Colorado State Attorney's Office files suit against Morphcorp

I have written about MorphCorp, Inc. and OurFamilyNewsletter.net a number of times. The company has been selling "family yearbooks" for years. They send advertisements for the "International [Surname] Family Yearbook" or similar titles. In this case, substitute your last name in place of "[Surname]." For instance, an advertisement sent to a person named Smith would peddle "The Smith Family Yearbook" while someone named Clark would receive an advertisement for "The Clark Family Yearbook."

You can read my most recent article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2004/07/international_s.html

About a year ago the company added an online web site to their bag of tricks. You can see the site at http://www.ourfamilynewsletter.net.

Now Colorado State Attorney General John Suthers has filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Morphcorp, as well as the company's president and general manager, Maxwell MacMaster, for alleged deceptive advertising and sales of "Family Yearbooks."

Suthers' lawsuit claims that Morphcorp marketed "Family Yearbook" as a product of genealogical research that was unique to the consumer's family history.

However, Morphcorp does not conduct any genealogical research specific to the family before printing the yearbook, according to the lawsuit. Much of the same information, including "family jokes and recipes" and family pictures appear in each yearbook regardless of the surname for which it was created, the attorney general's office said.

"Deceptive advertising will not be tolerated in Colorado," Suthers said in a statement.

MacMaster offered the "yearbooks" through direct-mail advertising, which included various false and misleading statements, according to the lawsuit.

Among those was a claim by MacMaster and his then-wife that they shared the same last name of the consumer to whom the flyer was sent, the lawsuit stated.

The lawsuit also alleges that Morphcorp engaged in improper pricing practices by falsely advertising that the yearbook was available at a "special pre-publication price" for a limited period of time, when in fact nearly all of the yearbooks sold were at the "special pre-publication price."

In most cases, that price was $44.85, including charges for shipping and handling.

The attorney general's lawsuit seeks a court order providing refunds to purchasers, civil penalties of up to $2,000 for each violation of the Consumer Protection Act, and attorney fees and costs.

The lawsuit also seeks an injunction preventing defendants from engaging in any future false and deceptive advertising of their merchandise.

Consumers with complaints regarding Morphcorp or the "Family Yearbook" may call the Colorado Consumer Line toll-free 1-800-222-4444 (in Colorado) or 1-800-332-2071 (out of state) or may download a complaint form from: www.ago.state.co.us/consline/complaint.pdf.

My thanks to
Jeffery G. Scism for notifying me about this latest legal action.

Comments

[Joe]

Jeff SCISM is totally responsible for finally getting the Colardo authorities to act on this scam. Jeff (we are homonymic cousins!!!!) & I found this over 5 yrs ago and recognized it for what it was, a near exact copy of the Halbert's operation in Ohio. Dick Eastman led the efforts in getting it shut down years ago. It was so similar that at first, Jeff & I were sure they were connected, but they were not. Soon after discovery we asked Dick, whom I have known personally for 15 yrs due to connections via now defunct Gentech and his pioneering Compuserve work, refused, effectively denying that the scam existed. Finally, about 18 months ago, he 'discovered' the scam and wrote about it.
Jeff continued to work, finally getting the attention of the proper authorities, providing them with guidance as to why it was a scam, how it worked, etc.
Jeff has been a tireless advocate for honesty, objectivity and integrity in commercial and non-profit organizations within the genealogy community, qualities in short supply far too frequently. He is currently serving on the USGenWeb board and other activities that benefit others. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude for his longstanding unselfish efforts.

