By Kimone Witter
A United States citizen has been sentenced to just over 10 years in prison after he was convicted of running a seven-year scheme where he victimised millions of elderly Americans by selling their personal information to Jamaican lottery fraud scammers.
Troy Murray, 57, will also have to undergo three years of supervised release and pay forfeiture in the amount of US$5.2 million.
In January this year, Murray, from North Carolina, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
According to court documents, Murray devised a scheme where he organised, maintained, and sold lists containing the names, phone numbers, physical addresses, and, in some cases, ages and email addresses, of elderly Americans to individuals in Jamaica from 2016 to 2023.
The court heard that the Jamaican scammers perpetrated lottery fraud on elderly American consumers, earning Murray hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
Initially, Murray, described as a prolific and well-known lead list broker for Jamaican scammers, instructed them to provide payment via wire transfer. However, after multiple monetary wire transmission services blocked him from using their services, he instructed the scammers to send him pre-paid gift cards to pay for the lists instead.
US authorities noted that Murray’s list broker service was so well known in Jamaica that his pseudonym ‘Steve Dixon’ was referenced by a Jamaican musical artiste in a 2022 song lyric.
After receiving payment from the Jamaican scammers, Murray used the funds to purchase farm equipment, vehicles, and collectibles like bars and coins made of precious metals.
He also sent money he made from the scheme to one of his sons to purchase personal property and pay for his business and living expenses.
During the scheme, Murray sent at least 22,000 lead lists to scammers. These lists contained the names and personal information of more than seven million elderly Americans and garnered him over US$5.2 million.
Victim losses exceeded US$9.5 million.