I keep getting messages from MyHeritage.com, saying that there are SmartMatches for my family tree, or that various people want access to my tree.
When I go to their site, however, I cannot do anything about these, because I get this message:
Your family tree has 10,592 people. This exceeds the Basic subscription plan of your family site.
In order for your family tree to display all people, you must upgrade the site plan.
We have an Easter special: 30% discount on our Premium plan! But hurry up, this offer expires very soon.
Now I never subscribed to their site, with a basic plan or any other. I did not enter those 10 592 people on their site, so if it “exceeds” their basic plan, that is their problem, not mine.
They never asked me for my permission to put my data on their site, yet they seem to have done so, and now want me to pay them to have access to my own data, and to respond to the 19 other people who have asked my permission to access it because they think it matches something in their family tree.
When they sent me a message to say that they had created a family tree site for me on MyHeritage, this is what they said:
This family site is free, now and in the future.
Only YOU can access it, using the username and password above, or any
members that you will choose to invite to it after logging on. Please
visit the site and take advantage of its many features – immersive
family tree, online photo albums, rich event calendar, Smart Matching
technology, support for 15 languages, and more.
There seems to be something unethical about this whole operation, in fact it seems to be yet another genealogy scam.
- They took my data without asking me.
- They created a site without asking me.
- They promised that it would be FREE – “now and in the future”
… and now they want me to pay to access it, or to give other people access to it!!
___________
See also:
MyHeritage.com is a scam
Filed under: genealogical research, genealogy | Tagged: genealogy, MyHeritage, scams, unethical practices |
Hayes & Greene family history 
Dear Steve,
I completely understand your frustration . Let me explain a little bit what happened. MyHeritage recently assumed control of the OSN group including Gencircles. You have will have access to the GenCircles site until the backend of the site are merged seamlessly. The merger happened to increase the user database and offer many more genealogical tools to the entire user base as well as combine the strengths of both groups, that being OSN strong focus in Eastern Europe and MyHeritage.com’s concentration in Western Europe and America. Your information is completely secure on the MyHeritage.com network. Smartmatching requires users to accept the match on both sides before anyone can view your tree. At which point they are only able to view the most immediate connection with one degree of separation.
As far as the upgrade service required, this is strictly relative of the cost to operate server space. GenCircles may have offered this service free but it was on a different model, they were able to sustain from web adverts. MyHeritage.com is essentially free of adverts. Premium users also have access to unique research tools.
Another option is to use Family Tree Builder. This software for your computer is completely free, you can build your tree as large as you like. It is held on your personal computer and will not be connected to the MyHeritage.com network unless you so choose. It still has all the great functionality . If you later choose to sync this program with MyHeritage web app, the products have seamless integration and it can serve as a great way to backup and keep safe all of that hard work.
If you have any questions ever feel free to write me. I’ll get back to you asap.
Thanks again for expressing your concerns , I hope I’ve addressed all of your relevant questions.
Best!
Sebastien
sebastien@myheritage.com
Um…I have a My Heritage account…with a crap load of people in it…however it had been awhile since I last used it. Now it has NO ONE in it when I log in. Can you tell me what happened since no one else seems to be able to?
sort this out once for all.
Hi team,
How many times do i have to use a blog, thread, posts, and a letter to myheritage, etc….for anyone to take me seriously.
Now take in with what i’m about to say; PLEASE.
I started out by joining myheritage and entered in ‘project’ name as Busch family.
Then for some reason or another the ‘builder’ which i need to enter my info, updates etc…..went off then i couldn’t do anything on my tree.
Everytime i download builder to get it back up it asks me for another ‘project’ name which now i’ve got too many for my own liking but still
dosen’t bring it up on for the ‘Busch family’ for me to work on. In frustration i have deleted my ‘Busch family’ or renamed it [it’s been sometime ago now] so i’m
not sure what i’ve done. Just of late in the last couple of days i’ve downloaded the ‘Builder’ and imported a family which i can now fill in but it dosen’t show a tree of squares as such.
