Why You Should Avoid ‘Ancestry’ Sites
It is probably no secret based on my past comments that I dabble a bit on the “Pirate” side of the internet. However identity theft and credit card fraud have never been part of my repertoire.
The prolific growth of these internet based ancestry sites has proven to be a major boon to those whose scruples are not so refined unfortunately.
Mothers maiden name? You gave it to them.
Date of birth? You gave it to them.
Place of birth? You gave it to them.
And that is just the “required” information you give up on your profile, which will easily allow the pirate to acquire even more of your info. Most add considerably more details hoping for more responses from other possible branches of the family not realizing that the Pirates are watching with bated breath.
On a “Dateline” special on identity theft a year or so ago they created two credit card accounts with a $1000.00 limit and posted them on two sites where people “share/trade” credit card numbers they have stolen or misappropriated somehow. The first false charge that came in on each card was to ancestry.com for a membership and free access to all the other members entire posted information.
DO NOT JOIN THESE SITES!
As a first hand witness to the postings at a few places that need to remain unnamed here I can tell you that they have a couple of names for you if you do, A. Mark and A. Sucker.