Last week one of my regular chat visitors asked me about GenSeekers.com after having received an email advertising free trial access to millions of genealogy records. In a nutshell, my advice is to STAY AWAY or, at least, proceed with caution - this is one of several genealogy scams floating around the Web. Genseekers (AKA Family Discovery) has existed under numerous URLs over the past two years - including Genseekers.com, FamilyDiscovery.com, GenealogyGiants.com, GenealogyDevelopments.com, GenLocator.com, and so on. Some of the sites promise online access to the records, while others claim to provide the data on CD. The data is all easily found on the Internet for free if you're willing to spend the time searching on your own (the GenSeekers staff claim that their $59.95 access fee is to cover the time they have spent searching for and organizing all of the links). Additionally, in order to access the "5-day free trial" you have to surrender a credit card or bank account number. Many consumers have complained about not being able to cancel their subscription during this 5-day free trial period (the cancellation email bounces) and being charged automatically for a subscription without their approval.

Dick Eastman has written extensively on the GenSeekers scam in his Online Genealogy Newsletter over the past two years and, this week, delved into the details on the man behind Genseekers, 21-year-old Elias Abodeely. You can also find several discussions on the topic at GenSuck.com and Baddealings.com.

To protect yourself from genealogy scams:

Consult others.
Post to genealogy message boards or visit some of the sites which list genealogy hoaxes and scams. Find out whether people have heard of and/or used the service and solicit opinions on their experiences.

Read the fine print.
How much does the service cost? Do they provide a money-back guarantee? Include full contact information - including email, postal address, and phone number? Is the email address valid (i.e. try emailing with a question to make sure that it doesn't bounce)? Do a WhoIs search on the domain name to learn more about whom you're dealing with. Is the company registered with the BBB? (Genseekers.com is registered with the Iowa BBB and a simple search turns up numerous complaints against the company's practices). A simple query on a search engine such as Google (+"company name" +scam) will also tell you if others have had problems with a particular genealogical service.

More: Genealogy Hoaxes, Scams, & Fraud