Tout is a semi-colloquial, mainly British term for a person who earns money by reselling tickets to popular events. ...

See also

• Trigger list

References

1. ^ "Sucker List", an article from the November 18, 1929 issue of Time Magazine

• The article contains some material from the US Government site "Reloading Scams: Double Trouble for Consumers" created by the Federal Trade Commission
• Les Henderson, "Crimes of Persuasion: Schemes, Scams, Frauds - How con artists will steal your savings and inheritance through telemarketing fraud, investment schemes and consumer scams" 2000, ISBN 0968713300 (paperback)

November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... ... FTC headquarters, Washington, D.C. The Federal Trade Commission (or FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act. ...

External links

• Q&A: how to avoid becoming a sucker an article on sucker lists in Times Online