Dateline Iowa By Register News Services 08/03/2003 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CEDAR RAPIDS Web site owner charged with ID theft A man was charged Friday with identity theft and money laundering after a police investigation into two genealogy Web sites he ran. Elias Abodeely II operated the Web sites FamilyDiscovery.com and Genseekers.com from his home. Abodeely would take e-mail addresses of people who posted to the sites' forum pages, then send the victims an offer to become a member of the Web site for a fee of $19.99 to $59.99. The offer led victims to believe they had a five-day free trial period, but they were unable to cancel their memberships. Their accounts were already debited the fee amount. Cedar Rapids police arrested Abodeely after a two-year investigation into the genealogy Web site. He also faces theft and ongoing criminal conduct charges. Police said the investigation continues, and they expect additional suspects to be charged. --part1_77.165a5335.2c5e7acd_boundary-- ==== DEKENT Mailing List ==== NOTICE: Posting of virus warnings, test messages, chain letters, political announcements, current events, items for sale, personal messages, flames, etc. (in other words - spam) is NOT ALLOWED and will be grounds for removal. Consideration for exceptions, contact Kathleen Burnett kathleenburnett@earthlink.net ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237