What genealogy sites have you found that use bait and switch?

[Ted Pack]

What genealogy sites have you run across that are “bait and switch”, besides ancestry.com?

Details:

There are three marketing models for commercial web sites. The first is free, with advertising. Google and Facebook are both truly free, both supported by advertising, and both successful.

The second is subscription. I get 2 – 3 offers a week that sneak through the spam filter offering me pornography for $14.95 a month, so those spring to mind.

The third is “bait and switch”. Classmates.com was the first I found, 10 years ago. They advertised “We have 10,000,000 entries. One might be your long-lost best friend. Free registration.” I dutifully registered, with my name, e-mail address, state, city, school and graduation year. They showed me the names of 40 – 50 old classmates, then told me I couldn’t write to any unless I subscribed. Now they could say “We have 10,000,001 entries …”. Registration was free, all right; it was just useless. Mylife is about the same; free registration, but you can’t write to anyone unless you subscribe. Ancestry gives you some data for free – their query boards are full of nuggets, for instance – so they are not as bad, although much of what they give you for free is a powerful lure to at least try a 14-day trial.

From the questions we see here constantly, with “FREE” in all caps and repeated several times, I suspect there are genealogy sites that let you register for free, then spring the subscription on you, after you have found someone you are interested in. I also suspect the newcomers to our sport have tried those first, with increasing frustration.

NewspaperArchive.com was “bait and switch”, as I recall. Have you run across any others? I’m old and cynical enough I don’t believe most advertising. I spend 90% of my “hunting” time with my ancestry subscription, find-a-grave, the Mormons, and US Gen Web. As a result, I haven’t tried a lot of other sites.

[ashley]

I don't know if this is considered Bait and Switch, but RootsIreland is a kind of a ripoff. To search their database is "free", but they only show you five of the hits. You have to buy "credits" to see the complete list... and then MORE credits if you want to click on a hit to see the actual record. I spent $70 in about 20 minutes the other night... but I did find some great stuff, for a heck of a lot less than I'd spend travelling to Ireland to see it. On the other hand (and as my husband frequently points out), if I keep spending all my money on websites, I'll never have enough to actually GO to Ireland, which is what I want more than anything!

[Hearts2Hearts]

Hi Ted,

Funny you ask this question, last night I was looking at some genealogy sites and I ran across
Archives.com, I do not know if it did a bait and switch, but it was very frustrating to look at, at least to me.
At one point it said you can look at this document and it showed the document, but partially covered, it said to sign up for a 7 day trial, then it shows the document, and it was not viewable unless you paid $25.00 to look at it. I do remember Ancestry had alot of info.

Thanks for your question Ted, I would like to hear more on this subject.

H2H

[Boomer Wisdom]

I have found disappointing and obviously useless sites. I'd tell you which ones, but they change ISPs and names --mostly they're "people finder" services. I don't click on those. They are useless.

This is a very good question to ask, especially since many older people are getting into genealogy and have not had all that much computer experience with the jungle of the Internet. Spotting con-artists and frauds is a bit different from the old days; but the basic game is the same.

Finding a dependable source of genealogical documents and information is just the same as finding a good, honest, dependable plumber. Sometimes you don't want to go too cheap; often you'll find an offer too good to be true; unskilled, unlicensed, or uninsured plumbers can do far more damage to you than a clogged drain.
.
This is how all internet web site scams work:

1) By teasing. Sex, unemployment, desperate, lonely, genuinely interested? There's a site looking for you. And yes, it's always FREE FREE FREE. (but hurry, limited time offer.) This step is then followed by:

2) Showing something, but not enough to satisfy. Now, THIS is where con artists usually find their "mark." This is when you get to register, and fork over your email and ISP information, and CREDIT CARD INFORMATION which is then sold to nefarious outfits.

I haven't run into any nefarious genealogical websites, but I still get solicitations from several that I checked out early in my genealogical endeavors, even though I haven't dealt with them since and never gave them financial info. And I actually share such experiences with REAL human genealogy folks who have led me to safe, decent sources of information. I found a good plumber with that same method, just by asking neighbors. Word of mouth is still the best form of advertising for any successful company. Technology has not changed that.

And as Kim Komando sez: If it looks funny, just don't click.