Online Genealogy, DNA testing and lottery websites under the scanner
Photo by: Jurvetson
In a concerted worldwide action, twenty consumer protection agencies under the umbrella organization of International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network, are investigating websites that offer online genealogical services, DNA testing and the chance to take part in lottery contests, for scam. The action was taken with the intention of purging the online terrain off internet scams and sham practices.
Investigators are especially training their guns on websites that come up for an internet search of the keywords ‘anti-ageing’ and ‘instant millionaire’. As a result, websites that offer services like online DNA testing, family history searches and lotteries are all falling under their scanner.
Notably, the internet is presently rife with shady websites that claim to offer genealogical services. That is, for a fee, they offer to trace out your family tree and find your ancestors. Some of them, it was observed, were offering overseas records after claiming to find ancestors locally. In other cases, users subscribing to the services were given practically useless information or such information that they freely would have been able to get elsewhere.
Online lotteries have long been known to harbor scams. Aside from outright scams, some also attempt to cheat by clefting unfair terms into the contests.
Sites that are under investigation now would be asked to bear out their claims. Those unable to do so would be asked either to remove the objectionable claims from the website or to take off the entire website from the online domain.
Source: Stuff.co.nz
Related posts:
October 1st, 2008 at 6:51 am
http://genealogy.darlingranges.com/genealogy-2008-10-01-114006/
[...] Online Genealogy, DNA testing and lottery websites under the scanner
By admin Photo by: Jurvetson.
In a concerted worldwide action, twenty consumer protection agencies under the umbrella organization of International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network, are investigating websites that offer online[...]