. >> you wouldn't know if they are a member of the dma. >> not off the top of my head. >> we called exact data and they offered to sell us lists of all kinds of private - what many members of the public would consider sensitive. >> i can't speak to that situation, but i think there's more to the story. in a case where marketing data is being sold and purchased and transferred between companies. our code of ethics say you can only share the information, it can only be purchased for marketing purposes. >> reporter: it doesn't always happen that way. take espilion, a giant in the business, the holder of credit and marketing data. in a maim scror lapse, that brian crabb reported, an identity thief in vietnam gained access to a dater base containing personal information from 200 million americans from a company opened by xpirion. >> it was selling information, they claim unknowingly, i'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt to an individual who said he was a u.s. based private investigator. they refused op on-air interview but said: >>> to brian crabbs, the indoor question razes quest