Genealogical Scams - Family History & Genealogy Message Board

MYFAMILY.com still sending painful Birthday reminders years after person is dead

sjfrap — 24 Nov 2008 4:37:46 GMT

Be very careful about your decision to open a MYFAMILY.com website.
I had a website for several years and then closed it back around 2004. MYFAMILY.com is STILL using all the e-mail address for the member I had to send them Birthday and Anniversary Reminders.
This has caused me and my family great pain as some of the members are now deceased. It looks like I am insensitive (because I already know of their passing) and it’s a very hurtful reminder to the other family members.
I have contacted MYFAMILY.com several times and after MUCH transferring and calling, they assured me it would not happen again as they “fixed the problem”.
Well, it was okay for a year or so and now it is happening again.
I am getting very angry letters from my family and worst of all…..I don’t know it’s happening since I don’t receive ANYTHING!!!
How long has it been happening and how many family members haven’t let me know about their pain.
I don’t recommend using the site.

WARNING gov-certifcates.co.uk

flaxxman — 4 Nov 2008 7:44:55 GMT

I used this organisation to order my Grandfather's birth certificate. They are absolutely hopeless. They told me they could not trace it, despite me supplying them with the index vol and page #'s and his date of birth and district where the birth was registered. They then charged me £21.97 for their troubles.

I went to the General Registry Office with the same information and they supplied me with a birth certificate within a week for £7.

Do not use gov-certificates.co.uk They do not supply any contact phone numbers and their e-mail replies do not answer any queries and all in all their service is very unsatisfactory.

Newspaperarchives.com lesson learned scam

susannawebberlewis — 4 Feb 2007 5:09:08 GMT

I am embarrassed to say that I got scammed out of a chunk of change myself. I got suckered in on the "free trial" in newspaperarchives.com and it was during the Thanksgiving holiday season. I called within the timeframe, but they were closed. If I remember right, I had to call within a few days. I didn't realize they meant you had to call on a holiday. They also led me to believe you could pay by the month. I felt rather stupid, but I have learned my lesson. The website isn't worth two cents, yet alone the exorbiant amount of money they charged my credit card.
The moral to this story is - if there is fine print, you better read it! There is a reason it is in fine print.

American Indian Heritage Foundation- Indians.Org

Shellbug41 — 14 Aug 2008 9:32:17 GMT

I ordered 2 books from this place. I found their name on the national archives website, so I thought it would be safe. That was 3 months ago. I have not received my books or my money back. I have e-mailed them twice and tried to reach them by phone, which no one answers, just tells you to visit their web site. I to reported them to the BBB found out they've had complaints to. This web site states they are a charity for Native Americans and your money helps to fund different things. They have hand made jewelry that cost over a thousand dollars. This company needs to muster up some professionalism.
You can't even get a response from them. I will visit sites like Ancestry.com next time and ask others before I buy. Buyer beware of this place!

Names History Centre

lynnski1224 — 30 Mar 2008 9:44:56 GMT

Can anyone help me regarding the above company? Apparently they research your family surname etc and for a fairly small price send you all the info they find in book form.
My dad received a letter from the Names History Centre back in December and knowing I was interested in family research ordered it for me for Christmas. It said on the letter that it would take approximately 8 weeks to be delivered. Well, 8 weeks has come and gone and I have a horrible feeling we have been conned but am keeping my fingers crossed things have just been held up because of Easter.
Has anyone had dealings with this company before and did you get what you ordered?
Also if anyone has a telephone number or email address I would be very grateful as unfortunately we didn't make a copy of this.

Thank you in advance.

Lynn.

Research Scams- Ancestral Branches

Cindy1251 — 28 Nov 2007 11:29:04 GMT

I found out too late that this company is not what they advertise to be. I contacted the BBB of PA and found out they have been reported 4 previous times .

