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PROBLEM: Spam and a Bad Web Site
DearREADERS,
Many have written to complain about a lot of spam mail, and mention of a new genealogy web site. The message board administrators, and USGenWeb volunteers have been e-mailing back and forth. The following is perhaps the BEST description of the problem. Avoid this web site!
Forwarded with permission from Teresa Lindquist, a KS CC who tried out the
"Angie's Genealogy Research Site" link which has been making the rounds in the USGenWeb Project and Rootsweb mailing lists lately.
-- Teresa stresses that the information she got was certainly NOT correct, by any stretch of the imagination.
Alice
USGenWeb CC forClark Co. WA
http://www.rootsweb.com/~waclark/clark.htm
Listmom for WACLARK-L
----- Original Message -----
From: merope < merope@Radix.Net >
To: <USGENWEB-ALL-L@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 7:43 AM
Subject: [ALL-L] Angie's Genealogy Page
> This may interest some of you that have received the spam messages from
> mailto:'sussex@sussex.com, "clark@clark.com" etc., that take you to
> http://65.10.15.149/FreeGen/ This is "Angie's genealogy Page". I took
> the plunge and registered [big mistake, my email address is probably on
> its way to spam central as we speak], and here's what happened.
>
> After about a day I got a confirmation email. I tried to click on the
> link to confirm my membership and it timed out for a couple of days.
> Finally got in. Once you are a confirmed member, it takes you to a
> search screen. You start out with "50 credits". Each surname search
> costs you two credits. To get more credits, you need to send $10 to
> "Angie Giles, P.O.Box 873, Rowlett,TX 75030-0873". Each credit costs one
> cent. I searched on "Smith" and got the results "Name not yet in database
> or surname/givenname missing. Use back button and try again." And I'm
> now down to 48 credits. :) Tried "Jones". Same result. Down to 46
> credits. Tried "John Smith" [perhaps a given name is required].
> Ahhh..this time the search took an incredibly long time [several minutes]
> and pulled up a large number of "John Smith" entries, with the following
> information: "Surname, Given Name | Sex | Birth Date | Spouse 1 | Spouse 2
> | Spouse 3 | Spouse 4 | Spouse 5". A sample entry looks like this:
> "SMITH, JOHN |Bet. 1827-1847 SCROGGINS, VONNIE LIQUITA|
> | |". Then you are asked to select one name for further searching. Each
> search of this list costs 6 credits. The next screen gives you their
> parents and offers you the opportunity to "expand the information" at a
> cost of 6 credits [I'm now down to 38].
>In this particular example, JOHN
> SMITH has no info for his parents, but additional marriage information is
> available and there is info on his spouse VONNIE LIQUITA SCROGGINS,
> including her parents and children [interestingly enough, her children
> with John all have the last name of Jordan.] I chose to expand her
> father's information, HENRY AARON SCROGGINS. The information for Henry
> lists his date and place of birth and death [1902-1948].
>Now I think this
> odd, since his daughter's husband was supposedly born between 1827 and
> 1847 and he died between 1872 and 1933, but no birth and death info is
> given for Vonnie or her mother [and I am now down to 20 credits]. Trying
> to access information on her children resulted in repeated server errors,
> but did not cost me any additional credits. When I finally did access her
> kids, there was no birth or death date information, although some of them
> did have spouses and kids listed [2 credits remaining]
>
> Just for the heck of it, I did a search for which I did not have enough
> credits. The search was completed and shows a credit of -4. When I
> tried to go past that point, I got this message "You are out of credits.
> To order more credits: One credit equals 1 cent, send a minimum of $10
> to: Angie Giles, P.O.Box 873, Rowlett,TX 75030-0873 Be sure to include
> your email address."
>
> So, what did I get for my 50 free credits? Well, obviously incorrect
> information, for one thing. Very little of any use, even if I were
> researching "John Smith". And in order to explore this further, I need to
> send $10 to a complete stranger who has a P.O. Box in Texas.
>
> Oh, and for those of you who care about that sort of thing, NO source
> information was provided for any of this.
>
> -Teresa
> merope@radix.net
In my humble opinion, it is just this sort of person and web site that spoils the reputation of online genealogical research. BEWARE!
Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy
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