I also get a email from myheritage about ‘ i’ve exceeded the number’ so on…… but it’s always on the ‘Busch family’ tree [WHICH I CAN’T DO ANY THING WITH] I’m starting to get pissed off. Is there anything you / your team can do to deleted it off at your end but happy to keep ‘Lorraine’s Family’ -ORR Web site going. I ONLY WANT ONE, JUST ONE TREE GOING, not all these other ‘project names’ i’ve had to enter.
I got a message the other day through myheritage again on the ‘Busch Family’. Can’t you people get with what one needs / wants.
I been viewing alot of negitives on a blog about myheritage and now only wish i didn’t have ‘myheritage site’ also i want count on you replying as like you people don’t from other users, ex-users.
I have was shocked to see that you have me down as deceased on the website. I have no idea where you get your information from, but would appreciate you correcting this as soon as possible.
Thank very much for commenting on our blog, but we have no Farrows in our family tree, so I don’y see where you appear on any of our web sites, dead or alive.
Please let me also know how to remove my family data, give me contact details where I can send offical email. Thank you
There are a lot more people catching on to your SCAM SITE than you will ever know. You can dress a CROOK any way you like it’s still a crook.
Hi,
I am an employee of MyHeritage and I feel that some of the facts have been misunderstood. Allow me please to post a correction here for your benefit and that of your readers. This will help set the record straight.
MyHeritage acquired Pearl Street Software, the makers of GenCircles.com and the Family Tree Legends software, in early 2007. This was announced to all users of GenCircles.com (including you, no doubt) in a series of emails. It included at least one email from Pearl Street and another one from MyHeritage. Those emails informed the GenCircles users that their data was going to be available on both GenCircles and MyHeritage. On MyHeritage, there are capacity limits for large trees, but GenCircles users received free unlimited use of MyHeritage for a period of 3 years, as a courtesy. In addition, MyHeritage made free the former paid products of Pearl Street Software – the Family Tree Legends software and the FTL Record Collection of genealogy data. So when referring to this company as a greedy corporation, consider that after the merger with MyHeritage, Pearl Street users were able to get for free what was previously only paid for. Most of the Pearl Street Software users embraced the merger with MyHeritage and very few complaints were logged.
Some time prior to the expiration of these 3 years, which took place at the end of 2009, all GenCircles users whose family trees were large enough to exceed the free accounts on MyHeritage, received two email reminders that they will soon have to purchase a subscription in order to keep access to their data on MyHeritage, and all this while the data remained available and free on GenCircles.com. This was not followed up with any “ultimatum” and no user data was deleted for users who didn’t want to do so.
It appears that you are receiving emails from MyHeritage regarding Smart Matches, which means that no doubt you have received all the other communication mentioned above from the company. So you should not be in the dark as to what has taken place. The same information has been posted publicly on the Internet in scores of places including Dick Eastman’s genealogy blog and any site covering genealogy events.
The Smart Matches are a service, and it is free. It allows you to get in touch with other tree owners whose family trees overlap with yours. If you don’t want to receive this service or the Smart Match emails, simply unsubscribe from them, there is a link for that at the bottom of every email that delivers the Smart Matches. Or contact the support at MyHeritage and ask them to stop sending you any emails, or to delete your account and data, which they will do immediately.
You are welcome to email me (alon at myheritage dot com) and I will provide you another 3 years for free on MyHeritage so you could get a better chance to see all that the site has to offer, as perhaps you never had a chance to check it. Then you could decide whether it’s a service worth subscribing for, or leave it and ask for your account to be deleted.
I hope this clarifies the matter, and it is now clear to you that you have not fallen victim to any dark conspiracy, but are rather receiving an opportunity to benefit from a genealogy service offering new functionality that was not available before on GenCircles.com.
Peace,
Alon
Thanks very much for the clarification.
I must have missed the announcement about Gencircles being taken over by My Heritage, but it is good to know that that is how my data got there.