I learned a harsh lesson but I hope to prevent someone else from making the same mistake.

genealogylookups.com

Lisa Kauffman — 5 Nov 2006 8:14:47 GMT

The owner of this website has me 2 different messages through my email and has sent 2 Trojan Horses to me. There should be an area where we can complain about sites like this.

Family Album scams?

ablegenie — 22 Jan 2008 2:50:37 GMT

I've been offered my family album by a collector. Have no way of knowing if the photos are mine. Has any one heard of a scam like this?

Help with potential scam - historiker.at and Nicolas Forster

Tom Gerber — 9 Mar 2005 8:42:31 GMT

This person is calling my mother-in-law saying she may be a bunch of money coming to her.

They want her to sign some paper work and promise to give them 1/3 of the money.

They claim she is related to a prominent man from Latvia who died in England and left some unclaimed money and that she may have a 1/2 sister.

In my research into her family I have found no such evidence.

This sounds like a scam to me.

Has anyone heard of this person/organization?

Is there a way I can validate if they are legit?

Thanks

Cliff Shaw, dubious owner of Gencircles.com

rsenk27 — 2 Feb 2007 1:55:16 GMT

The commercial internet page Gencircles.com is owned by a dubious person called Cliff Shaw, who hides behind a P.O. Box in Boulder, Colorado.

He doesn't respond to letters and keeps his office address, phone number and email address secret.

Does anyone know where this Shaw can be found?

P.P.G. Hofman Kolk

Clan Dalton Impersonators

ClanDalton — 12 Dec 2007 4:33:08 GMT

Posted on The Dalton Genealogical Society website:
In January 2007 Clan Dalton was officially registered with The Clans of Ireland and DGS Irish Secretary, Ciaran Dalton, was appointed Clan Chieftain.

A visit to the Clans of Ireland, Ltd. http://theclansofireland.ie/register.html show the DGS listed as the DALTON CLAN.

Ciaran Dalton is NOT the Chieftain of CLAN DALTON.

CLAN DALTON has NO association with the Dalton Genealogical Society.

Patrick Dalton is Chieftain of CLAN DALTON.

K.T. Dalton-Mapstone
Y-DNA Project Organizer
Clan Dalton
http://home.comcast.net/~clandalton/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.h...

Disc copywrite, Rod Neep discs

therocketteers — 17 Nov 2007 7:58:23 GMT

I have recently bought a CD of the Owners of Land of England 1873 and thought > I was buying an original disc.> When it came it was a copy done on a normal Datawrite disc. When I complained to the people I was told this was in the public domain and there > was no copywrite attached so they were within the law to copy and > distribute the disc. Is this true and if so how do you know what is and is > not in the public domain.> I thought a lot of these discs and data wqas licensed to companies such as > S & N Genealogy and Archive CD Books, not for all to copy and sell on Ebay!!!> Jan

1910 Tacoma WA: Beware

jdweintraub — 21 Feb 2007 6:35:52 GMT

I'm working with the streets within the 1910 census districts of Tacoma WA right now, and was reintroduced to a scandal that occurred with that enumeration.

Apparently, blank census sheets were printed up by private individuals, and blanketed over Tacoma. These filled in forms were then turned in to a point person, who divided them up among some of the EDs, and who told those enumerators to include them as residents who were missed ... without any verification. They were mostly put down as lodgers but families were fabricated as well. These names usually appear at the end of the census pages within an ED.

In 1900 there were about 38,000 people in Tacoma, and in 1910 the initial count was about 116,000. The census bureau went through the sheets and threw out over 30,000 names. Some of these disowned people were shown as living on vacant lots. In other situations 110 Italians were shown from a single laundry, and 100 others living in a tiny lunchroom.
I can find some historical articles on this, and legal proceedings were carried out against a number of people, but I can't find any more information on the outcome of their trials.

It's amusing looking through the 1910 Tacoma census sheets to see how one tries to find "homes" for 30,000 extra people.

