Selling the list: seven million elderly Americans, sold to lottery scammers
In June 2025 the Justice Department's Consumer Protection Branch charged Troy Murray, also known as "Steve Dixson", with conspiracy to commit wire fraud for selling a lead-list database containing the names and personal information of over seven million elderly American consumers to lottery fraud scammers, including Jamaican operators. His son Cutter Murray agreed to plead guilty to one count of money laundering for receiving and laundering $1.6 million of the proceeds.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States, Jamaica
- Outcome
- Charged — an allegation, not a conviction
- Reported loss
- $1.6 million
- Victims
- 7,000,000
- Schemes
- Prize, lottery and sweepstakes scams, Advance fee and 419 scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-06
The facts, as recorded
- An Information charging Troy Murray was filed 11 June 2025 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, together with his agreement to plead guilty.
- The charge is conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
- He is alleged to have sold a lead list database containing names and personal information of over seven million elderly American consumers.
- Buyers included lottery fraud scammers, among them Jamaican operators, who used the lists to defraud those consumers.
- Cutter Murray, his son, agreed to plead guilty to one count of money laundering for receiving and laundering $1.6 million of the proceeds.
- Several purchases made with the proceeds were in excess of $10,000.
- Separately, Dennis Anderson and Frank Angelori were charged on 9 June 2025 as lead list brokers who from as early as 2015 until at least March 2020 knowingly sold lists of mostly older Americans to Jamaican clients running lottery fraud.
- Investigated by the US Postal Inspection Service.
Charges are allegations. Everyone named is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Why this case matters
This is the part of the industry nobody photographs: the supplier.
Seven million names. Not stolen in a breach — compiled, maintained and sold, as a product, to people who were going to use it to defraud the people on it. The allegation is not that a list leaked; it is that lists of elderly Americans were a knowing business, with brokers, repeat customers and a wholesale market.
Two separate sets of charges announced within two days make the same point. Anderson and Angelori are alleged to have been business partners selling lists to Jamaican lottery-fraud clients from as early as 2015 until at least March 2020 — a five-year commercial relationship.
What a lead list actually is
A structured file: name, age, address, phone number, and frequently a marker indicating that the person has responded to a sweepstakes offer before. That last field is the valuable one, because it is the difference between a cold call and a warm one.
This is why victims are so often hit repeatedly by different scams. Responding once does not just cost money; it moves you onto a list that gets resold. The “sucker list” is a real commercial artefact, which is also why a recovery scam so reliably follows a first loss.
What it tells you about the scheme
Prosecuting the callers alone changes very little — they are replaceable and usually outside the jurisdiction. Prosecuting the supply chain is different: without lists, the whole model reverts to random dialling, which is dramatically less efficient.
It also reframes the advice. “Don’t answer unknown numbers” misses the point. Once you are on a list, you will be called again by people who are not connected to whoever called you first. The practical step is to reduce what enters the market at all — declining marketing consent, being sparing with prize entries and surveys, and treating any organisation that asks for a date of birth and a phone number as a potential future seller.
Sources
- Justice Department Highlights Enforcement Efforts Protecting Older Americans from Transnational Fraud Schemes in Recognition of 2025 World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. US Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: All charges, dates, districts, the seven-million-record list, the $1.6 million laundering figure, and the Anderson and Angelori charges.