Scam genealogical book

The popularity of genealogy, encouraged by the increasing use of the Internet is encouraging a number of people to mass-market what authorities regard as scam "genealogical books" which are sometimes promoted by affiliated websites. They tend to contain a general introduction, a section about the origin of surnames in general, a section about heraldry, a couple of blank charts for the purchaser to copy and complete once he has done his own research, a few recipes and (sometimes) a list of names, addresses and telephone numbers culled from the publicly available telephone directories. [ [http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/columns/eastman/3538.asp Ancestry.com - Genealogy Scams ] ] The books are not unique to a particular surname, are not published annually and contain no pictures of the buyer's family members. In a recent case, Jeffery Scism, a San Bernardino, California genealogist, said the fines for such practises are puny when compared with the hundreds of thousands of dollars he believes such vendors rake in [ [http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_4455021,00.html Album seller settles case : More Business : The Rocky Mountain News ] ] .

Those who have sold such books so far include:
* Burke's Peerage World Book of (Smiths) - not to be confused with Burke's Peerage
* Halberts Family Heritage - World Book of (Smiths)
* William Pince Publishers - SGN Genealogical Foundation
* Maxwell MacMaster - [http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3247588 MorphCorp LLC of Denver] [http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2006/02/06/daily49.html State settles suit]

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