One problem though, is that if one does a search on a name, and finds a match to a person in Tacoma in 1910 ...but it's not quite a good match...but good enough..... there is no warning on the Ancestry site that the name was considered bogus. Unless one sees the "O" written over the original entry (meaning omit vs an X which meant keep) and asks further questions, one wouldn't necessarily be aware of the problem.

An interesting situation...

Joel Weintraub

OneGreatFamily.com TRICKERY/SCAM

Don Quick — 6 Dec 2006 3:15:38 GMT

You may have seen a smilar note from me elsewhere but I cant find it so am resubmitting due to its importance.

Too late, I decided to check out this company and found that several others had complained on this site. For the record, their 7 day free trial is a scam. Once you sign up ( for the free trial) you must go through a 4-5 step process to cancel the free trial. The website tells you to call a specific number, and the answering machine says they will call you back. They don't call back. They sometimes send e mails to acknowledge your call, but if it is to request a cancellation they tell you to do 1-2 steps, then that is followed up with another email telling you what else you have to do. I didn't comply with all the fine print and was billed for 3 months before they finally acknowledged my phone calls and e mails. Then to make matters worse, I called one day after my billing cycle (the 6th of the month) so they want me to pay an additional one month, but admit I canceled on the 7th.

Scam

susannawebberlewis — 4 Feb 2007 4:56:32 GMT

I am sure it has been way too long since you initially posted your message, but if you check with clarkhoward.com, you can find out information about these kind of issues. He is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. He is a financial expert and has spoken of scams like these on his show.

Genealogical Scams

cemosubby — 25 Jan 2007 2:24:03 GMT

Many of these genealogy sites say they are free to start but ask for your credit card info. For that reason, I have never signed up for anything that says its free to start but asks for credit card info. Not worth the hassell.Nothing is free!

SCAM Mail on BOBO History

CharlesChuckBOBO — 11 May 2005 8:21:35 GMT

A flyer has been mailed in the past couple of days from Denver, CO, offering a BOBO Family History and CD. This is a useless bit of information at an inflated price from and inidiidual using the old HALBERT's technique of printing mail lists and information FREE on the Internet.

To learn more about this SCAM, visit the URLs below.
http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com/shame/morphcorp.htm

http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com/shame/index.html

http://www.dearmyrtle.com/03/0702.htm

or contact me:

Charles H. (Chuck) BOBO, Coordinator
The BOBO Family Assn.
3101 Thurman Rd., No. H-22
HUNTSVILLE, AL 35805

E-Mail: FamilyBobo@aol.com

Genealogy Scam

pearceww — 26 Nov 2005 2:30:05 GMT

There was an interesting article on page 1, Section B of the Thursday Denver Post on a genealogy scam.

The state of Colorado has filed suit against the Morphcorp of Denver Colorado for the production of fake family histories. The first sentence in the article sums it up well. It says “For $49.95, people who bought genealogical “yearbooks” from a Denver-based company got the same family coat of arms, the same family recipes, and even the same family jokes, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday. The article indicates that 150,000 people bought the fake family histories according to the civil suit filed by the Colorado Attorney General. It was filed against Maxwell MacMaster and his company Morphcorp LLC. The staff writer for this article, Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com by E-mail.

If you have any information related to this, Manny would probably appreciate receiving the information.

WWP

geneseekers.com

cathyya77ame — 7 Sep 2005 2:48:29 GMT

A great company and waiting to help you in your search for your ancestors. Please be advised that geneseekers.com is a reputable company. This new company is doing great work in Genetic Geneology. Good luck in your finds.

GenealogyGiants.com $39.95 CD

grammy — 12 Mar 2003 8:10:17 GMT

The newest name for the spammer-scammer from IA mentioned in geneseekers and other posts below is this CD that you buy once and it updates itself every time you go online. The new address is a P.O. box in Ely, IA. It's using a yahoo address as its company email and also a hotmail address. Just think of what information "GenealogyGiants" can get from your computer via the CD it sold you if you went to update it. Why doesn't this scammer ever get stopped permanently?

