Spam email from Family Search
I received an email from FamilySearch <reply@email.familysearch.org>
Sent: 07 May 2023 13:46
asking me to review a Hint with a button to click on that is not related in anyway and something to do with a social security numerical File FamilySearch <reply@email.familysearch.org>Sent: 07 May 2023 13:46
is this email correct or is it a spammer if so how has my FS account email been compromised
Answers
-
I got one of these as well. Looking it over, it looks perfectly legitimate and is just a new campaign to get some of the 64,700,494 new records from that recently released database: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/5000016 attached to the proper people in Family Tree. I've got so many hints from that database on my relatives that I could spend a couple of months doing nothing but attaching them. Apparently FamilySearch decided that so many people were in the same situation that they would make attaching these a volunteer project.
If you don't like getting this type of email, then just turn them off in your settings:
These would probably fall under the category of "Discoveries about My Ancestors" or maybe FamilySearch Information.
4 -
I received an email asking for my help with a family search not related to me. I couldn't figure out which person they were asking about or how to answer with anything I found. How do I go about that? Thanks
0 -
Thanks Gordon , I am UK based so don't have any experience with Social Security numbers as UK does not have these and we have a very strict 100 year rule for such records ever being released in my life time .
0 -
You mean this one?
Seems like this was a general e-mail sent out to everyone this morning. If you want to help out attaching hints from this recently released database to the corresponding people in Family Tree, just click the Review Hint button.
This takes you to the Source Linker of a random record in this collection which has a very good match in Family Tree:
For you to review, confirm, and attach.
This must be some type of preliminary test to see if people are willing to do this because you only get one hint to attach and if you go back to the e-mail and click the button again, you go to the same record and person in the Source Linker, not a new one.
2 -
Privacy laws in the US can get pretty confusing and different types of information have different rules. According to an article on Ancestry, United States Social Security information, such as the application a person filled out, is released for public access three years after a person's death.
This leads to some interesting situations. I can only get a birth certificate for a random person from the state of New York "if on file for at least 75 years and the person whose name is on the birth certificate is known to be deceased." However, if I need to get birth information for someone who had a social security number and died at age 50, I can get their full social security application which will include full birth information three years after the person's death.
3 -
I also received one of these today. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to validate a record for someone who, as stated in the email, is NOT my ancestor.
0 -
I got same email. Looks very official, but I'm still leery of clicking the button. It seems a bit strange for it to be coming out of the blue. I would feel safer if FamilySearch had sent a notice to everyone giving them a heads up that they would be doing this.
I wonder: Have those of you who received it made corrections to records on your own in the past? I'm pretty sure I have never signed up to help index records.
0 -
Most of the records / individuals I have been working on in Family Tree recently do not involve close relatives.
If you are not happy in being involved with this type of volunteering, just leave the work for others.
1 -
I received one of these also and generated an email to support about it. To opt in or out shouldn't be a guessing thing, but there should be a "Do you want to volunteer" button on my profile.
Also, there needs to be an official place to obtain information about what the program is, and how to do the reviews, assuming that is what's being requested. Just what am I reviewing, since the match appeared correct - but also did not seem to have anything specific related to ssn or such, which is what was identified in the email.
The program needs to be documented, quality and other elements of the review should be clarified, and just what elements should be checked for inclusion is the records do match should be identified. Otherwise, this becomes a GIGO scenario. Ask ChatGPT to do the review if you aren't going to supply instructions for the program.
my $0.02. Data quality matters.
1 -
@SilvaGJ If you are leery of clicking on a link in an e-mail, then don't. At least not until you can get comfortable that it is safe. There are a few things to do:
1) Consider if it is expected or not. FamilySearch sends out a lot of campaign e-mails on Sunday mornings. So the timing is right for this one.
2) Check the sender e-mail. Not what shows but the actual email address:
How to do do depends on your e-mail program. Here the is really coming from familysearch.org, not familysearch.net or familllysarch.org.
3) Hover over the button and see what it links to:
Here it is an https secure site. The top level domain mk.familysearch.org again has everything spelled right so this looks pretty good, also.
3) Finally, if I am already signed into FamilySearch, when I click on the button, it does not ask me to sign in, risking my account name and password. I just jump directly to source linker.
Regarding your comment that you have never signed up to do indexing, this has nothing to do with indexing but only with attaching record hints. But I'll mention that you do not have to sign up to do indexing any user of FamilySearch can just jump to that part of the website and start indexing any time.
@PatriciaBiron As far as working on other people's records, I suspect that we are only being given top quality matches if the one I got is typical. As you can see in the image I posted above, the parents' names match exactly, the person's name matches exactly, the person's birth date matches exactly, and the person's birth place matches exactly. There isn't a whole lot to review. Just play like this is your 15th cousin who you also don't know much about. If needed, leave the source linker and check out the person's record and the entire source record.
3 -
I received one of these unsolicited emails as well. I say ‘unsolicited’ because I did not agree to receive emails to do general indexing, I agreed to “Discoveries about My Ancestors - receive personalized email about ""my"" ancestors”. When I went to unsubscribe from this volunteer campaign, my only option is to turn off receiving notification about my own ancestors. This type of general blast email should be reconsidered. Please and thank you.
0 -
@J Gillies, I long ago told FS not to send me any campaign emails, so I didn't get this, but I do know from what has been posted that it has absolutely nothing to do with indexing. It's also not really a volunteer campaign: it's a single Record Hint that you have to option to evaluate. One single hint.
2 -
@J Gillies, they did very politely state this was not for one of our ancestors so it was kind of fun to see that when I went to the person page for the source I was asked to attach, it turned out he is my 8th cousin once removed. We are all so interrelated that relatives pop up in all sorts of funny places.
In any event, I'm sure FamilySearch will take your comments into consideration as well as the percentage of users who take ten seconds to help by attaching this one source to the correct person in Family Tree as they are deciding whether this type of campaign is worthwhile repeating.
2 -
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We will investigate this situation further.
0 -
@Gordon Collett you have done a great job answering these questions. Thank you so much! I spoke with our marketing team and they reemphasized that "this was simply an opportunity for patrons to choose to give back. It was completely optional, and as the thread above indicates, followed a pattern similar to indexing records for unrelated individuals to make discoveries available to others."
They will be taking the recommendation that this type of email be mapped to a different option in the Preference Center and appreciate the suggestion. They will be working on this for future campaigns.
3 -
I was sent a file I can not access to review. Deleting. Has to do with Social Security files and enumerations.
0 -
@Stephanie V. & @Maile L it seems this is an ongoing campaign as I just received a second request. Although it gives me the option to unsubscribe from the emails that would mean I would be unsubscribing to emails regarding my own ancestors. Respectfully, these campaigns should be placed under the 'volunteer opportunities' area of the site and not sent out to all users as an email blast. TY kindly.
0 -
many would be more inclined to help if the language was more inclusive.
0 -
no need for personal attack. i am more likely to volunteer for indexing when the request is not framed from the patriarchal perspective. different points of view.
0 -
What exactly is the wording of that email that's causing all and sundry to mistakenly believe it to be a request for indexing? It isn't. It's all already indexed; the idea is to help attach one (just one!) of those already-indexed records to the correct Family Tree profile.
Or are people talking about a different campaign than the one that Gordon posted a screenshot of on May 7th?
@MichelleGoldammer, where on Earth are you seeing a "patriarchal perspective"?
0 -
"men especially as distinguished from women" --https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mankind
0
