Order receipt from GeneBase????????

[Judy]

I sent a join invitation from my FTDNA GAP page to a man who might be a relative so he can order his kit through our surname project. I told him the 12-marker kit costs $99 if he orders through the project. He was enthusiastic and ordered his kit and sent me back an e-mail that it cost $119. I questioned it, and he sent me the e-mail receipt. It turns out he ordered the 20-marker kit from GeneBase. I asked him if he ordered directly from the page I sent him or from somewhere else and I am waiting to hear back from him. He is an elderly man and it is unlikely that he would have found other links from other testing companies on his own. Is it possible that FTDNA contracted with GeneBase because they have been inundated with requests for testing kits? Is it possible that with all the software problems FTDNA has been having lately, somehow GeneBase got into their system and is siphoning customers to GeneBase? I am very confused about what may be going on.
Judy

[Itzhak Epstein]

Judy:
Please invite me at [email protected] and I will go through the motions to see what happens.

[Judy]

Haha, great minds think alike Itzhak! I sent myself a join invitation and went through the motions until the step where I have to give my credit card number. All was as expected, $99 for the Y-DNA 12-marker test through FTDNA. But if you want to try too, I'll send you an invite. Thanks for helping!
Judy

[Itzhak Epstein]

I sent a join invitation from my FTDNA GAP page to a man who might be a relative so he can order his kit through our surname project. I told him the 12-marker kit costs $99 if he orders through the project. He was enthusiastic and ordered his kit and sent me back an e-mail that it cost $119. I questioned it, and he sent me the e-mail receipt. It turns out he ordered the 20-marker kit from GeneBase. I asked him if he ordered directly from the page I sent him or from somewhere else and I am waiting to hear back from him. He is an elderly man and it is unlikely that he would have found other links from other testing companies on his own. Is it possible that FTDNA contracted with GeneBase because they have been inundated with requests for testing kits? Is it possible that with all the software problems FTDNA has been having lately, somehow GeneBase got into their system and is siphoning customers to GeneBase? I am very confused about what may be going on.
Judy

I went to Google and typed “genealogy DNA”. At the very top of the resulting list there are three “sponsored” links. The first link is http://www.dnaancestryproject.com/ . None of the three sponsored hyperlinks leads to FTDNA.

Typing “DNA” where my Microsoft browser’s URL should be, brings up (on my computer) different sponsored links, courtesy of MSN Network. Netscape has its own set of sponsored links.

My surname project’s joining hyperlink is: http://www.ftdna.com/surname_join.as...3&special=true
We all know how to click on it. Does everybody? How about this? http://tinyurl.com/nyh6z .

[dapike]

Judy, my guess is that your new recruit somehow found the website http://www.genebase.com and thought that he was doing the right thing by ordering from them.

A little tip that I have found helpful from time to time (especially when dealing with potential recruits who are elderly and/or not net-savvy): offer to order the test on their behalf. Ask them for all the details (name, email addr, postal addr, phone number, and number of markers they want) and then use your FTDNA GAP page to order the kit for them (selecting payment by invoice).

- David.

[Judy]

Thanks Dapike. I'll follow your advice next time.
Judy

[yonan]

NG & Genebase

A friend of mine has just had the same experience. I gave him the URL for the National Genographic Project and he ordered both a YDNA and a mtDNA test. When the kit arrived with the swabs, it was from Genebase. What is going on? They charged over $300 for the two tests. Something "phishy" seems to be going on.

Mary

[lgmayka]

I gave him the URL for the National Genographic Project and he ordered both a YDNA and a mtDNA test.

This is 'phishy' right here. Genographic does not ask you whether to test yDNA or mtDNA, and they will not test both. Rather, they have a simple though frustrating rule that if you declare yourself to be male, they test your yDNA; if you declare yourself to be female, they test your mtDNA.

Some men have actually resorted to inventing a fictitious sister in order to get their mtDNA tested, but I don't recommend that because it probably goofs up Genographic's whole statistical experiment. Instead, a man can simply have his yDNA tested by Genographic, then transfer his results to FTDNA and order an mtDNA test from FTDNA.

[efgen]

What URL did you give for National Geographic? I wonder if Genebase has registered a domain similar to the National Geographic and/or Genographic Project domains and is getting orders from people who typo the address and don't know any better. Genebase's website does look similar to the GP website with that animated image, to an untrained eye. This is indeed a phishy practice and all too common on the internet.

There's no way that placing an order through the real Genographic Project or FTDNA websites would result in an order from Genebase. These people are somehow ending up on Genebase's website and placing an order from there.