CORRECTION

sunkawakan — 4 Sep 2005 12:41:34 GMT

In 2003, I had replied to an older post referencing a domain geneseekers.com. The site I had intended to reference was NOT this domain, but genseekers.com, which is today defunct. My apologies for any confusion or harm resulting from this post.

Jerome Wiltsee Book

EEikenbary_1 — 5 Feb 2005 1:10:23 GMT

I would appreciate hearing from anyone else who believes the Jerome Wiltsee book to be a fraud, as I do.

CAUTION: Family History Preserved

WmWMcCollum — 2 Jan 2005 12:19:24 GMT

The pupose of this posting is to pass on one person's experience with genealogist Sandra Novak, who is doing business on the web at www.familyhistorypreserved.com. I contracted with Ms. Novak more than a year ago to perform a specific task and provide a report. She has failed to do so and, for the past three months, has failed to respond to my queries about the status of the work. At the moment I am out $200.00 and have nothing to show for it except a couple of bits of information that I could have located on the web in just a few minutes.

New York Genealogy Errors

America's First Families — 15 Jun 2004 8:45:16 GMT

Hello New York Researchers:

As most of you are aware the question of genealogical frauds and
hoaxes must be of concern to genealogists and researchers since
so much information out there is very questionable.

We have several pages on our web sites that will be of great help
to you in understanding what the problems are.

We have updated one of the pages in our Fraudulent Lineages area.
The page in question is titled;

BEWARE OF THE SOURCE HOAX

Many of you are quite aware of some of some of the ways frauds and
hoaxes are committed and you may need to review your lines to see if
possibly they may contain some of the situations we cover.

The URL for this page is;

http://www.linkline.com/personal/xymox/fraud/hoax.htm

For those of you who are AOL members you may have trouble connecting to
many pages that may come up with a message such as "Page Does Not Exist"
and you can cure that by using your browser feature of Copy and Paste the URL
to your browser and then enter from there.

There are many other pages listed within this section and all may be viewed
freely by everyone.

The very best to you and yours.

Harold Oliver
America's First Families

California Sourcing Errors

America's First Families — 15 Jun 2004 7:08:08 GMT

Hello Everyone;

As most of you are aware the question of genealogical frauds and
hoaxes must be of concern to genealogists and researchers since
so much information out there is very questionable.

We have several pages on our web sites that will be of great help
to you in understanding what the problems are.

We have updated one of the pages in our Fraudulent Lineages area.
The page in question is titled;

BEWARE OF THE SOURCE HOAX

Many of you are quite aware of some of some of the ways frauds and
hoaxes are committed and you may need to review your lines to see if
possibly they may contain some of the situations we cover.

The URL for this page is;

http://www.linkline.com/personal/xymox/fraud/hoax.htm

For those of you who are AOL members you may have trouble connecting to
many pages that may come up with a message such as "Page Does Not Exist"
and you can cure that by using your browser feature of Copy and Paste the URL
to your browser and then enter from there.

There are many other pages listed within this section and all may be viewed
freely by everyone.

The very best to you and yours.

Harold Oliver
America's First Families

Massachusetts Sourcing Errors

Americas First Families — 15 Jun 2004 7:03:36 GMT

Sherry Foresman.. caution!!!

DebbieCoffman69 — 3 Feb 2005 12:10:10 GMT

Scotsorigins/Irishorigins/Origins.com - Are they reputable?

Kathy — 25 Sep 2003 8:54:54 GMT

Has anyone ever subscribed to Scotsorigins/ Irishorigins or Origins.com? Are they reputable? What kind of info is there?

Kathy

Attend Baker U. tuition free - Julia Barricklow m. Abraham Peaslee / Peasley

LMDupriest — 6 Mar 2004 4:12:42 GMT

Our famlly Bible shows a line back to Julia Barricklow, daughter of Henry Barricklow (1798-1872). We would appreciate help confirming the heritage of Julia, married to Abraham Peaslee (maybe Peasley), and that their son was in fact Herman Wilson Peaslee.

