Here is the information about the genealogy scam. Patrick Hays SC INGenWeb http://www.ingenweb.net ----- Original Message ----- From: <Branchout@aol.com> To: <USGENWEB-ALL-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 9:20 PM Subject: [USGENWEB-ALL-L] FW: [WIGEN-L] Family Discovery jumps to Prodigy > This is forwarded with permission. Please share with other USGenWeb Project > lists. > > Tina Vickery > SC WIGenWeb Project > _______ > Subj: [WIGEN-L] Family Discovery jumps to Prodigy > Date: 3/9/01 1:04:09 PM Eastern Standard Time > From: zorblitz@mindspring.com (zorblitz) > Reply-to: WIGEN-L@rootsweb.com > To: WIGEN-L@rootsweb.com > > 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: abuse@prodigy.com > > 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. > > > ==== USGENWEB-ALL Mailing List ==== > The USGenWeb Project is not a commercial project. > >