Hello All,
Just wanted to let you know that there is a new potential threat to our
genealogical world out there. There is a program called FakeFamily being offered
to anyone who wants to make a fast buck. This program generates a fake family
tree which is then posted to a website and loaded with advertisers links, and
money is generated every time someone clicks on one of these links.
The potential harm is in the fact that Google, Yahoo, and other search
engines will pick up these fake sites as legitimate genealogical and family history
sites and will direct the searcher to false information. This is especially
harmful to new and inexperienced genealogy buffs.
PLEASE, PLEASE verify everything you find on the web with primary sources.
There is already a lot of misinformation out there, and FakeFamily threatens to
make the situation much worse.
The inventor of this software apparently has absolutely no regrets about the
potential harm he is causing. Obviously, he has no morals either!
You can read more about this threat at the following links:
http://eogn.typepad.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2005/11/generating_fake...
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,635160683,00.html
Joyce Carey,
List Mom
care5678(a)aol.com