To all PRA members and professional researchers, I have recently had the most disturbing email exchange with someone who claims to be a professional genealogist/researcher. I had posted an inquiry on a genealogy site and got a response that I thought would help me in my own search for ancestors and was asked to respond via email, so I gave out this person the email address that I use for posts. About the second email, the writing began to sound bitter and this person informed me that I would not get any info if I planned to give it away to be plagiarized. I was taken aback, to say the least, as I have no plans to do any such thing. I made the very serious mistake of trying to reason with this person and keep a cordial correspondence--I know, I know, I should never have responded! Lesson one to staying safe on the net! Needless to say, the emails became increasing bitter and even hostile--my husband agreed--so I severed contact, deleted the emails and blocked this person from sending more, but I must admit that I'm a bit shaken by the unprofessional behavior and feeling somewhat violated and discouraged. Has anyone else ever run across this problem? If so, did ignoring the situation make the problem go away? I plan to pull my email address from the post sites and just correspond in public where others can witness what transpires. I don't have a lot of experience with genealogists other than a few responses I get on posts and PRA is the first genealogy group that I've ever joined. I do know that there are certificates or degrees or something one gets to qualify as a professional, but I've not looked into that because that's not my interest. I appreciate any advice you can give. Thanks. Dana