The fast buck artists are still amongst us. In past years, I frequently
wrote about Halberts, claiming to be from Bath, Ohio, although they were actually
in nearby Akron. This company would send you an advertisement for "The
History Of Your Family Name" or the "Worldwide Registry Of Your Family
Name." The ads would speak glowingly about this marvelous publication with
its high quality binding. The ads were never very specific about the contents
of these books. After spending $30 or $40, the hapless buyers received a cheaply-produced
paperback containing basic "how to get started in genealogy" information
along with extracts from telephone books listing other people with the same
family name as the buyer.
Halberts went out of business in September 1999, blaming "competition
from the Internet" for their demise. By competition, they meant that potential
buyers of their books could find the same information at no charge on the Internet.
However, in a unique reversal of technology, the Internet is now the breeding
ground of "Halberts wannabees."
Several online Web sites promise a lot but seem to deliver less
than what the advertising insinuates. These sites often send "spam mail"
claiming that they have genealogy databases available to anyone willing to pay
for access. After spending $40 to $60 to access these "databases,"
the buyer discovers that the sites simply link to other sites containing free
databases. The free databases can be accessed from any search engine and many
genealogy link sites at no charge. In fact, many of the free databases have
been mentioned in previous editions of this newsletter.
In many cases the rip-off sites use HTML frames to make the databases
look as if they are a part of the original site. A "frame" allows
a Web site to display another Web site’s pages inside a page on the first
site. The first site supplies the header with their own logo, but the remainder
of the page originates elsewhere. The result looks as if it all originated on
the for-pay site. These rip-off sites are charging money to display information
that comes from someone else’s noble efforts to make genealogy information
available at no charge.
The prevalent offender today seems to be FamilyDiscovery.com.
This company owns several other Web sites as well. They don’t seem to have
many satisfied customers. The genealogy message boards and newsgroups are full
of reports from people who feel they have been ripped off by FamilyDiscovery.com
and its affiliated sites.
To read comments from many people about FamilyDiscovery.com as
well as comments about Genseekers.com and Genealogy-Express.com, go to: www.imagin.net/~tracers/familydiscovery.htm,
www.gensuck.com/FEATURES/familydiscovery/index.html,
hometown.aol.com/vikkigray/parkcensus.htm,
and groups.yahoo.com/group/badbusiness
If you feel that you have been ripped off by this or any other
U.S.-based company on the World Wide Web, you should file a complaint with the
U.S. Federal Trade Commission. That’s easy to do at the FTC’s Web
site, at: rn.ftc.gov/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01.
Dick Eastman Online
