A North Carolina man will spend the next decade behind bars for selling the personal data of more than seven million elderly Americans to lottery scammers based in Jamaica.
Troy Murray, 57, of Hickory, North Carolina, was sentenced today to 121 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to forfeit $5,214,688.48 for his role in a massive wire fraud conspiracy that spanned seven years.
According to federal court documents, Murray operated as a prolific lead list broker from 2016 to 2023. Under the pseudonym “Steve Dixon,” he compiled and sold lists containing names, phone numbers, physical addresses, ages, and email addresses targeting senior citizens. His clients were scammers in Jamaica who used the data to execute lottery fraud schemes against the victims.
The operation was so deeply entrenched in Jamaican scamming culture that Murray’s alias was even shouted out in a 2022 song lyric by a Jamaican musical artist.
The mechanics of the scheme were straightforward. Scammers contacted Murray via phone, email, or text to request lists of potential targets. Murray charged a standard rate of roughly $500 for a list containing 100 to 300 names. While he initially accepted payments through traditional wire transfers, multiple money transfer services eventually blocked his accounts. To bypass these restrictions, Murray instructed his buyers to pay him using pre-paid gift cards.
Over the course of the seven-year conspiracy, Murray sent at least 22,000 lead lists to scammers, exposing the data of over seven million elderly citizens. The operation brought in more than $5.2 million for Murray, while the total losses suffered by the victimized seniors exceeded $9.5 million.
Prosecutors revealed that Murray used his illicit earnings to fund a comfortable lifestyle, purchasing farm equipment, vehicles, and collectibles such as precious metal bars and coins. He also funneled a portion of the proceeds to one of his sons to cover personal property purchases, business expenses, and daily living costs.
The legal case wrapped up after Murray entered a guilty plea in January 2026 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The investigation was handled by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the case was prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel David Sullivan and Trial Attorney Ryan Norman of the Justice Department’s Fraud Section. Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced the final sentencing today.
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