You probably won't be fooled like I was, but watch out for this bogus service:
"Government-Records.com"
I was trying to find info on my father (died some years ago) during his time on Brisbane radio in 1944.
I Google'd 'Australian Tax Office records family history' and this American "Government-Records.com" was one of the sites that came up.
On going into the site it promised access to just about every Western country's government records (I thought it was some corporatised/privatised arm of each government).
It offered fields for Name, City (& Year too I think). On entering my father's details up popped 'You need to subscribe as a member to access our data bases.', or something very similar. I thought 'Okay, you pay for everything nowadays', so I paid my $42-odd (Australian), and then tried to search for my father's tax records.
This time there was only a field for Name for all of Australia & New Zealand (no City or year field). So I entered my father's name and up came: "No record for that surname".
Now, I happen to know that there are at least several hundred people with my surname in the Sydney White Pages alone. I tried it several times with the same result.
I've been emailing them to tell them I'm not happy with the service they advertised and want a refund, to which they agreed but tried to entice me to stay (and keep my money) with 'New, Improved' claims for their 'service'.
I politely declined their offer, but it's been two weeks and no refund, and no more replies to my emails asking when my refund is coming.
So watch out for Government-Records.com.
P.S. I don't know if the credit card payment window Government-Records.com
sent me to is someone they pay or is part of their organisation. Their name is ClickBank.com
Glen
FAULCONBRIDGE
Australia
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