North Carolina Man Sentenced to 10 Years for Selling Data of 7 Million Elderly Americans to Jamaican Scammers
Troy Murray was sentenced to 121 months in prison for selling lead lists of over 7 million elderly Americans to Jamaican fraudsters, fueling a lottery scam that caused $9.5 million in victim losses.
A North Carolina man was sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison for selling the personal information of over 7 million elderly Americans to Jamaican scammers, in a case that exposes the dark underbelly of data brokering and its role in enabling large-scale elder fraud.
Troy Murray, 57, who operated under the pseudonym Steve Dixon, pleaded guilty in January 2026 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On Thursday, a federal judge sentenced him to 121 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered him to forfeit $5.2 million. According to prosecutors, Murray's alias was so notorious among Jamaican scammers that it was referenced in a 2022 song lyric by a Jamaican musical artist.
Between 2016 and 2023, Murray sold lead lists containing names, phone numbers, physical addresses, and email addresses of elderly Americans to scammers in Jamaica and elsewhere. The scammers used this data to perpetrate lottery fraud, convincing victims they had won prizes and needed to pay fees to collect their winnings. Murray typically charged $500 per list of 100 to 300 names, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. After wire transmission services blocked him, he demanded payment in prepaid gift cards.
Over the course of the scheme, Murray sent at least 22,000 lead lists, generating more than $5.2 million for himself and causing victim losses exceeding $9.5 million. He used the illegal proceeds to purchase farm equipment, vehicles, and precious metal collectibles, and also funneled some of the money to his son, Cutter Murray, for personal and business expenses. In June 2025, the Justice Department revealed that Cutter Murray would plead guilty to one count of money laundering for receiving and laundering $1.6 million of the fraudulent funds.
Murray's sentencing comes amid a surge in elder fraud nationwide. According to the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report, elderly Americans aged 60 and older filed over 200,000 fraud complaints last year, a 37% increase over 2024. Total losses reported by elderly victims reached nearly $7.8 billion, a 59% year-over-year rise, with the average loss per complainant hitting $38,500.
This case highlights the critical role that data brokers play in enabling financial scams against vulnerable populations. By aggregating and selling personal information without adequate safeguards, these brokers provide the raw material for fraud operations that devastate elderly victims. The Justice Department's pursuit of Murray signals a growing focus on prosecuting not just the scammers themselves, but the data suppliers who make their crimes possible.
As elder fraud continues to escalate, lawmakers and regulators are under increasing pressure to tighten oversight of the data brokerage industry. Murray's sentence serves as a warning to others who profit from selling personal data to criminals, but advocates argue that systemic reforms are needed to prevent such schemes from flourishing in the first place.