I thought this might interest some people since we all are so willing to
grab any information we can to help us in our quest.
Nancy M. Dickinson
Fayette County Rootsweb Webmaster
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohfayett
One of the top stories in 2003 in this newsletter was the arrest of Elias
Abodeely, a 23-year-old in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who ran a string of pseudo
genealogy sites. His arrest didn't seem to deter him: 2004 has started
off with a rash of the same advertising.
For those who missed it, let's briefly recap this scam. The sites
involved included
GenSeeker.com,
GenSeekers.com,
genealogydevelopments.com,
familydiscovery.com,
genealogyfinders.net,
genlocator.com,
genealogy-express.com, and probably many others. Abodeely
would send out spam mail from one site, then collect money until the
complaints mounted, and his site eventually would be shut down by the
hosting service. A week or two later he would appear with a new name and
a new site on a different hosting service conducting essentially the same
business. To access his sites, the hapless buyer paid $40 to $60 (the
exact amount varied from time to time). None of these sites contained any
genealogy information; they simply had pointers to free sites where
information could be found. In other words, the buyer paid $40 to $60 to
access something that was already available free of charge.
Abodeely eventually ran into lots of legal difficulties. On August 1,
2003, he was arrested in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on felony charges of
first-degree theft, money laundering, and ongoing criminal activity. He
was released later that day, and a court appearance on those charges
still has not yet been scheduled.
You can read about Abodeely's arrest in my newsletter at:
http://www.eogn.com/archives/news0331.htm, in the Des Moines register at
http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4788998/21905604.html and at
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=elias+...
ested&btnG=Google+Search.
His arrest did not slow Abodeely very much. A month later he appeared
selling "self-renewing" genealogy CD-ROM disks under the name
GenealogyTechs.com. That site actually was registered to Andrew Abodeely.
I obtained one of these "self-renewing" genealogy CD-ROM disks and wrote
about it in detail in the September 29, 2003 Plus Edition of this
newsletter.
GenealogyTechs.com was shut down the day after my article was
published.
Things have been quiet for the past three months, but on January 2, 2004,
a number of newsletter readers reported receiving some fishy-looking spam
mail messages. In fact, the messages appear to be word-for-word the same
as the old ads for "self-renewing" genealogy CD-ROM disks sent earlier
from
GenealogyTechs.com - except that the new ads are coming from
GenealogyTechs.net. That's right: the only difference is the previously
shut down dot-COM is now replaced by a newly-registered dot-NET.
A quick check of the WHOIS information shows that
Genealogytechs.net is
registered to the same address as
GenealogyTechs.com: 1013 Agate Street,
Suite B, San Diego, CA 92109, the business address of Andrew Abodeely.
That is also the same address that ships the worthless "self-renewing"
genealogy CD-ROM disks.
In short, the Abodeelys seem to have reappeared after a three-month
hiatus. Elias Abodeely's earlier arrest for felonies doesn't seem to have
fazed either of the Abodeelys at all. At the time these words are being
written,
http://www.genealogytechs.net is up and running and looks almost
identical to the previously shut down
http://www.genealogytechs.com.
It is also interesting to note that the new site is like the old one in
several respects, especially in that it cannot handle credit cards.
Instead, the buyer is suckered into paying by an "e-check" that extracts
money directly from the buyer's checking account with no credit card
involved. Beware! This is one method by which the earlier sites allegedly
extracted money time and again from a buyer's checking accounts! Several
buyers thought they paid once but, after examining their end-of-month
checking account statements, found that they had been charged time and
again without permission. That is one of the actions that led to Elias
Abodeely's arrest.
Why would a company not offer payment by credit card? That is extremely
rare in the online world. The answer is simple: the owner's credit rating
is so poor that he cannot obtain the merchant account required to be able
to accept credit cards. In this case, he cannot even obtain a PayPal
account, which is easy for mostpeople to obtain. No credit card service
will give a merchant account to someone awaiting trial on charges of
money laundering by using credit cards! Without access to a credit card
merchant account, the Web site owner is forced to resort to online
checks, a risky method for any buyer considering an online purchase.
Remember that purchases made online with VISA, MasterCard or American
Express are fully insured against fraud by the credit card companies. If
you get "ripped off" by a shady merchant when using a credit card, the
credit card companies will immediately refund all of your money and then
will pursue resolution with the merchant. PayPal transactions are also
fully insured in the same manner. However, if you pay by check, you have
no such protection. That is true both for paper checks as well as for
"e-checks." You receive only whatever insurance your local bank provides.
Sadly, most banks provide no protection at all against fraudulent
purchases made with a check or with a debit card.
Send a check to a con artist? You lose.
Any time you see a Web site offering something for sale and not accepting
credit cards, ask yourself, "Why does this merchant not accept credit
cards? Not even via PayPal?" Most of the time, it is because that
merchant has severe financial problems. Then ask yourself if you really
want to do business with such a merchant.
If you receive a spam mail from
GenealogyTechs.net or any
similar-sounding scam, please forward it to the Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
Police Department's Financial Crimes Division at
k.washburn(a)cedar-rapids.org. I suspect they have an interest in the
"business activities" of this person, who is awaiting a court appearance
after being arrested by that department. Please feel free to also enclose
a copy of this article. You can read more about the Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
Police Department's Financial Crimes Division at
http://www.cedar-rapids.org/police/financial_crimes.asp.
Please feel free to also forward this article to other genealogists,
newsgroups, mailing lists, and anywhere else you feel is appropriate.
What Do You Think? Comments and discussion are available on this
newsletter's Discussion Board at:
http://www.eogn.com/discussionboard
Michelle
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liberty-- the only one. People went to America to be free. -- Margaret
Thatcher
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Happy hunting, Helen (DCGS)