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California Data Broker Registry Marks Progress Against Court Scrapers and Structured Settlement Annuitant Info Trafficking

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

California law requires a data broker, as that term is defined in California Civil Code § 1798.99.80, to register with the Attorney General on its internet website that is accessible to the public, on or before January 31 following each year in which a business meets the definition of a data broker.

What is Court Scraper?  What is Court Scraping?  How Does Court Scraping Impact Structured Settlement Annuitants?

Court scraping is the process of searching court records for personal identifiable information about individuals, with whom the scraper has no direct relationship, whose settlements involve structured settlements. The scrapers peddle the information to mostly unlicensed/unregistered individuals and or entities, whose unlicensed or uncredentialled representatives harass structured settlement annuitants and may provide unlicensed financial advice to sell their payment rights. The court scraped victims are first subjected to a carpet bombing of email solicitations as the predators set their hooks. This in turn is followed by a shower of unwanted phone calls, followed by unlicensed financial advice and a pennies on the dollar financial solution that is a  money loser 100% of the time.

I've reported about some of these cadgers in prior blog posts. Here is a sample:

• Structured Settlement Leads "Ready for Your Sales Team To Pounce On the These People" January 24, 2016
• Definition of Delusion | Court Scraper Considers Scraped Structured Settlement Payees His Clients January 7, 2016
• Court Scraping was Key to JRR Funding/Fairfield Funding Strategy  January 31, 2015 
• Court Scrapers of Structured Settlement Annuitants for Cash Now Pushers  September 5, 2014

What is a Data Broker Under California Civil Code § 1798.99.80 ?

"Data broker" means a business that knowingly collects and sells to third parties the personal information of a consumer with whom the business does not have a direct relationship. "Data broker" does not include any of the following:

(1) A consumer reporting agency to the extent that it is covered by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act ( 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1681 et seq.).

(2) A financial institution to the extent that it is covered by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ( Public Law 106-102 ) and implementing regulations.

(3) An entity to the extent that it is covered by the Insurance Information and Privacy Protection Act (Article 6.6 (commencing with Section 1791) of Chapter 1 of Part 2 of Division 1 of the Insurance Code).

What Other States Require Data Broker Registration?

Vermont became the first state to require data brokers to register annually with the government beginning in 2019.  [ 9 VSA ch 62, subch. 5   Also Ibid 9 VSA §2446 and §2447]\

In 2020, Hawaii, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington were considering bills that would require data brokers to register and provide information to consumers on how to opt out of the collection of information.

Federal Privacy Rules Must Get " Data Broker" Definitions Right  is an excellent article by Justin Sherman published April 8, 2021 on the LawFare blog.

Sherman says  "...data brokerage—in broad terms, companies buying and selling data on consumers—remains heavily underdiscussed in these conversations on potential regulatory action. Those engaged in this practice include companies that sell large datasets that other firms use to microtarget online ads, and companies that aggregate information from public records and link them to individuals on their websites (those “click here to run a background check” ads you see on search engines). Some companies, such as Lexis/Nexis, have transformed their traditional business into data brokerage, while others, such as traditional consumer reporting agencies and companies that help local governments digitize their records, have often made data brokerage just one component of what they do. That’s why the entity that directly and initially collects a consumer’s information is often only the first in a long chain that will acquire it" 

Sherman, who is a fellow at the Atlantic Council's Cyber Statecraft Initiative, a research fellow at the Tech, Law & Security Program at American University Washington College of Law, and a cyber policy fellow at the Duke Tech Policy Lab, opines that data brokerage must be a core component of federal privacy legislation and enforcement actions.

 

Court Scrapers of Structured Settlement Annuitants for Cash Now Pushers

by Structured Settlement Watchdog®

Scraping of court records for structured settlement
transactions placed on the record, or petitions for structured settlement transfers appears to be a necessary evil for cash now pushers.

 With cost per click on Google at in excess of $100 and the cost of television advertising beyond the reach of most, the scrapers get to all sorts of annuitant data. including unlisted phone numbers, at a lower acquisition cost.

Yet, judging by the feedback we are receiving from structured settlement annuitants, the scraped information is then used by cash now pushers to bombard structured settlement annuitants with offers to buy that has reached harassment levels.  Last week I reported receiving an email from Penny, a Rochester NY woman who claims that she was subject to 50 such solicitations!  

Who are the people that scrape court records for leads for cash now pushers?  One of them is Betsy Resnick, apparently of Boca Raton Florida.  The telephone number which Betsy leaves in her email appears to be registered to Brandon Resnick of Charlotte, NC.

An email sent from [email protected] states:

• She and her company "are independent contractors who pull information from structured settlement cases as soon as they are filed from courts around the country (about 50 jurisdictions)".
• She and her company "go through the courts each morning so that you get the freshest leads possible.   Every lead has Name, Address, and Filing/Hearing date, and many include Phones, Payment Streams, or Future Benefits, where they are available"
• She and her company "have done legal research for other factoring companies and are very familiar with the industry and with what they need to pull clients in".
• She and her company "know that most people who sell once, sell again, so you can continually market to them as you grow your database".
•  She and her company "release new records a few times weekly so you’ll always have fresh data.  You can buy per lead or on a subscription basis".  [ original email on file]

Betsy Resnick markets these scraped names as "real people that want to sell their structured settlements".   (emphasis added)

If Resnick's leads are from cases which have been freshly put on the record in Florida courts like Broward County and Sumter County, the latter of which has admitted that structured settlements are subject to excessive requests for information,  and these leads are being represented to potential buyers of that data as "real people who want to  sell their structured settlements", then perhaps the Florida attorney general and attorneys general in other jurisdcitions should be commencing an investigation.   While the names may be real people, how have Betsy Resnick and her colleagues personally determined that the names that they have scraped in about 50 jurisdictions and hocked "want to sell their structured settlements"?