From: "Cheryl Rothwell" <LoganCty@mindspring.com> The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.RootsForum.com. - Were You Victimized by This Genealogy Scam Artist? I have written a number of times about GenSeekers. This site is owned and operated by Mr. Elias Abodeely of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mr. Abodeely is a 21-year-old who has operated a number of Web sites, using various business names, including genealogydevelopments.com, familydiscovery.com, genealogyfinders.net, genlocator.com, genseeker.com, genseekers.com, genealogy-express.com, and probably many others. Most of these are Web sites that remain online for a few weeks while the owner collects money from would-be customers. The sites then get shut down as the complaints mount, but new ones appear with similar wording. Elias Abodeely has advertised his Web sites with thousands of spam e-mails. These messages claim to offer access to millions of online genealogy records for about $60.00 a year. (The price varies a bit from one ad to another.) Once signed up for this "service," the hapless victim is given access to a few pages of menus that point to other Web sites, all of which are free of charge for everyone. The links on Abodeely's sites point to FamilySearch.org, RootsWeb, and lots of other sites that you can access right now at no charge. Your sixty dollars buys access to a list of links, nothing else. And those links are not nearly as complete as those on Cyndi's List, a free site. Elias Abodeely has accepted credit cards and checks by various means. For a while, he used a PayPal account. However, clicking on the link in an old spam mail from GenSeekers now displays a PayPal page that says, "This recipient is currently unable to receive money." PayPal apparently shut down that account. In the spam mail ads, GenSeekers and the other names being used all offer a five-day, money-back guarantee. GenSeekers' online check acceptance form at https://fs6.formsite.com/genseekers/form093061282/secure_index.html says, "The 5 Day Trial is 100 % Free for the First 5 Days Cancel Before End of Trial and Nothing will ever be billed." (That is an exact quote with the original grammar errors left intact.) A customer service e-mail address to be used for cancellations is supplied when you subscribe. However, e-mails sent to that address bounce back as "addressee unknown" Or "mailbox full." Once charged, there is no method for the victim to cancel or obtain a refund. To read my past articles about this scam, look at: http://www.rootsforum.com/archives/news0310.htm, http://www.rootsforum.com/archives/news0320.htm, http://www.rootsforum.com/archives/news0237.htm and at http://www.rootsforum.com/archives/news0129.htm. The Better Business Bureau's report is particularly strong. The BBB is usually rather conservative in its reports, but this time says, "It has come to the bureau's attention that consumers are unable to unsubscribe through web site and email correspondences are not returned by company. Credit card users who have been unable to obtain a refund from the company may wish to contact their credit card company." You can find many more references on Google. You can also find quite a few messages about this on the Discussion Board for this newsletter. When I started writing this article, the Web page at http://www.GenSeekers.com was in operation. However, before I finished the article a few days later, that Web page seemed to have disappeared. An attempt to go to that page now generates the common error message, "The page you are looking for is currently unavailable." In the meantime, you can see Google's cached copy. Copies of other now-defunct Web sites operated by Elias Abodeely are also available at: http://www.archive.org. Some months ago, the spam mail messages listed a telephone number, but later e-mail ads do not. That number was disconnected and later re-assigned to someone else (who reportedly is really angry at all the phone calls they have received from unhappy people looking for GenSeekers.com!). When looking at the domain registrations for Abodeely's Web sites, I found several addresses and telephone numbers used. The registration for FamilyDiscovery.com lists a Technical Contact of Elias Abodeely at 9843 Cambridge Drive, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404 and a different telephone number. I called the number but was connected to an answering machine that gave no clue as to the current owner's name. I searched several online telephone directories for a current address and telephone number. Most of the searches came up empty, except for AnyWho at http://www.anywho.com. That online service does show a listing for a Mr. Elias A Abodeely at still a different address in Cedar Rapids and with a different phone number. There is no way to tell if this is the same person or not. A search on USSearch.com turned up references to two men of the same name in Cedar Rapids. One is listed as being 92 years old, obviously not the same person. By the way, you can see a five-year-old partially obscured picture of then 16-year-old Elias Abodeely. Look at the Cedar Rapids GazetteOnline at: http://www.gazetteonline.com/special/neighbor/mmhp/mmhpp003.htm. Have you been a victim of one of these scams? You may be able to get your money back. Even better, you may be able to help stop this operation now before others become victims. If you have been victimized by GenSeekers or any of the other names being used in this operation, please do several things: If you paid by credit card, contact your credit card company now! Your credit card is insured against online fraud. The phone number to call probably is on the back of the credit card. Ask for a refund. Credit card companies are very experienced at these scams and are quick to refund a victim's money if they receive such a request promptly. The credit card companies then go after the business owners for reimbursement. (Sadly, many people paid by checks, at the suggestion of Mr. Abodeely's various spam mails. Personal checks should never be used for online purchases as they do not have fraud protection. Credit cards are fully insured against online fraud, but personal checks carry no protection at all. If you paid by credit card, you can get your money back! If you paid by check or money order, you probably are out of luck.) File a complaint with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). You can easily do this at http://www1.ifccfbi.gov. File a consumer complaint form with the Federal Trade Commission. Selling on the Internet constitutes interstate commerce, so the FTC has jurisdiction. You can do this easily at https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_SUBMIT_FLAG=Y. Download and fill out an Iowa Attorney General Consumer Complaint Form. You can obtain this form at http://www.state.ia.us/government/ag/forminfo.htm. You can also send e-mail complaints to consumer@ag.state.ia.us. However, I suspect that a written complaint form sent via regular mail will be more effective. Contact the Cedar Rapids Police Department. The department's Web page at http://www.cedar-rapids.org/police/ and the department's Financial Crimes division page at http://www.cedar-rapids.org/police/financial_crimes.asp lists Lieutenant Ken Washburn as the contact person for any financial crimes. You can reach him at (319) 286-5413 or at k.washburn@cedar-rapids.org. The time to act is now. If victims do not take speedy action to shut down this operation, how many more people will be victimized? ============================== 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 --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!