Genealogy Scam

[Dan in Saint Louis]

A digital "vanity publisher," Kindle, is pushing books on amazon.com that they claim are authored by ancestry.com. Looks like the old scammers are back in business. Just search amazon.com for "The XXXXX Name in History."

Bourne (http://www.amazon.com/Bourne-Name-History-Ancestry-com/dp/B000W1D7WU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203974240&sr=1-1)

King (http://www.amazon.com/King-Name-History-Ancestry-com/dp/B000W1D310/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203974282&sr=1-1)

Landers (http://www.amazon.com/Landers-Name-History-Ancestry-com/dp/B000W1B8V2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203974156&sr=8-1)

Markowitz (http://www.amazon.com/Markowitz-Name-History-Ancestry-com/dp/B000W1DOXC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203974326&sr=1-1)

Russell (http://www.amazon.com/Russell-Name-History-Ancestry-com/dp/B000W1HWSA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203974203&sr=1-1)

[Mike]

<sigh>

A few years ago, my mother might have fallen for this. Finally, she's getting skeptical about stuff on the Internet!

[Judy G. Russell]

A digital "vanity publisher," Kindle, is pushing books on amazon.com that they claim are authored by ancestry.com. Looks like the old scammers are back in business. Just search amazon.com for "The XXXXX Name in History."Not quite as bad as the old scammers, who would give you phony family trees. From what I can see, this just gives you info about the name itself, and specific people who bore the name, and not the genealogy associated with the name. The fact is, of course, and you're quite right to call it a scam, people will say (as a distant cousin of mine did): "Well, we're Buchanans and so we descend from..." when there isn't the slightest bit of evidence for the line of descent.

[Lindsey]

A digital "vanity publisher," Kindle, is pushing books on amazon.com that they claim are authored by ancestry.com. Looks like the old scammers are back in business. Just search amazon.com for "The XXXXX Name in History."
Geez, there are already more Bourne groups just in Virginia than I can sort through, and this book is supposed to be a definitive account of the families of that name throughout the whole world? GMAFB. Unfortunately, though, they'll probably find plenty of gullible takers.

Just for kicks, I clicked on the Amazon.com link. It's probably significant that the book doesn't have a way for you to browse through the pages. There's only one "editorial" review (author unidentified), but under the heading of "Tags Customers Associate with Similar Products," the most frequently used one was "avoid." :D (Two others used were "disappointment" and "ripoff.")

--Lindsey