FYI Mark Mann Moderator, InHunt and InWells mailing lists Coordinator, Huntington County InGenWeb > This has been going on for nearly six months. There is a web page dedicated > to reporting details about this operation. Gene Olson has taken it upon > himself to try and shut them dowm. > See: http://www.compuright.net/familydiscovery/ > > >_______ > >Subj: [WIGEN-L] Family Discovery jumps to Prodigy > >Date: 3/9/01 1:04:09 PM Eastern Standard Time > >From: [email protected] (zorblitz) > >Reply-to: [email protected] > >To: [email protected] > > > >True to their history, Family Discovery was getting "heat" for their > >business (mis) practices and have now jumped to Prodigy and are also > >using PayPal (info from the Belgium list). Their last server is thought > >to have dumped them after receiving numerous spam complaints. This > >company is thought to go to Gen sites of all kinds and pick the e-mail > >address off them to use for spam mailings of the $49.00 "service". In > >their spam, they say that another Gen site has suggested that they > >contact the recipient, when the original gen site does not even know it > >has been used for the addresses. Please consider encoding the e-mail > >addresses on sites into the name so they can not be easily picked off > >the pages. It means an extra "click" for visitors but the spammer's > >programs only "see" a name and no addresses to pick up. Here is the > >latest followed by a summery of recent events for anyone who wants a > >quick update on the matter. > > > >It looks like the fictitious Family Discovery genealogy service has > >moved to Prodigy now. I contacted Prodigy this morning and they have > >asked that anyone who receives solicitation email from > >familydiscovery.com to take the following steps immediately: > > > >1) Forward the entire Family Discovery message to: [email protected] > > > >2) Include the following information (most of which was provided by > >Rita from the Oconto County, WI list): > > > >Please note that the attached message is now being sent through your ISP > > > >service. They have been reported to various State Attorney General's > >Office on computer fraud, but it is hard to catch up with them. > >Originally the "company" linked to free information sites and placed the > > > >pages in "frames" so that it looked like it was their own work. > >Customers paid for that information. The scam, now, is paying for the > >free information links and then they "move" frequently and leave their > >paid-up customers without services. > > > >3) Post these same instructions on any other lists today so that > >Prodigy has a better chance of finding the spammers. > >