[or-roots] Fw: LCGS FYI Lawsuit Against Morphcorp for Fake Family Histories

[Ronda Howard]

MessageHi all,
My Dad received this.  I don't remember which genealogical society LCGS is.  I considered buying one of these books.
Ronda Howard


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Alice Sanders 
To: sanders922 at msn.com 
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2005 8:10 AM
Subject: LCGS FYI Lawsuit Against Morphcorp for Fake Family Histories



Bill Mahoney sends the following to share.  An FYI warning was sent out earlier about these fake histories.  It is nice to know 
something may be done about the people running this company.  Let's wish Arapahoe County much success in this.

THE FOLLOWING IS FROM THE DENVER POST

25 Nov 2005



State Sues Genealogy Company

The suit claims 150,000 people nationwide were swindled out of $49.95 each when they bought a book with fake family histories from Morphcorp of Denver.

By Manny Gonzales 

Denver Post Staff Writer  



For $49.95, people who bought genealogical "yearbooks" from a Denver-based company got the same family coat of arms, the same family recipes and even the same family jokes, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday. 



And it was a lucrative scam that swindled 150,000 people nationwide who bought into fake family histories, according to the civil suit filed by Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. 



The suit, filed in Arapahoe County District Court against Maxwell MacMaster and his company, Morph corp LLC, seeks to cease the operation and penalize him up to $2,000 per book sold, which could amount to $300 million. 



"This is a guy who has been exploiting a natural human emotion, a curiosity about our family history . and he made a lot of money doing it," Suthers said. "People got a standard book that really reflects no individual genealogical research. The books come with a family (crest), but if your surname is Jones it would be the same (crest) used if your last name was Smith." 



MacMaster, who has residences listed in Denver and Kailua, Hawaii, was contacted about the suit but said he had not read the specific allegations and declined to comment. His lawyer could not be reached for comment. 



Aurora resident Lynette Dahl is one of 21 alleged victims in Colorado. Dahl said her family purchased a yearbook a couple of years ago in hopes of learning more about where she came from, but what she got was "generic." 



"They make it sound like you're going to get all this great information, but you get it and it's generic, fill-in-the-blanks stuff," Dahl, 42, said. "The book had a coat of arms for my family, supposedly. But when I opened it, immediately I could tell this was some kind of cruel joke." 



Dahl said that after numerous attempts to reach the company and after filing complaints of unfair business practices, she finally was refunded her money from Morphcorp. 



According to the suit, MacMaster advertised in magazines and sent out mailings offering a yearbook detailing "2,000 years" of family history. 



The suit claims MacMaster and his then-wife made various false and misleading statements in direct-mail advertising claiming that they shared the same last name of the consumer targeted by the flier. The suit also alleges that Morphcorp engaged in improper pricing practices. 

The company mailed out 250,000 fliers a month, the suit claims, and targeted mostly people over the age of 60. 



The books sold contained much of the same information, including "family jokes and recipes," and family pictures appear in each yearbook regardless of the surname of the consumer, the suit claims. There were some variations, Suthers said. For a German surname, the books contained the same German family recipes and jokes. 



Because jokes were the same in many of the yearbooks, some Jewish customers were offended when their families were referenced as being Catholic, the suit claims. 



It's the second time MacMaster has gotten into hot water for an alleged genealogy scam. In 1996 he signed an assurance as president of a company called Mountain Pacific News Service to cease operations. Suthers hopes to prove MacMaster violated the agreement, which would be another violation of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. 



The attorney general has been investigating the company for about a year, since complaints were submitted to the Better Business Bureau. 



"As these complaints roll in, it's almost comical how this guy would try to fool people," Suthers said. "Anyone with any sophistication almost immediately would identify the yearbook as boilerplate." 



Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales at denverpost.com. 


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