I looked at the My Heritage site a few times, but I found the number of SmartMatches notifications overwhelming, and so there was a large backlog to follow up. Also, as “upgrades” of increasingly bloated software were added to my computer, the memory was overwhelmed as web browsers got bigger and bigger, and I found trying to follow up things on My Heritage too time-consuming, as the site was slower than most. I also use No-Script on my Web Browser to avoid bandwidth consuming things like videos, Flash and the like, because bandwidth here is capped and expensive.
I once followed up a branch of the family tree that someone had contacted me about, and that person give me access to his tree on My Heritage — his ex-mother-in law had been a distant cousin of my wife’s. And now I am overwhelmed by e-mails telling me every time any member of his family has a birthday. So when someone says they will share family information with me by giving me access to their My Heritage site, I think twice about it, because I find the site is so time-consuming, and slow.
My old computer was stolen, and so I got a new and faster one, and thought I would try to follow up some of the My Heritage things and see if it worked better on a computer with more memory, but then got the message mentioned above. There were numerous messages from people asking for access to my tree, which I can’t give them unless I upgrade, and I’m not sure I want access to their trees (which I presumably also can’t get unless I upgrade), and anyway I’m not sure I can cope with an increased flood of e-mails reminding me of birthdays of people not directly related to me.
As a pensioner, I’m already using more bandwidth than I can afford, and I’m trying to cut down. I can’t afford an upgrade. But it seems that the only way I can remove my data from My Heritage is to pay for an upgrade.
Meanwhile, people keep asking me for access to it, which I can’t give them.
Recently I made my family three online at myheritage.com.
When try to print is as a book, I get plenty mistakes like:
51. ZDRAVKA JERCIC [KATUSIC] (Ante’s second cousin) was born to Zvonko Katusic110 and Blazenka Katusic [Jercic]109.
Note:
Normal 0
false false false
EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE
Do you know what is the problem
Thanks
Ante
I just purchased a one year subscription to MyHeritage and paid with paypal. Immediately received a receipt from Primul Ltd showing a payment of $75 plus annual recurring payments of $75 for an indefinite period of time. Am unable to undo this on Paypal and am now having to file a complaint in order to stop them. They can’t make an honest profit so are trying to force clients into an undesired ongoing arrangement. I am furious and am telling everyone I know about this, including posting to Facebook. This is not the way honest business people operate.
I don’t remember even subscribing to them and I’ve heard nothing from them for at least a year. Yesterday without warning they informed me that they had already taken £75 out of my account. It seems I’ve already paid for another year but I want this next year to be my last and I’m looking for how to end my subscription.
rip off the company is. Scam artists
I had yesterday £59.99 stolen from my bank from myheritage. I am ill and disabled I did go to my bank who said I have to try first to get the money back I have written over 50 emails to various myheritage email addresses and received nothing back this money was my food and heating for next week coming now I have nothing until 10 days my next pension. I did not set this up or give permission I am in bits.
I intend to shout as loud as I can to warn everyone in the world not to touch this site, its pure wickedness
i am currently being repeatedly charged on my bank a/c by MY HERITAGE and have had to cancel my debit card, Bank unable to stop previous repeat deductions as i have to complain to BLS subscriptions MY HERITAGE. SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG some are coming through Israel where they are based.
B M Telford
When I try to print out descendant reports, they stop with the fifth generation. Well, I have descendants in the sixth and seventh generations that need to print out. What’s the problem?
My only complaint with genealogical websites is that they ask you to post your family files on their sites supposedly to help others that are doing similar research dealing with your family or other relatives. So, in the interest of wanting to be helpful to others and perhaps obtain info from their research, you do so. The only drawback is that the genealogical website that has all your years of research has the potential to make a lot of money from your labors by charging you for data that you may need from others. You do all the work and they charge you for any needed data.
I’ve been involved in my family history for over 20 years, my children aren’t particularly interested and perhaps any of their children may not be interested and I’ve put a lot of time, effort and money into this project. So what happens when I fall off my perch…maybe it ends up in the bin eventually, what a waste of my time etc again….But…if I send it off to a family history site with my stories, photo’s etc at least it’s not gone, and the only people interested are people of my family, our 5x great grandmothers may have been sisters or whatever and they may have purchased the same certificates, but they may have a photo you don’t, that’s what makes sharing your families so good, every body wins.
Drop my name from this site because most of it was wrong and I could not correct any the information that was listed.
Susan, I’m not sure what you’re getting at.
It is fine that myheritage.com has a “different model” than Gencircles did, but I too would like to opt out of it; I had not updated any information there in quite some time and it is ancient; more correct info is at my own website. How do I delete my files from myheritage, which I have absolutely no interest in?
Hello, I have got the following problem.
I have upgraded myheritage fam. tree builder to an premium package. Since that and the growing of my family tree I got a lot of messages/requests from people around the world (fun).
In order to organise all these messages I made myself a new email account and changed my profile accordingly.
Now I do not have any acces to the account on hotmail (do not why) but I also do not have acces as sitebuilde/manager/owner to my own site. So I can not publish it add new data to it etc.
I would like my account set back to previous set-up, but I can not (no acces). Is there anybody who could help me (support does not respond beside automatic generated messages (I ahve got about 4 to 5 tickets for support, but noactual response.
Peter
I downloaded the family tree builder from MyHeritage.com just a couple hours ago and it crashed my computer. All my personal files were gone. When I tried to restart it, it wouldn’t. I had to run the Windows repair program. It was able to restart my computer but all my files are still gone!!! I don’t know what kind of scam site this is but take this as a warning. It will ruin your computer and delete your files!!
I have noticed some errors on my family tree but I cannot find out how to edit or delete entries.Your assistance would be much appreciated.
I had joined myheritage.com a long time ago and had not done much with it. Recently I had joined again with a new account and removed the old. I will say I have no problems with the software. It has been working awesome. Because of it, I have been able to trace my ancestors back to the 1400’s. so far. I cannot believe how many out there that are connected to me. I do not get a lot of junk mail because there is options to avoid that in your accounts. Just as there are if you join someone else’s tree you can opt not to receive emails for updates from their side of the tree too. It is easy to get your account information to log on to remove your account to not be bothered from them if you choose not to be a part of the account any longer. I don’t think they are out to spam anyone. They are offering a great program/site that opens the doors for many who want to dig into their family heritages. It sure has made it much easier. You do not have to pay unless you want to make merging others info into your own much easier. You can only put as many members you add on your computer as you want. However, hosting over 250 people online is only for free which you do not have to do so at all.
I’m not sure why so many people seem to be having such problems with myheritage.com. I have not had any computer crashes or lost information. Any errors I have found when printing reports have come from myelf and were easily fixed. I truly believe that the people complaining of it being a scam site are non-user trolls.
Downloaded new Family Tree Builder 6.0. New feature “Profile Page” will not allow access unless I log in with an old E-mail address. When I try, My Heritage informs that there is no such member on MyHeritage.com.
I am logged into the site with my current E-mail address and password. “Profile Page” feature still does not work.
Wow after reading all these comments I am very hesitant to become a premium member – I was actually looking for a discount promo code when I stumbled upon this blog and started reading – but now i cant decide if this is for real or not and how much info will be relevant to my ancestors in South Africa.
I was doing the same as you Karen. Does anyone have any positive feedback for this website or perhaps some good alternative sites to start building a family tree on.
My family tree info migrated to MyHeritage.com and with a little clean up effort it is all in good shape. I personally like the organization and interface.
I also want to become a premium member to continue to update my family tree and I am looking for a discount code.
I am in Australia and have not no trouble with my heritage. About the smart march emails,at the end of the email it tells you how to opt out of receiving these emails.I have found so many relations at no charge at all.
The problem I feel is personalites which no one can do anything about, but Kim And Karen,you both want to do your family trees so you are halfway there. There are many sites and they have their own problems
does any one have any kind of positive feedback…Seriously…
Karen,
If you have not done so, use the free family tree builder first, you get 250 people listed for free. When you start your search, try to go straight back, meaning after you list the relatives that you know, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, then grandparents, after you get to your grandparents only put in a direct relative, meaning your great grandmother but not your great aunts or uncles etc, once you get up to your 250 by doing this you will know if it is worth subscribing to. I have subscribed in the past after my 250, most of my smart matches were from my sister’s tree, well she was putting everyone on it, too many people to keep track of so I went back to my direct lineage. I like the site and am going to renew my subscription tonight. And yes you would be suprised at where this site takes you, I have people from South Africa that have relatives in my tree……… Hope this helps.
Deb
Hi i have a small problem? My computer crash and burned and i lost every thing i’ve put in myheritage. I went on the myheritage.com site and found it all my problem is how do i get it back to my system again
you’ll have to download the desktop software again and then sync the online with your desktop software. it should all show up quiet quickly. I even use the iphone app which pulls in info from the online tree. love it!!
Je suis bien HEUREUX de na pas être le seul à être tomber dans le panneau de ces ESCROCS, car c’est le nom qui leur convient le mieux. Ils se croient hors d’atteinte de la justice, mais je vais cependant porter plainte pour escroquerie près le Procureur de la République.
J’ai lu les textes ci dessus, ce qui raconte mon parcours. Maintenant, je ne pense pas qu’ils m’attaquent pour diffamation. Je suis prêt à fonder une association de défense brawe@sfr.fr
Oui, je remet en ligne mon commentaire qui a déplu à ces Messieurs, car il a été effacer quelques minutes après. Je disais donc qu’il ne faut pas leur faire confiance comme vous pouvez voir ci dessus. Ce sont des escrocs qui vous bourrent votre site dès l’abonnement acheté et vous obligent à prendre le premium. Une fois le doigt pris dans l’engrenage, vous continuez (de payer). Après cela, à dieu vat, ils s’en foutent si ça ne marche pas. Si vous êtes prêts à me suivre dans une association de défense, voici mon adresse
brawe@sfr.fr
I put all my history in My Heritage and one day could not log in because of an error message. Sent an email to the help line and it took them weeks to respond. They asked for my comuter set up and they told me it was not possible to get that error message. I deleted the file and started all over in ancestry.com. Someone above got 3 years free. All I got was an opportunity to start over in another software package.
Mr Hollinski. Is the new software package working better for you?
Please let me know the name. Myheritage is so bad and I want to get the money back but it is IMPOSSIBLE to get someone to respond.
i am so sorry I got this company
You need more people solving the problems. This site has too many flaws, my trees dissapeared all of the sudden even though I just paid for Premium, STOP expanding and buying other companies and try to have your already costumers happy. To that instead of being a pleasurable activity it has become a VERY STRESSFULL one.anyone that reads this note: PLEASE PLEASE, do not join this company. It is a disaster and they will not give you your money back if you opt out. What did I do? This is so horrible
I cancelled my subscription to My Heritage as I am no longer interested in their website. They went ahead and charged my bank account for $119.40. I tried to find a telephone number for them but couldn’t. I contacted them by e-mail and they confirmed that I cancelled but did not address a refund of my money. I did get a toll free number but when I called it, it was disconnected!!!! I would not encourage anyone from joining this website!!~!!!
I had the same probleme las year, but I find some employes who understand that I was not a pigeon.In a first time they send my money back, After we made an arrengment whit Mme Zedland (I am in France) they reconize their mistake, so I came back to their site. Here are some addresses : MyHeritage Support;Elisabeth Zetlandelisabeth@myheritage.com;
Good luck
brawe@sfr.fr
I discovered that there is personal information about myself and my wife published on the myheritage.com website.
I am not and never have been a member of myheritage.com, have no wish to join and have no associations with anyone one on there and have never consented to any of my personal information being published within myheritage.com.
They say; If a privacy breach is suspected, e.g. one relative posts the details of another relative without permission, the company deletes any data as requested by its owners within 1 to 2 business days.
Today I sent in a request to myheritage.com to have any personal data they have regarding my immediate family and myself deleted and here is their response:
This is an automatic response
Hi,
Thank you for writing to MyHeritage.
E-mail support is a premium feature and is available without limits to our subscribers (Premium, PremiumPlus and Data).
If you already have a premium account on MyHeritage but not under the myemail@mail address, please go to our help center
log in to MyHeritage using your premium account and then send us your question from there.
If you would like to receive direct access to our support team, consider purchasing a data subscription or data credits
.
You will gain many additional benefits including unlimited searches in MyHeritage SuperSearch™ and access to Record Matches. Learn more here
.
You are also welcome to use our knowledge base
to find an answer to your question. This is the best way to find answers to the most frequently asked questions at MyHeritage.
Sincerely,
MyHeritage
My reply:
Are you seriously stating that as a profit making company I have no wish to be associated with and using personal data of my family and I without consent, that I would be required to pay a fee in order to view what you have about me on your website and have deleted?
If this is the case, than this is an outrage.
Why should I be part of a subscription fee company, in which I have no desires to be associated with?
I fully intend to take this matter further, no matter how long it takes.
Anthony Steel
This is an outrage. These companies believe they have a free hand to acquire anyone’s personal information or their subscribers using the myheritage.com facilities and use it in order to support their fee subscription company site, without consent or consideration of those who have no wish to have their details published or available by a company or on someone else’s website not pertaining to them.
Yes, that is exactly the problem. They take your data without your permission, complain that it doesn’t fit some rules that they don’t explain, and then demand that you pay to correct their mistakes.
I too have been having problems with myHeritage – Monday this week I was trying to do some research on one of my relatives & it came back with 2 results – one on my own free myHeritage site & the 2nd on a site I was unfamiliar with. I clicked on the link to the other site & ended up with a pop up window telling me that I needed to upgrade to Premium to get the information. As I am a pensioner, I deliberated long and hard but I did have promotion code so in the end I decided that I needed the info and upgraded. I checked my myHeritage site & it was now a Premium site. Typed in my search criteria again & a window popped up saying that I needed to purchase a ‘data’ package too see the info!
I immediately sent off an email to support saying I felt this was a scam & that I was going to my bank to stop payment. I received a canned email response. My bank told me they couldn’t stop it as it was not yet showing on my account & told me they charged for reversing credit card transactions which actually came to nearly 75% of the total & it was better if I got a refund directly from the seller. I then emailed again telling support what the bank said and heard nothing! The payment had been done by a company called Plimus & on their invoice it said that I should contact myHeritage support 1st & if heard nothing in 48 hours to contact Plimus directly which I did. I filled in a form and within 10 mins had a response followed by a phone call from a very aggressive person stating that I didn’t know how to use the software but as a special deal they were prepared to give me a free 3 month data subscription or they would change my Premium subscription to a data subscription which would cost me extra. I said that I didn’t want either – I just wanted my account back to the way it was – I was told that eas not going to happen & I should accept 1 of the 2 offers he had outlined & the one with the free data would be nabled immediately – he called 5 hours ago & it isn’t. The support person who called had a foreign accent & actually had me feeling I had done something wrong when in hindsight he was using classic bullying tactics on a pensioner. I have decided to fight them as I got forced into agreeing to something I don’t want from a company that obviously uses bullying techniques to subdue any opposition they encounter.
My recommendation is to stay as far away as you can from myHeritage as they are, in my opinion, scamsters of note!
A follow up:
I received an email back from MyHeritage informing get me that I had agreed with my online personal consultant to take on the ‘upgrade’ via the Plimus website. I replied that I had been bullied into it & had been told the additional features would be available to me immediately & they still weren’t after 72 hours & as they had reneged on their agreement I wanted a refund. I received no response – after the 48 hours I contacted Plimus who sent them an email requesting a response or they would be refunding me in full. After a couple of days with no response either, Plimus refunded me.
I found Plimus to be extremely helpful & got the impression that I wasn’t the 1st customer MyHeritage had tried to bully into submission!
My advice is to register the complaint with MyHeritage but cc to Plimus to keep them in the loop – if your complaint is legitimate & has merit & MyHeritage try bullying or cold shoulder tactics, Plimus will do their best to help if they can.
I am of the opinion that the employees at MyHeritage are all graduates of the “Robert Mugabe Institute of Business Ethics” which has the motto “Even the bottom looks to be up”
For those who are thinking of joining MyHeritage, let me give you some insight into how they work.
They give you a free Family Tree Builder which is actually quite good in setting your site up. You are allowed up to 250 people on your family tree without paying – thereafter you have to upgrade (& pay) . This is where my problem comes in because once you are a premium member you are paying for the service annually – if, as a pensioner, you should not be able to pay one year, you lose all access to your data, photos etc.
This is where the ‘scam’ starts!
You get bombarded with emails that ‘smart matches’ have been found & let’s you see portions of them & which family tree they from but if you want to confirm or reject the match you have to upgrade to premium status. So they are telling you that you can confirm data that you have with another users data if you pay MyHeritage – they are also telling other users they can confirm my data (that I’ve put in) if they pay them! So let’s get this straight – I work my butt off to get my ancestry info from great Aunt Flowers & granny grumpy & MyHeritage then sells this info to other people.
It is quite interesting to note that you could set up a number of MyHeritage sites with different parts of your family tree of just under 250 people totally free. It might require creating a number of Gmail email accounts – sorry I was just thinking out aloud there – please disregard that last statement!
I still have my original site (under 250 people)
Looking for the Promo code. Can you send it to me? Thanx S
If you’re looking for a “promo code” you’ve come to the wrong place. You certainly won’t find it here.
I have never subscribed to them and I am being billed. I want to know how did they get my credit card information?
I was told that My Heritage does not have a phone number listed because their address is overseas somewhere (Arabia?) and would be too expensive to call. Is this true?
Hi,
I think their call centre is in Israel – this is what I learnt in my dealings with them.
If you look up myheritage.com on the domain register their address is also shown in Israel – their phone number is shown as:
+97236280000
The only USA connection appears to be Godaddy – a company that does registrations.
With all the Israeli connections the company has, I doubt it would have an “Arabia” address when one considers the conflicts in the Middle East.
Hope this helps.
I just subscribed to My Heritage but wish to cancel. Please cancel for me and let me know this has been done.
What makes you think I can cancel for you?
This is a blog, not an unsubscription service.
That made me laugh x
Well I never got an email and I’ve had the same email for 15 years. Tried to log in to GenCircles to get infomation and didn’t know what was going on. What a bummer. All that hard work I put in to obtaining the information and notes.
I have no intentions of uploading the 75,000 names in my database to a scammer like myheritage. Let’s face it without genealogists they wouldn’t have a business.
Horrible company. Crooked practises. You do the work and they get the big bucks. Very unethical.
myheritage have stolen my pension.
without giving permission or subscribing to there premium rate. I joined in the free trial then ended it 2wks before its end time. yet they have just stolen all my pension every penny I have emailed loads telling them I am very ill and disabled and this was my food and heating money for the next 10 days before I get my next pension. apart from ignoring me for days they now have replied saying yes I did cancel but they have no proof they have taken £59.99 from my bank so I emailed them back with the proof of the bank statement and so here we are ignoring me again.
I have been in shock tears for days
This is a pretty crummy outfit. I have found extensive mistakes regarding my ancestors. What does that suggest about other information on the site????????They have the wrong countries of residence, places of birth and death etc etc . I have attempted to communicate with My Heritage in order to rectify these errors to no effect. Don’t rely on this site it is seriously flawed.
I have never joined Myheritage.com, never used it, and yet they have sent me an e-mail saying that my tree is up and running on their site and that I now have an account!!!
Interesting thing is – although I just cancelled Ancestry.ca – I never actually uploaded a tree (I kept all the info and tree on my computer just in case things like this happened) so my tree on myheritage is totally blank yet they want me to pay in order to access it!!!!!
Any they nuts???????
I have just received an email from these snakes who charged my card $119 USA, and some change, informing me a “free trial” of 14 days was over. I NEVER EVER gave this site any financial information, as this is not even my real name, so I would have no interest in this site. I never sign on for any type of “free trial” no matter what, as I don’t have money at all for something like that. What they’ve done is a FELONY, and I will report it to the bank as such, and encourage prosecution to the maximum. Not only THAT, but, I do not use the email account they contacted me with for any online products, and use OTHER email accounts for purchasing online….a YAHOO account. Where are they getting the INFO?
OK, today, after receiving a totally disturbing email from MyHeritage.com, stating that they’d charged a friends credit card $119 for a “subscription” for their “services” because a 14-day free trial had expired causing the system to generate a charge to the card. What is VERY weird is that I know without a doubt that:::
1) I do not use my gmail account for buying anything online, EVER.
2) When I do purchase anything, using a YAHOO account, I NEVER buy into a “free trial-automatic fee generating charge at the end of trial”. NEVER EVER.
3) I know for certain that I DID NOT give them access to any financial information, as I cannot even afford the kind of cost of their subscription, could not even use any information, don’t have any interest in my family in ANY way, and that there was less than $100 in the account of the card in question EARMARKED for specific medical supplies I need ONGOING. I cannot, even if I’d wanted to, afford a $119 charge for non-essential items, as I have no income, am almost 70 years old, without ANY SS or pension. I live in MEXICO, because anywhere else would be too expensive to even exist. I can only exist by the help of a friend who LOANS me money every month to survive, and I will be obligated to pay her back, in the future.
SO, I used SKYPE to call the following number in UTAH ( although the 1st rep told me that Corporate offices were from ISRAEL ), and spoke to two different online billing representatives who affirmed the charge had been refunded to the card. and that I will receive an email in a couple days confirming that refund.
OOPS !!! I forgot to include the toll-free number to reach the BILLING DEPT, which is the selection of # 2 on the online list::::
1-877-432-3135
This is their usual trick. Letting people sign for free trial then charging for a year refusing to refund. Even though they have 30 days money back guarantee. Thieves.
My heritage is not a scam. I been using it for a month and found a distent family member Id been looking for and two old buddies of mine been out of touch with for years. I think some people exspect to much when they join I never had no problems with my heritage. my heritage rocks😁
All the genealogy sites online are crooks. My heritage is only one of them. Ancestry, Rootsweb and Geni are no better. These companies did not get to be billionaires through good ethical practice.
Whenever I access MyHeritage.com I immediately get a phone call from them asking if I’d like to get their latest deal. I have accessed it perhaps 3 times in the last 6 months because someone sent me a message. Each time I went to read it (and I’m locked out due to # of people) my phone would ring and it was MyHeritage wanting me to renew. I do plan to delete my tree since I can’t access it.
My Heritage took out my annual renewal on the 13/4/17 which I had budgeted for. On the 2/5/27 they had informed me that they had taken out my annual renewal subscription again! also I had a message addressed to Emmanual Blight who I had been researching. Unfortunately for My heritage, they didn’t get Emmanuals subs out of my account. I have contacted them repeatedly only to be told that a rep would contact me shortly. Due to this, I have no money to buy food for myself or my father (a 92 year old WW2 vet who lives with me, & suffers from epilepsy), no food for my pets. I have arranged to get credit from my local Pharmacy for dad’s medication & credit from the General Store for food. How humiliating! I am on a pension & I managed to join My Heritage as a little luxury for me as I am so isolated because I can’t leave my dad alone. Thanks My Heritage, you have caused so much trauma to me, & also I will have a battle to pay back the credit that I have been given.
Wanna really piss ’em off? Upload your tree with reference numbers instead of names. LOL!
Myheritage owns Geni….
A Geni user stole my PRIVATE info from a private email correspondence I had with him I NEVER gave him permission to share that info with ANYONE ! He used all of it and put it on his GENI page . This man is not related to my family.
Geni was notified that this compromises my family’s safety , to date several months later , they have done NOTHING to rectify this!
STAY AWAY FROM GENI AND MYHERITAGE !!! SHADY COMPANY , THAT DOESN’T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY !!
DO NOT UPLOAD YOUR TREES THERE !!