... BECAUSE ...

Last week we made the trip from Beaumont, Texas to Lawrence, Kansas to visit the "cousins." We stopped by Baker University (founded by Henry) in Baldwin, Kansas and found that hisdescendants can attend Baker Unieversity tuition-free for up to six years, saving about $17,000 per year.

Genealogy does pay!
Larry Dupriest
dgdupriest@gtis.net

Genseeker Scam

George Rogers — 28 Feb 2003 5:52:31 GMT

There is a frequently resurrected genealogy scam which is now located in Cedar Rapids and is now called:

FAMILY GENSEEKERS
314 66TH AVE SW #15
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA 52404
319-431-1997

The phone number is either a cell or unlisted.
Does anyone in the area know what type of building/neighborhood this address is?

The purpose of the scam is to acquire your credit card or bank account number.

GenealogyTechs.net -- Same wolf, new clothing

grammy — 2 Jan 2004 3:30:49 GMT

GenealogyTechs.net the "self-proclaimed" (right out of the email spam) $30 CD is the new incarnation of GenSeekers, GenealogyGiants, etc., etc. Looks like it's on a new server, too. See posts below for addresses to report this scam and the spam advertising it.

"CensusDiggins"

LisaMasters101 — 31 Jul 2002 4:41:37 GMT

There seems to be a problem of checks getting cashed, with out any work returned,
I would like hear from anyone who has had this happen to them.
Lisa

The "PERILS" of "Computrer Research"

Frank C. Durant — 5 Oct 2003 2:25:18 GMT

For Sixty-Eight (68) Years, the following "ERROR" has been Publicised into the Documentary Records the World-over that "JOHN B. McCANDLESS" was Married to My Great Great Grandmother "MARGERY HARDIN", daughter of Augustine Blackburn HARDIN, Sr. But that is NOT True. According to a Documentary Law Suit in Haskell, Texas, a Son of Margery HARDIN Swore that His Father was James (Madison) McCANDLESS, and who was the Nephew of John B. McCANDLESS, and who Married Casandra GORDON, and they Reared Eight Children, -- Our Attorneys of Houston, Texas, who had "Our People's Case" on the Court Dockets in Liberty, Texas, in about 1935, for Twelve Years, "Should have Known this", as Ample Records of John B. McCANDLESS are on Record in Austin, Texas. Many QUERIES, and Other Records, listed in the United States, Alaska and Canada,
Reflects this "Abominable" ERROR, -- Frank C. Durant, Mesquite, Texas 75149.

Family E-Biz 2003

swright1471 — 29 Dec 2004 6:03:50 GMT

Has anyone had any dealings with Family E-Biz 2003? I paid 54.99 through PayPal and then could not login. Attempts to use their customer service site at familyfinderhelp@yahoo.com comes back as undeliverable because they are not a user.

Person Locators & Finding lost relatives

Jerry Campbell — 29 Jul 2003 8:31:08 GMT

Hi everyone,

I have heard US Search mentioned here before. I tried them paid $60 up front, they couldnt find my Dad and it took me WEEKS to get my $60 back!

My neighbor told me about Person Finders ( www.personfinders.org ) Relucatant, I went to their website. Surprisingly, they dont take payment in advance in fact, they dont even ask for payment info up front!

The only thing they ask for is the info I have on who I am trying to find! They do the work before you pay.

20 minutes after I submitted the info I received an email advising me they had located my Dad. I returned to their website, paid the $19 fee on my credit card and 5 minutes later I had the information in my email address.

I called the nnumber they supplied to indeed find my Father! We ae getting together next month for the first time in 15 years.

I owe a great deal of thanks to www.personfinders.org and would recommend them to anyone thinking of using a pay service.

I like this one because there is nothing to lose.

J Campbell

SCAMS galore!!!!! Please read!!!!

sunkawakan — 30 May 2003 4:46:54 GMT

To all:

Both genseekers.com and genealogygiants.com are hosted by the same web provider (freewebspace.com), so are likely the same person. I'd suggest that you report them to this provider at:

http://help.freewebspace.com/cgi-bin/feedback?option=report_...

