{{Short description|List of people who have previously made a donation or fallen for a scam}} A '''sucker list''' is a list of people who have previously fallen for a scam such as a telemarketing fraud, lottery scam, high-yield investment program, get-rich-quick scheme, or work-at-home schemes, or, as used by charities, someone who made a donation. The lists are usually sold to scammers or charities.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/romance-scams-online-fbi-facebook_n_59414c67e4b0d318548666f9 | title=How A Billion-Dollar Internet Scam Is Breaking Hearts And Bank Accounts | first=Ann | last=Brenoff | work=HuffPost | date=July 27, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11609400/Are-you-on-a-charity-sucker-list.html | title=Are you on a charity sucker list? | first=Kate | last=Palmer | work=The Daily Telegraph | date=May 16, 2015 | url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007400407 | title=Reloading Scams: Double Trouble for Consumers | work=Federal Trade Commission| date=1998 }}</ref>
After the list is sold, the victims may be called by scammers promising to recover the money they lost or the prize or merchandise they never received, in an advance-fee scam.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.register-herald.com/news/bbb-warns-of-sucker-list-scams/article_e45579b3-abd8-5f68-a21a-944878d17d0e.html | title=BBB warns of "sucker list" scams | first=Wendy | last=Holdren | work=The Register-Herald | date=April 7, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/refund-and-recovery-scams | title=Refund and Recovery Scams | date=14 December 2023 | publisher=Federal Trade Commission}}</ref>
An early example of sucker lists is mentioned an 18 November 1929 article in ''Time'' which described a list of people who contributed to a lobbyist fund.<ref>{{Cite magazine | url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,738035,00.html | title=Sucker List | magazine=Time | date=November 18, 1929}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite web | title=Sucker List (1941) | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034239/ | publisher=IMDb}}</ref>
==See also== * Trigger list
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Scams and confidence tricks}}
Category:Confidence tricks Category:Direct marketing Category:Fraud