In a number of recent high profile cases, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Fraud Section, together with agents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, have been targeting fraudulent mail solicitations scams in the U.S. On May 31, 2024, a federal jury in Colorado returned guilty verdicts against two former senior officers of the Epsilon corporation who were charged with selling consumer lists to fraudsters targeting the elderly and vulnerable. The consumer mailing lists provided by the executives to the fraudsters were then used to send scam letters to the victims promising large prizes or falsely personalized astrological mailings promising wealth. In order to convict, the jury had to find that the two executives knew that the mailing lists would be used in the fraud scams. The case represents an expansion by the government in the scope of those charged in false mailing schemes, beyond the actual perpetrators, seeking to charge all those who knowingly aid and abet these schemes, and not just the mailers.
Posts tagged mail fraud.