The message below came from another list I belong to. Passing it along FYI.
Subject: Rip-offs of the genealogy community continues
Good Morning, friends and cousins in the genealogy community!
The response to the identification of the genealogy rip-off operation in
Denver last week has been tremendous with a steady stream of requests for
add'l info. The operation in Denver with a newly discovered "branch" in
Utah
is an incarnation of the identical scheme that Halbert's used. The same form
letters, books and newsletters are being sold, and the same fake "Crests" and
other products are being created "to
exacting standards".
The new incarnation has not yet been linked financially to Halbert´s or NUMA
Halbert parent), but the resemblance is so close, they could be joined at
the hip, operating under dba's Mountain West News Service, Mountain Pacific
News Service, and MORPHCORP. The Better Business Bureau reports that the
company has joined the BBB in January 2000, opened in 1985, and is rated as
satisfactory. A complete history of Halbert's, courtesy of Jeff Scism
(despite our surname homonyms, we ain't kin --- he hopes!) is available a
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~blksheep/shame/halberts.htm
Volunteers interested in assisting in informing the genealogy community of
this scam have come out of the woodwork. We would ask the recipients of this
email the following:
1) A sample of the Colorado flyer is at
http://www.dfc.cc/CyberCousins/genfraud.jpg
Print it and post in the genealogy section at your library with appropriate
message and make announcements at your gensoc.
2) After you have read it, as a researcher you realize the fraud that it is.
Go to the Federal Trade Commissions website at
https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.htm and file a complaint ONLINE. For a
sample complaint and further detailed information to use, please go to
http://www.dfc.cc/CyberCousins/complaint.txt
3) Forward this to every list you are on.
4) If you are a member of NGS (shane(a)ngsgenealogy.org) or FGS
(fgs-office(a)fgs.org), contact those organizations and ask that they get
members motivated. Gentech, Inc. (beau(a)connect.net) has a director and a
well-known regular conference speaker in the Denver metro. I asked them to do
some local research. No response to date.
5) Contact every genealogy columnist whose work you read, both local and
online such as Myra Gormley (myravg(a)prodigy.net} or Dick Eastman
(ROOTS(a)compuserve.com) who was stalwart in early work on Halbert's, both of
whom, as well as others, are on this list. No response to date.
6} If you have rec'd a flyer yourself, please report the names and addresses
to me. We need to know all the DBAs they are using. Then take it to the
local post office and file a complaint.
7) If you are in the Denver area, we need search of the court house records
to determine any corporate connections. If we can make a corporate
connection, I am fairly sure the restraints placed on Halbert's can be
extended by the proper authorities.
8) If you are a supplier (software, services, researcher) to the genealogy
community, this type of scam effects you even more. Contribute to the effort.
9) This is no small time scam. Halbert's is owned by a company named NUMA
whih in turn is owned by CENDANT. Go to
http://itjobs.cendant.com/cendant_co.html to find other Cendant companies.
You will NOT be happy with how you have been doing business with folks like
this --- I promise you.
These scams are more likely to rip off folks less involved in genealogy than
most recipients of this msg. Most of us will recognize it for what it is and
trash it. That does not relieve us of the responsibility of making it more
difficult for these and other parasites within our community to enjoy their
ill-gotten gains. I have found far too many that "don't want to get
involved", "Didn't happen on my watch." (to use an old Navy excuse),
running
from controversy and responsibility. Let us unite in eradicating those that
are behind an obvious attempt to profit unethically from the popularity of
genealogy.