Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

The Dark Side: Genealogy Rip-Offs Listed

Ninety-nine percent of the businesses that sell products and services to genealogists are legitimate companies that work hard at supplying the best products possible. This article will focus on the other 1%.

It seems that scam artists have been around forever in the world of genealogy. They existed centuries ago, and they exist today. I have written about a number of them in past newsletters, and you may encounter still more such scams if you use any modern Internet search engine.

As a convenience for newsletter readers, I am compiling a list of alleged genealogy scams. In short, this list will be updated as often as necessary and will contain the name and web site of each company that reportedly delivers less than what they advertise to the genealogy marketplace. Whenever possible, the listing will include a link to other web pages where the reader may find further details. These are the web sites and e-mail messages that generate the majority of messages that I receive from concerned newsletter readers.

Potentially Fraudulent Sites Posing as Genealogy Websites

Writing in the Ancestry.com blog, Mike Ward is warning other genealogists of fraudulent web sites posing as genealogy sites. These sites take your credit card information and provide little in return.

Mike writes:

Fraudster Pretends to be a Genealogist to Steal Identities

New Zealander Kevin Anthony Osborne had a lucrative scam going. He applied to District Courts for birth certificates, sometimes ordering large amounts of data, claiming he was conducting genealogy research. He looked for males with birth dates near his own who had died. He then assumed their identity, applied for admission at various universities, and then applied for student loans.

“A couple of occasions they wrote to the courts saying they were conducting a genealogy research, and could they have the birth certificates for x amount of people, and they were subsequently supplied with them,” says Detective Sergeant Nigel Hughes, from Christchurch police.

How Much Does an Inkjet Printer Really Cost?

Inkjet printers are really cheap these days. Or are they? To be sure, local computer stores sell inkjet printers for $29.99 (see BestBuy's site for one such example). You can't get much cheaper, right? Well, sort of. In fact, I purchased a Macintosh computer last year, and Apple even included a “free” inkjet printer. You can't get much cheaper than free.

However, all printers have hidden costs in the form of ink or toner. In fact, most manufacturers lose money on the sale of the printers but make huge profits on the sale of inkjet cartridges. Would you believe that the “low cost” inkjet printer you use is consuming ink at the rate of roughly $3,000 a quart? That's a higher price than the very best cognac or ladies' perfume!

Update: Own a Piece of the Scottish Highlands?

This article is an update of one that first appeared in the November 18, 2002 issue of this newsletter. It seems that little has changed in past four and a half years.

Clett Island is situated on Loch Dunvegan in the heart of the Scottish Highlands. The island has a long history, witnessing several of Scotland's historic events. Previous owners of the island include Olave the Black (a Norwegian warlord) in 1200 A.D., the MacDonald clan, their rivals the MacLeods, as well as popular 1960s folk singer Donovan. There is no source of fresh water on the island. There is no regularly-scheduled boat service, and there is no place to land an airplane, other than perhaps a helicopter. The island remains deserted today.

Richard Haigh, the present owner of the island, decided to sell the uninhabited island. Claiming that he wishes to preserve the past, Haigh is selling small plots on Clett Island as "Heritage Land Plots." His advertising is mostly aimed at Americans and Canadians, apparently appealing to those of Scottish descent. However, the Scottish National Parliament (SNP) claims that the deeds issued are not worth the paper they are written on.

Improve Your Passwords

I had a recent conversation with a newsletter reader about passwords. The reader was asking about identity theft and the security of passwords. The person worried that a hacker could crack a password that consists of a family name or a pet's name or some similar word. I agree with her. Never use a single word or name to protect something you value.

Security experts will tell you to always use passwords that are non-words. Instead, all passwords should be lengthy and should also be a jumble of letters and numbers, such as:

iltstwan7daw

I've Been Ripped Off! Have You?

I have been ripped off, and so have a number of other genealogy authors. A sharp-eyed newsletter reader passed along a web site address that is in serious violation of copyrights. It seems that Genealogy, Hunt for Ancestors at http://www.targetdates.com is copying articles from this newsletter and other genealogy blogs. The articles are being posted on http://www.targetdates.com without permission of or credit to the original authors. It appears that the owner of Genealogy, Hunt for Ancestors hopes to generate a profit by attracting people to the site and then displaying Google ads to them.

If you write a genealogy blog, you might want to visit http://www.targetdates.com to see if your articles are being republished without permission.

MorphCorp Settles in the Case of Deceptive Genealogy "Books"

MorphCorp is a Denver-based company that for years has produced International (Surname) Family Yearbooks. Insert your name in place of (Surname). For instance, when publishing a book claiming to be about my family, they would call it the "International Eastman Family Yearbook." If publishing about the Clark family, they would call it the "International Clark Family Yearbook."

These so-called books were not worth the paper they were printed on. You can read the review of these books that I wrote eighteen months ago at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2004/07/international_s.html. Now Colorado' s Attorney General John W. Suther has gone after the company and stopped the scam.

Does This Genealogy Site Sell Your Information?

A newsletter reader posed a question this week:

The small historical society I belong to received the following email. Do you know anything about this group? I don't want to see us get hit by one of the genealogy scams.

In fact, I didn't know anything about the site at www.FamilyTrackers.com, so I decided to investigate.

Check Washing

This article has nothing to do with genealogy. However, it is a follow-up to an earlier article I wrote when someone questioned the safety of credit cards versus checks when making purchases online from an online genealogy vendor.

How would you like to hand someone a blank check? Pretty dumb, right? Well, you are doing just that if you send a check in the mail or hand a check to someone in a store.