General Chat

Just had this email sent through one of my mailing lists.Thought it best to pass it on. 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. 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 a 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 [email protected]. 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.

Thanks for this Diane. As an older person I appreciate it on behalf of other older people because it seems we are most often the ones who get caught out by these con men . I'm always super cautious, but many are not, and too often end up losing money that they can ill afford. Thanks again, Di.

Di, You are very welcome. It amazes me what people try and get away with!

Thanks for that Diane. A true case of 'let the buyer beware'! Ann Glos

Thanks for the warning, looks as if he wont be getting any orders as the "pay by cheque" accout has been closed!!