Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton Delivers Remarks at White House Roundtable on Protecting Americans from Harmful Data Broker Practices

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Every year, scammers steal billions of dollars from American consumers – often targeting older Americans. The victims experience devastating financial impacts and often emotional trauma as well.

The Department of Justice is dedicated to fighting these fraudulent schemes. The Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country have prosecuted fraudsters and their facilitators – both domestically and across the globe. 

These scams are typically perpetrated by transnational criminal organizations. But they are aided by data brokers, often located in the United States. These data brokers are a key link. They provide the target lists critical to the success of the schemes. But we are doing everything we can to stop them. 

For example, we brought a criminal case against Epsilon Data Management, one of the largest marketing companies in the world. Epsilon used sophisticated data modeling to identify consumers most likely to respond to solicitations. They then sold the data of more than 30 million Americans to perpetrators of elder fraud schemes.  

Specifically, the company sold consumer lists to mass-mailing schemes that sent false “sweepstakes” and “astrology” solicitations to consumers. The solicitations falsely stated that each consumer recipient had won a large prize or individualized psychic service that they could obtain by paying a fee. In reality, victims who paid a fee received nothing of value.

Amazingly, Epsilon employees continued to sell consumer data to clients engaged in fraud despite knowing that they and similar clients had been arrested, charged with crimes, convicted, or otherwise subjected to law enforcement actions for false and misleading practices.

Under the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement we reached with Epsilon, the company agreed to pay a total of $150 million, with $127.5 million going to compensate victims. Epsilon also agreed to implement significant compliance measures designed to safeguard consumers’ data and prevent futures sales of data to individuals or entities engaged in fraudulent or deceptive marketing campaigns.

Similarly, last summer we resolved another criminal matter against a marketing company. That company, KBM Group LLC, also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve charges that it sold millions of Americans’ information to perpetrators of elder fraud schemes. Under the terms of that agreement, KBM Group paid a total of $42 million, with $33.5 million going to compensate victims. As was the case with Epsilon, KBM Group also was required to implement significant compliance measures designed to safeguard consumers’ data and prevent the sale of data to fraudsters.

Finally, last fall we resolved a matter involving a third consumer data company, Wiland Inc. The company agreed to pay $4.4 million in victim compensation for its acknowledged sale of consumer data to operators of fraudulent schemes.  

Importantly, each of these resolutions provided for victim restitution. To date, the claims administrator in these cases has successfully distributed over $100 million to over 100,000 unique victims.

To close, l just want to say how grateful we are for the opportunity to work with our federal partners, as well as the many advocates and experts assembled here today, on this critical issue. Thank you.