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AncestryDNA

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AncestryDNA

Unread postby FoolMeOnce68 » Sun Sep 23, 2018 4:14 am

Good day. This site was so helpful to me and seemingly tens of thousands more, I thought I’d post a question here. Now that I’ve been scammed once, I’m even more critical than I once was.

Has anyone been or heard about, the possibility of being scammed through ancestry.com? I have folks contacting me via that app, who share common DNA, and seem like they could be part of my family based on the DNA analysis - showing extremely high probability - but I’m not sure if it’s real or a scam. They haven’t asked for money, or gift cards or to meet or start a relationship, just said they are looking for answers. The other part of this is, if Ancestry.com shows a high level of probability, does anyone else think this is something that can be spoofed?

Thanks for all the help.
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Re: AncestryDNA

Unread postby firefly » Sun Sep 23, 2018 1:39 pm

We cannot say that Ancestry.com is a scam. There are many complaints online about it, but not enough information shared to prove it.

Yes, genealogy can be used to defraud people online, and you have an example on how this can be done here:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5879.
Help yourself by helping others - report your scammer here.
Google can be your best friend;use it if you have doubts about someone met online. If someone met online only asks for money, no matter what reason, it´s 100% scam.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=26504
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Re: AncestryDNA

Unread postby SlapHappy » Sun Sep 23, 2018 4:52 pm

How did you receive the messages? Through your brand new email address or the old one that you looked at and opened? Were they out of the blue messages and you are not a member of ancestry?

Or was it through ancestry account that you joined? When did you join if so? Before or after you were scammed?
If you registered an ancestry account, did you use your new email address to open it?
Does ancestry have a separate app used on phone or pc?

----
If you joined ancestry (or any other website out there for that matter):

You may want to consider some of the implications to privacy when you open yourself up the the entire world.
I believe that you can set privacy to private (nobody can see your contact information) or public (open to the world.)
Also consider who else will get your information from ancestry when you agree to their terms of service.
Perhaps they reserve the right to sell your information to other companies??
Data leaks do occur online, so you should consider this as well.

Here are a few articles and a link to ancestry blog that might answer some of the other questions you may have,
You'll have to do your own research and make your own decisions on whether you want to open yourself up. share, and give away very personal information of yours when in contact with complete strangers to you or not.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-n ... ts-n824776
https://now.tufts.edu/articles/pulling- ... stry-tests
https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/loc ... 831431001/
https://www.newsweek.com/genetic-tests- ... rns-723091

https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/201 ... cestrydna/
If anyone asks you for money on the Internet they are always a scammer, 100% of the time.
Blackmail Scammed? Go here: https://www.scamsurvivors.com/blackmail/#/
FAQ viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19
Victim of a scam? Go here: https://scamsurvivors.com/forum/viewtop ... =3&t=26504
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Re: AncestryDNA

Unread postby FoolMeOnce68 » Wed Oct 24, 2018 12:06 am

SlapHappy

Thank you for the reply, I forgot I posted in here and am just now coming back to see if I could possibly offer some assistance to others, and found your reply.

I joined Ancestry.com before my scam attempt and it was joined under the email address that was associated to my scam. I have long since changed the associated email with that account and the phone number associated was never one shared with my scammer. My profile from the beginning was as private as the site would allow and contact was only allowed via the anonymous internal messaging system.

I received the messages from within the Ancestry.com messaging system, specifically from a mutual DNA contact. According to AncestryDNA, we have a certainty of being close family, with a High Probability. The randomness is that this person elected to contact me, as did one of the other family members in that same tree line.

I contacted AncestryDNA to ask them about the likelihood of a scammer being able to reach me through their internal site and they are fairly confident that IF someone matched any or all of my DNA and showed high probability of a connection, then the odds of it being a scammer are next to zero. They confirmed it's all scientific and that all results are published/posted based on the factual results of the DNA testing.

In closing, this was not a random email received to a new email address, from someone within Ancestry.com, specifically targeting me and they haven't asked for money or assistance. I will review all of the links you provided, as you always provide fantastic insight and information. I refuse to let my guard down after what happened so I'm always skeptical about anything like this. This does have a bit of a legit feel to it, but only because they aren't asking me for private information like address or phone number or other relatives or asking me for money. They are merely saying they believe we are relatives based on the common results of our DNA.

Thank you again, I hope that I was able to answer your questions as sufficiently as you answered mine.

Cheers,
FoolMeOnce68
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