1b. GENEALOGY CONSUMER TOCSIN: Scams at the Speed of Light By Ted Pack tedpack@thevision.net http://www.tedpack.org/ In the old days, back when mail crossed the country in days, sooner or later every genealogist would get a letter from the "American Something- or-Other Institute." It claimed to have accumulated tons of data on your specific family, oddly enough, which you could have, for a fee. What you got was a list of famous people with the surname in question, culled from an encyclopedia, and a list of people in the United States with that surname, culled from telephone company databases. It left the exact relationship of all of these people as an exercise to the gullible. The scam artists changed their name every couple of years, but the game was the same. Today, e-mail crosses the country at the speed of light. The crooks do too. If you do genealogy on the Internet, sooner or later you'll get an e-mail offer from a scam artist. If you do, put one hand on your wallet and back away slowly. Typically they promise millions of names (sometimes billions) in hundreds of databases. They take your money, then give you links to RootsWeb and other free sites. They change names a lot and often have "genealogy," "gen," or "family" in their titles. They promise a 5-, 7- or 10-day free trial, but ask you for a credit card number. They ask you to sign up for a month, with the option to cancel, if not satisfied. Once they get your credit card number, it is virtually impossible to cancel your subscription. How can you tell if the e-mail is from these scam artists with yet another name? A couple of ways. Typically these outfits use a Yahoo, Hotmail, Juno, or some throwaway e-mail account. If you reply to this e-mail, your message either bounces or is never answered. The website itself has neither a customer service mail link nor a toll-free telephone number. So, if you get e-mail saying, some outfit "may" have data you asked for on the SMITH board (for example) just last month, and all you have to do is sign up for a trial subscription. Be warned. It's a lie. * * * [Editor's Note: Check "Consumer Protection" topic at Cyndi's List under Myths, Hoaxes & Scams: http://www.cyndislist.com/myths.htm#consumer * * * Previously published in RootsWeb Review: Vol. 6, No. 19, 7 May 2003 Tim Singleton, tsingleton@iclub.org Volunteer INGenWeb Coodinator Adams Co., IN - http://www.rootsweb.com/~inadams/ Randolph Co., IN - http://www.rootsweb.com/~inrandol/