I received the following from another list; >Subject: Rip-offs of the genealogy community continues > >Good Morning, friends and cousins in the genealogy community! > >The response to the identification of the genealogy rip-off operation >in Denver last week has been tremendous with a steady stream of requests > >for add'l info. > >The operation in Denver with a newly discovered "branch" in Utah is an >incarnation of the identical scheme that Halbert's used. The same form >letters, books and newsletters are being sold, and the same fake >"Crests" and other products are being created "to exacting standards". > >The new incarnation has not yet been linked financially to Halbert=B4s o= r >NUMA (Halbert parent), but the resemblance is so close, they could be >joined at the hip, operating under dba's Mountain West News Service, >Mountain Pacific News Service, and MORPHCORP. The Better Business Bureau > >reports that the company has joined the BBB in January 2000, opened in >1985, and is rated as satisfactory. A complete history of Halbert's, >courtesy of Jeff Scism (despite our surname homonyms, we ain't kin --- >he hopes!) is available at >http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~blksheep/shame/halberts.htm > >Volunteers interested in assisting in informing the genealogy community >of this scam have come out of the woodwork. We would ask the recipients > >of this email the following: >1) A sample of the Colorado flyer is at >http://www.dfc.cc/CyberCousins/genfraud.jpg >Print it and post in the genealogy section at your library with >appropriate message and make announcements at your gensoc. > >2) After you have read it, as a researcher you realize the fraud that it > >is. Go to the Federal Trade Commissions website at >https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.htm and file a complaint ONLINE. For >a sample complaint and further detailed information to use, please go to > >http://www.dfc.cc/CyberCousins/complaint.txt > >3) Forward this to every list you are on. > >4) If you are a member of NGS (shane@ngsgenealogy.org) or FGS >(fgs-office@fgs.org), contact those organizations and ask that they get >members motivated. Gentech, Inc. (beau@connect.net) has a director and >a well-known regular conference speaker in the Denver metro. I asked >them to do some local research. No response to date. > >5) Contact every genealogy columnist whose work you read, both local and > >online such as Myra Gormley (myravg@prodigy.net} or Dick Eastman >(ROOTS@compuserve.com) who was stalwart in early work on Halbert's, both > >of whom, as well as others, are on this list. No response to date. > >6} If you have rec'd a flyer yourself, please report the names and >addresses to me. We need to know all the DBAs they are using. Then >take it to the local post office and file a complaint. > >7) If you are in the Denver area, we need search of the court house >records to determine any corporate connections. If we can make a >corporate connection, I am fairly sure the restraints placed on >Halbert's can be extended by the proper authorities. > >8) If you are a supplier (software, services, researcher) to the >genealogy community, this type of scam effects you even more. >Contribute to the effort. > >9)This is no small time scam. Halbert's is owned by a company named >NUMA whih in turn is owned by CENDANT. Go to >http://itjobs.cendant.com/cendant_co.html to find other Cendant >companies. You will NOT be happy with how you have been doing business >with folks like this --- I promise you. > >These scams are more likely to rip off folks less involved in genealogy >than most recipients of this msg. Most of us will recognize it for what > >it is and trash it. That does not relieve us of the responsibility of >making it more difficult for these and other parasites within our >community to enjoy their ill-gotten gains. I have found far too many >that "don't want to get involved", "Didn't happen on my watch." (to use >an old Navy excuse), running from controversy and responsibility. Let >us unite in eradicating those that are behind an obvious attempt to >profit unethically from the popularity of genealogy. > >Joe Sissom > >