[Dick Eastman]

I have to correct one statement in the above comments. I first wrote about this "Family Newsletter" scam more than four and a half years ago in the March 12, 2001 edition of this newsletter. You can read that newsletter in this site's archives at http://eogn.com/archives/news0111.htm

I wrote about the same company again in the following newsletters:

March 4, 2002, at http://eogn.com/archives/news0209.htm

October 13, 2003, at http://eogn.com/archives/news0341.htm

July 19, 2004, at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2004/07/international_s.html

July 18, 2005, at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2005/07/international_s.html

- Dick Eastman

[Jeff]

Dick, has also been active in pursuing Genealogy scams, and has also kept this and other issues in the public eye. Although through my website, I warn of scams and other issues that are potentially damaging to genealogists, Dick's newsletter is proactively seeking out his audience and gets the word out pretty effectively.

My concerns with scams like this and the Elias Abodeely one several years ago is that the penalties imposed do not stop these scammers from continuing.

Getting the potential victims to do a little web rersearch is the important goal, and bringoing the information forth to the public BEFORE they lose money and esteem, is why I and Dick keep doing what we do.

It takes not only recognition of what is going on, but a willingness to educate the victims, and often the authorities.

Let's see how long this effort lasts.

Jeff Scism,
Genealogy Hall of Shame

[Jeff]

Just a follow-on. MorphCorp, has other aliases they use, mountain West News service, Mountain Pacific News, and others. Indications are that they are not only into Genealogy activities, but other things as well. Perhaps this "civil suit" ( $300 million in projected fines) will lead to a criminal prosecution as well, for mail and wire fraud. MorphCorp opened it's doors in Parker, Colorado in 1985, less than a year after "Halbert's of Bayh Ohio, a company owned by NUMA Corp, was shut down for running identical operations, right down to the wording of the sales brochures, by the US Postal Inspectors.

The problem is that sanctions against a corporate entity do not carry when that entity shuts down and just reopens in a different jurisdiction, under a new name and reported "new" owners.

It is difficult to prove that the change of Identity is just that, rather than a new "entity" unrelated to the original.

Jeff Scism

[Helen Shaw]

My mother's maiden name is very unusual and her brothers have received scam mail for family genealogies in the past so I wasn't surprised when my uncle arrived for Thanksgiving dinner carrying an envelope for the latest version. I brought the material home in order to pass the information on to someone like Dick Eastman, and was happy to see that the matter was already being addressed.

On a similar note, my mother received a come-on to provide a list of source material for her family history which at first glance also appeared to be a scam. This one requested no money and a very close review of the pages showed the notice came from Ancestry. I was able to tell my mother it was not a
scam and that since I subscribe to Ancestry I could provide the same information they were offering.

However, I must express my disappointment in Ancestry for the manner of their solicitation. If they don't want to be lumped with the scammers, an introductory page explaining who and what they are along with the cost involved in subscirbing to their services, would be helpful to potential customers.

[Jeff Scism]

familynewsabout.com is the new incarnation of Morphcorp, as I predicted above, they just changed shirts and reopened. (Under the Mountain West News Corp ownership, didn't I say that too?)

Jeff Scism
forty years and the scam still lives...

[Jeff Scism]

Sorry Mountain Pacific News Corp.... no matter they are BOTH Morphcorp...

[Katie]

We just received a flyer from these folks.........complete with mis-spelling our name. So apparently they are going strong in 2008.

[Ron Ufkes]

I suspected something was amiss when the flyer suggested that I. Ufkes incredibly continued to do something in California in the 1850's. The Ufkes' came to America in the 1880's.

[Joseph L. Mimms, 1617 Eden hall Road, Bradley,SC 29819]

i received my book from familynewsabout.com auroa,xco.80014.
this book is nothing as to wat said my family ,mimma has only 1
entry and then thay have the wrong phone number and address also.
i have trying to call the company and the operator say there is no phone nmumbber. I don't like getting took or taken advantage of( i could use other words but i want) without a kiss, i can not under stand how they get by this.maby you can get a phone number for me. IU will leave my address and email, thanks'

[Dick Eastman]

Contact the Colorado Consumer Line toll-free 1-800-222-4444 (in Colorado) or 1-800-332-2071 (out of state) or you may download a complaint form from: www.ago.state.co.us/consline/complaint.pdf