Scam syndicates obtain profiles from surveys and use them to fleece people of their life savings An Australia Post lifestyle survey has been linked to scams, fleecing innocent people out of thousands of dollars. AN Australia Post survey completed by 3.5 million people has been linked to sophisticated phone scams. Queensland's top fraud investigator has described such surveys as "sucker lists" as they can hand personal and financial details to criminals on a platter. The Australian Crime Commission has found examples where scam syndicates have obtained as many as 200,000 profiles from a range of lists and then used them to fleece people of their life savings. One of the biggest databases is Australia Post's Australian Lifestyle Survey, which offers cash and prizes to entice people to respond. Survey participants are told their contact details may be given to companies from a range of industries to send them special offers and messages. The Courier-Mail has been told of claims the survey's results have ended up in the hands of criminal syndicates along with other marketing lists. Australia Post suddenly banned brokers from buying information from the database almost two years ago without explanation. Brokers say they were in the middle of orders when they were cut off. Australia Post then conducted a national mailout with the Australian Crime Commission last year warning about investment frauds. The letter warned: "Law enforcement advises that the criminals offering these investment opportunities use persuasive cold-calling tactics, sophisticated websites and legitimate-looking brochures." An Australia Post spokeswoman this week declined to comment on whether the moves were linked to the discovery of survey responses being used in scams. The biannual survey is in hard copy form and online and details are kept and updated unless people ask to be removed. Respondents are asked their name, address, phone number and details about savings, investments, superannuation, mobile phone and internet use, donations and gambling among other areas. Serious privacy concerns were raised when the survey was launched in the late 1990s. The survey is not particularly detailed and asks a range of questions about preferences and personal habits. Participants can answer all, some or none of the questions," the spokeswoman said. Detective Superintendent Brian Hay is alarmed at the level of information people are handing over to surveys in general when they have no control over where it will end up. "When we've gone and busted and taken out a boiler room operation, they require a list of people to call," Supt Hay said. They call them lead-generation lists. They also call them sucker lists. They're essentially a collection of data that identifies the target. They normally have an idea of their profession, their occupation, how much money they're worth, their age, whether they're likely to be home or not, their contact numbers, email, and their net worth. Supt Hay said Australians were handing over "everything a crook needs to assume your identity" and exploit them. I would never give out that information. I would refuse to participate," he said. Australian Crime Commission acting executive director Warren Gray confirmed marketing lists were being found with phone scam syndicates but he said he could not name the lists used by criminals because of the way the information was gathered, including the use of coercive powers. Mr Gray defended the commission's approach of issuing a general phone scam warning with Australia Post, rather than informing the public of lists known to have been obtained by criminals. We know that the lists - and that is plural - that are in the hands of the crooks are so wide that the best opportunity was to get a letter out to each household to say that people's details could have been in the hands of these people. The crime commission is probing a major phone scam using boiler rooms in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines to target Australians over a number of years. At least $50 million has been taken from Australians. Thai police raided a Bangkok boiler room involved in the scam in April, finding nine expats with investment scripts and profiles of Australians. Mr Gray confirmed the syndicate was found with 200,000 names from an amalgamation of lists which had been honed by brokers. "The message we want to get out there is whenever you get online and you tick a box saying things can happen with your details it is a very dangerous thing," he said. The crime commission has been working with industry group the Australian Direct Marketers Association to try to prevent criminals obtaining marketing lists. "As I understand their code of practice now would be they would not sell a list without knowing who they are selling it to for one thing and going through some due diligence," Mr Gray said. People offshore would find it very difficult to buy those lists now. Australian Securities and Investments Commission executive Warren Day said marketing lists were a "key component" in the success of scams. "Personal steps that you might take to protect yourself is actually one of the most important things that people can do," he said. Mr Day declined to comment on the Australian Lifestyle Survey. Supt Hay said: "It draws the question how do they get all that information? The reality is, when we go to these shopping centres, when we respond to consumer surveys, normally there's a huge paragraph down the bottom with terms and conditions and people don't read them. Unfortunately in that fine print it often says you surrender the right to that information. You allow them to pass it on or sell it or use it in any promotional purpose or otherwise. What we've found now is these surveys by legitimate companies doing legitimate actions are onselling that information to not-so-legitimate interests. Marketing lists were the "starting point" for phone scams as they allowed criminals to know who they were targeting, he said. Brokers told The Courier-Mail their access to the Australia Post survey was cut off without explanation around September 2011. "No one there knew what the heck was going on for at least a couple of weeks," said one major broker. Jobs in the pipeline were suddenly stopped. All the staff were told to down tools. Another broker said an order was pending when access was cut. "All of us brokers were up in arms about it," the broker said. I had to ring the client and say you're not going to believe what's just happened - they've actually pulled their data without any warning at all, it's just gone, I cannot physically sell you anything. Another broker said: "Something went on with some inappropriate use of the data. We were never told the details. Australia Post continued to sell survey information directly to clients but had restricted the supply of phone numbers, he said.