You can find out this information by checking Internic.net to determine the server that hosts them, and/or using a reverse DNS lookup to determine the domain that sent an email.

Genealogical Scams

Frank — 11 May 2003 5:47:21 GMT

Before subcribing to internet based genealogical sites, I thought I would first check for scams and came across this message board. Judging by what people have said, I now have second thoughts in subcribing to these sites. Here in the UK, ancestral information is harder to obtain than in the states and therefore subcribing to such a site is tempting. Thanks to all who have taken the time to put their observations and experiences on this message board. I for one will 'hold fire' until these genealogical sites get their act together and in the meantime I will take a Bus to the local Family Records Centre.

GenealogyGiants.com SCAM????

Annette Wappes — 8 Mar 2003 2:17:10 GMT

A few weeks ago I was approached by Genseekers.com with an offer of 2 years for the price of 1. I did an electronic debit and was allowed to use the website long enough to find something interesting and when I clicked on the link, it took me to genealogy.com and after that I was unable to get back into the Genseekers.com website.
I had paid for FREE information.
Yes. I had been suckered into a scam.
Now, I've had a similar offer from GenealogyGiants.com.
This time I had no reservations about hitting the delete button.
Forewarned is Forearmed! Buyer Beware!
I don't know who coined those terms, but I do know P.T. Barnum said, ' " There's a sucker born every minute." '
I don't intend to be a victim of any more scams and IF I can get the word out to anyone, who like me, is new to this Genealogy Game I intend to do it!
I believe that this website and all like it should not be dot com, but rather dot con.

Good luck to all of you with locating your ancestors.

genealogygiants-not a scam

liz — 6 Apr 2003 12:17:32 GMT

I just wanted people to hear that genealgygiants is not a scam like these people are portraying it is. I purchased the software wich is in ebook format and have found many usefull links. I know these links are free but I payed for a service wich it clearly states in the site. And this service is updated through an onlinesearch wich means I don't have to purchase another cd like with familytree maker. It bothers me when people compare companies that are'nt even conected. I have to had a bad expirience with genseekers also, thank god I payed by credit card and I can do a chrgeback. They never gave me a password? Good luck searching

GENEALOGISTS BEWARE SCAM: genealogydevelopments.com

J. Langdon — 5 Apr 2002 11:30:08 GMT

Genealogists:

I just wanted to bring it to the attention that the suppossed genealogy website.... www.genealogydevelopments.com

is a FRAUD!

They link the the major search engine's such as the beloved rootsweb search engine and Ancestry search engine... to name a few which are FREE... but they charge anywhere from $49.95 for a year or $36.95 for 6 Months to access the major search engines that are already available and free on the Web!

If you receive any SPAM from genealogydevelopments.com or genealogy-developments.com please report it to their webhosting provider... Currently www.interkey.net TechSupport@interkey.net

To find out who the current ISP provider for them is simply go to... http://www.networksolutions.com and do a WHOIS inquiry!

Just a heads up so you do not get scammed as I have!

Yours Truly,

-J. Langdon
jennilangdon@hotmail.com

Global CD Merchandise

Bonnie Jonas — 9 May 2002 8:52:47 GMT

I have used several of the CD's from Global CD over the years and have now passed them on to my daughter. We have found many useful details to help with our ancestor search. I am not sure why Mr. Jordon had a problem.

NY State Births & Deaths 1800s-1992-BEWARE!

KenJordan72 — 14 Oct 2003 8:50:24 GMT

I have been researching deaths in NY City in the early 1900s, so when I saw the above CD listed on Cyndi's List, I thought it was just what I needed. After paying $79 for it and receiving it, I found that it had only 4-5 deaths on it before 1950 in the whole state! What's more Global Data CD Publishers of St. George, UT refuses to refund my money. Talk about false advertising, that is a SCAM!