[Judy]

There's no way that placing an order through the real Genographic Project or FTDNA websites would result in an order from Genebase. These people are somehow ending up on Genebase's website and placing an order from there.

How can you be sure? I don't have enough of an understanding of what kind of tricks can be done by good hackers but it seems likely to be more than coincidence that two potential customers were somehow directed to GeneBase. Does it make a difference that GeneBase is in Beta stage? When gmail was in the beta stage, I had to get an invitation from a beta user to join. I wonder how GeneBase attracts people to its website- I had never heard of it before the man I invited to join my surname project accidently signed up with GeneBase. I think something "phishy" is going on and I'm not sure what to do about it. By the way, the Y-DNA results for the man who i invited are about a week late. I shouldn't panic because FTDNA often has late results too, but until I see the results, I don't even know if GeneBase exists other than a website.
Judy

[efgen]

How can you be sure? I don't have enough of an understanding of what kind of tricks can be done by good hackers but it seems likely to be more than coincidence that two potential customers were somehow directed to GeneBase.

If either the FTDNA or Genographic Project sites had been hacked, the affected customers would certainly have been notified immediately, as there would be serious security and privacy issues to consider. And the rest of us would have heard about it indirectly by now.

Does it make a difference that GeneBase is in Beta stage? When gmail was in the beta stage, I had to get an invitation from a beta user to join.

"Beta" just means they don't consider it a final product yet and there could be bugs/problems with the software. Some companies require special invites for people to try their beta products, others let anyone try their beta products.

I think something "phishy" is going on and I'm not sure what to do about it. By the way, the Y-DNA results for the man who i invited are about a week late. I shouldn't panic because FTDNA often has late results too, but until I see the results, I don't even know if GeneBase exists other than a website.

I personally would have contacted GeneBase immediately after finding out about the mistaken order and cancelled it. FTDNA has a reasonable refund policy for 'unused' kits and hopefully similar companies do as well. It's probably too late to cancel now since the DNA sample was returned and the tests are in progress. However, you could try emailing GeneBase to explain the situation and see if they can give you any info about how your project member was referred to their site. Most companies track website referrals and keep some sort of logs, but how long they keep them and whether they can or are willing to go back and check them is another story.

But to put a positive spin on this, you'll be able to tell us your thoughts on GeneBase once your project member receives his results

Elise

[dapike]

1. Advertisements for Genebase can be found in many places. For instance, among the adverts that sometimes appear near the top of these pages:

• http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/
• http://www.rootschat.com/

and others, you will see "The DNA Ancestry Project". They have a slick website, but IMHO, few links lead to helpful information; most lead to an online order form.

2. Somebody suggested contacting GeneBase to cancel an order. First of all, good luck at finding their contact information (just go looking for it on their website, and you'll find that it is not easily found!). Secondly, if they sent out a kit with an invoice, then why not just ignore both the kit and invoice?... only if the kit has been paid for and a refund is now sought would any real action be required.

- David.

[efgen]

2. Somebody suggested contacting GeneBase to cancel an order. First of all, good luck at finding their contact information (just go looking for it on their website, and you'll find that it is not easily found!).

I found their contact info in about 5 seconds Bottom of the homepage, click the link to Support Forum, and there's a paragraph about contacting them, including a toll-free number.

[dapike]

Thanks for pointing that out! Until now, their contact info had eluded me.

- David.

[Judy]

I googled GeneBase and found there was some buzz on RootsWeb back in Feb 2006 when GeneBase was new. There was some criticism that the company was not open about who they are and that they pre-started surname projects, apparently by mining data from other dna testing companies. They had advertised in the NY Times, probably before they were set up and ready to analyze genealogy related dna tests and people who ordered kits and sent in their samples had huge delays in getting their results. But the company has been doing paternity testing in Canada for years and apparently has a good reputation. Maybe they used some unethical but not unlawful means to expand their business to do dna testing for genealogical purposes. Here is a link to the RootsWeb discussion: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read...-02/1139184371

It would not have been up to me to cancel the order. The gentleman who ordered it is someone with the surname that may have been the same as my husband's grandfather's and comes from the same locality as my husband's grandfather, but I never met this man. He was kind enough to answer an e-mail and agree to have his Y-DNA tested. I don't know for sure how it happened that he ordered the kit from GeneBase instead of FTDNA after I sent him an invite to join our FTDNA surname project, but he was not upset that it turned out to be a different company, and is getting 20 markers tested instead of 12. With his permission, I'll enter his 20 marker results into the Y-search data base by hand. He already put up some information, a picture and some family history on GeneBase. I would not tell him at this point to get his money back and cancel the test unless I knew for sure that GeneBase illegally stole his business from FTDNA, and I don't know how I could find that out.

Judy