Memorandum
- From
- Caroline Mercer via FOX News
- Date
- Filed
- News·5 min to read
- Re
Why August is the most dangerous month to ignore your data
ReWhy August is the most dangerous month to ignore your data
Scammers build their target lists months before Medicare Open Enrollment begins. Marketing data sold by legitimate companies helps fraudsters identify older Americans in advance, making August and September the critical months to protect personal information.
Medicare Open Enrollment does not begin until Oct. 15, but the scam calls that arrive this fall are often the final step in a process that started months earlier. Fraudsters build their target lists long before they make contact, and the weeks of August and September are when that preparation quietly takes place.
Two major dates put Medicare and Social Security on the minds of millions of Americans each fall. Medicare Open Enrollment runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, when beneficiaries can review coverage and make changes that generally take effect Jan. 1. The Social Security Administration is expected to announce the next cost-of-living adjustment in October as well. These dates are public and repeat every year, which means scammers do not have to guess when people will be thinking about their benefits.
What almost nobody considers is that a scam call often comes near the end of the process, not the beginning. Before a fraudster dials a phone number, someone has to decide whom to target. Consumer lists help make that decision, and the Justice Department has already shown in court how marketing data can end up in the hands of scammers.
Epsilon Data Management maintained a database covering roughly 100 million American households. Two former employees, Robert Reger and David Lytle, spent about a decade selling targeted consumer lists to people running fraud schemes. Epsilon used consumer data and algorithms to identify people likely to respond to certain offers. One fraudster bought nearly 100 lists and used them to defraud more than 218,000 victims of over $23.7 million. Epsilon paid $150 million to resolve the case, including $22.5 million in criminal penalties and $127.5 million for victim compensation. In September 2024, a federal court sentenced Reger to 120 months in prison and Lytle to 48 months.
Epsilon was not alone. KBM Group employees sold consumer data to clients involved in fraudulent mass-mailing schemes, leading to an agreement requiring $33.5 million for victim compensation and an $8.5 million criminal fine. Macromark pleaded guilty to knowingly supplying lists of potential victims to fraudulent mass mailers, many of whom were older and vulnerable, and agreed to pay $1 million in fines and forfeiture. These companies did not operate from hidden corners of the dark web. They were established marketing businesses with employees, clients and offices.
Legitimate marketing companies still sell consumer lists online today. Vendors advertise databases of Americans age 65 and older, along with lists created specifically for businesses that want to contact people approaching their 65th birthday. Buyers can often filter those lists by age, location, income, homeownership and other demographic details. Some products also include names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and estimated home values.
Selling a marketing list does not automatically make the vendor or buyer a scammer. However, the market shows how easily someone can identify and contact a narrow group of older Americans. That is why August and September matter. The personal data already exists, the enrollment dates are public and anyone planning a fall fraud campaign can begin researching potential targets before the calls start.
A purchased list gets a scammer a name, an age and an address. That alone makes for a generic call. What turns a generic call into a convincing one is everything else sitting on people-search sites such as Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified and Intelius. Those profiles routinely include address history, relatives' names and financial signals like property ownership and estimated home value.
That is the difference between a call that gets hung up on and one that gets answered. Experts recommend running a quick scan of how exposed you are online to better understand your data footprint, and taking steps now to protect your phone number, freeze your credit and secure retirement savings against unauthorized transfers.
