INMADISO-L Archives

Archiver > INMADISO > 2001-03 > 0984248329


From: "Patrick Hays" <>
Subject: [INMADISO-L] Fw: [USGENWEB-ALL-L] FW: [WIGEN-L] Family Discovery jumps to Prodigy
Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 12:18:49 -0600


Here is the information about the genealogy scam.

Patrick Hays
SC INGenWeb
http://www.ingenweb.net

----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 9:20 PM
Subject: [USGENWEB-ALL-L] FW: [WIGEN-L] Family Discovery jumps to Prodigy


> This is forwarded with permission. Please share with other USGenWeb
Project
> lists.
>
> Tina Vickery
> SC WIGenWeb Project
> _______
> Subj: [WIGEN-L] Family Discovery jumps to Prodigy
> Date: 3/9/01 1:04:09 PM Eastern Standard Time
> From: (zorblitz)
> Reply-to:
> To:
>
> True to their history, Family Discovery was getting "heat" for their
> business (mis) practices and have now jumped to Prodigy and are also
> using PayPal (info from the Belgium list). Their last server is thought
> to have dumped them after receiving numerous spam complaints. This
> company is thought to go to Gen sites of all kinds and pick the e-mail
> address off them to use for spam mailings of the $49.00 "service". In
> their spam, they say that another Gen site has suggested that they
> contact the recipient, when the original gen site does not even know it
> has been used for the addresses. Please consider encoding the e-mail
> addresses on sites into the name so they can not be easily picked off
> the pages. It means an extra "click" for visitors but the spammer's
> programs only "see" a name and no addresses to pick up. Here is the
> latest followed by a summery of recent events for anyone who wants a
> quick update on the matter.
>
> It looks like the fictitious Family Discovery genealogy service has
> moved to Prodigy now. I contacted Prodigy this morning and they have
> asked that anyone who receives solicitation email from
> familydiscovery.com to take the following steps immediately:
>
> 1) Forward the entire Family Discovery message to:
>
> 2) Include the following information (most of which was provided by
> Rita from the Oconto County, WI list):
>
> Please note that the attached message is now being sent through your ISP
>
> service. They have been reported to various State Attorney General's
> Office on computer fraud, but it is hard to catch up with them.
> Originally the "company" linked to free information sites and placed the
>
> pages in "frames" so that it looked like it was their own work.
> Customers paid for that information. The scam, now, is paying for the
> free information links and then they "move" frequently and leave their
> paid-up customers without services.
>
> 3) Post these same instructions on any other lists today so that
> Prodigy has a better chance of finding the spammers.
>
>
> ==== USGENWEB-ALL Mailing List ====
> The USGenWeb Project is not a commercial project.
>
>

This thread: