http://www.sephardiccafe.com/sephardic-warning.html.

Warning for Sephardic Genealogists:

The Original Letter was Posted on a public Sephardic-Interest discussion group

SPECIAL ATTENTION TO JEWS FROM RHODES AND TURKEY

BE SUSPECT OF PEOPLE ASKING QUESTIONS OF YOUR ROOTS AND FAMILY INFORMATION.

THEY MAY BE A CERTAIN CHRISTIAN SCIENTOLOGIST WHO IS HUNTING YOU FOR YOUR PERSONAL DATA.

June 24, 2001 CE Dear friends,

We want to inform you of a very important problem that recently appeared.

We just discovered that the Jewish Genealogical Forums on the internet-especially the Sephardic ones- had been penetrated by a member of an international powerful sect for the last 3 years.

This person has established a database by asking information to many persons. Currently, he has data from many families and persons still alive.

Of course, he never explained his aim prior to obtaining the family data.

Many persons (we are two of them unfortunately) have been deceived.

When the persons who gave him data about their own family requested that he removes it, he has refused; he consider that he is now the owner of the data. Because of his involvement with this sect, he lost his family, his home, his job and he needs money. He recently declared that he wants to sell his database. A database of tens of thousands of Sephardim and their families.

As many of you, we imagine, we thought that a danger for Jewish Genealogy could be the anti-Semitism, but we never thought of such sects--until now.

We have, together must think of a way to address this problem very quickly.

Last year one of the authors requested that the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) Board of Directors create an Ethics Committee to establish the minimal rules to respect to continue to use the services of the Societies or of the Forums, but this idea has not yet come to fruition.

We cannot continue on the same track. Some societies, especially the French ones because of the Legislation, forbid to publish in their reviews information about persons still alive without their authorization. We should establish at least the same kind of prohibition for the Forums. In the United States, having such information would make obtaining official records and documents much easier. If the data was eventually sold-it could be obtained by someone with unethical or criminal intentions, this is obviously dangerous.

Of course, we cannot control the private exchanges but we can at least warn our friends, members, and colleagues advise them to be very vigilant. We see it as our responsibility.

Best regards, Laurence Abensur-Hazan (Mrs) ETSI, Sephardi Genealogical and Historical Society www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/1321 Paris, France Scott Alfassa Marks Sephardic House, Institute for Researching and Promoting Sephardic History and Culture New York City

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Warning for Sephardic Genealogists:

The Original Letter was Posted on a public Sephardic-Interest discussion group SPECIAL ATTENTION TO JEWS FROM RHODES AND TURKEY BE SUSPECT OF PEOPLE ASKING QUESTIONS OF YOUR ROOTS AND FAMILY INFORMATION.

THEY MAY BE A CERTAIN CHRISTIAN SCIENTOLOGIST WHO IS HUNTING YOU FOR YOUR PERSONAL DATA.

June 24, 2001 CE Dear friends,

We want to inform you of a very important problem that recently appeared.

We just discovered that the Jewish Genealogical Forums on the internet-especially the Sephardic ones- had been penetrated by a member of an international powerful sect for the last 3 years.

This person has established a database by asking information to many persons. Currently, he has data from many families and persons still alive.

Of course, he never explained his aim prior to obtaining the family data.

Many persons (we are two of them unfortunately) have been deceived.

When the persons who gave him data about their own family requested that he removes it, he has refused; he consider that he is now the owner of the data. Because of his involvement with this sect, he lost his family, his home, his job and he needs money. He recently declared that he wants to sell his database. A database of tens of thousands of Sephardim and their families.

As many of you, we imagine, we thought that a danger for Jewish Genealogy could be the anti-Semitism, but we never thought of such sects--until now.

We have, together must think of a way to address this problem very quickly.

Last year one of the authors requested that the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) Board of Directors create an Ethics Committee to establish the minimal rules to respect to continue to use the services of the Societies or of the Forums, but this idea has not yet come to fruition.

We cannot continue on the same track. Some societies, especially the French ones because of the Legislation, forbid to publish in their reviews information about persons still alive without their authorization. We should establish at least the same kind of prohibition for the Forums. In the United States, having such information would make obtaining official records and documents much easier. If the data was eventually sold-it could be obtained by someone with unethical or criminal intentions, this is obviously dangerous.

Of course, we cannot control the private exchanges but we can at least warn our friends, members, and colleagues advise them to be very vigilant. We see it as our responsibility.

Best regards,

Laurence Abensur-Hazan (Mrs) ETSI, Sephardi Genealogical and Historical Society www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/1321 Paris, France Scott Alfassa Marks

Sephardic House, Institute for Researching and Promoting Sephardic History and Culture New York City

These are the names of the families this person is targeting (snip)

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