Not spam email or a scam at all but a new DNA cousin, Ivandro Nelson Zego!

Wow! Did I get that wrong. And If I'm wrong I'm glad to post a correction, so here goes. I would have bet it was a scam, but not so. Read on.

It all started when I got an email that went into my spam/junk mail folder from Nelson Zego. You can read my last post about this here.

There were a couple of features about his first email that seemed like spam. You know what they look like because I'm guessing that you get them too. Poor English and sentences that don't quite make sense. Additionally, the writer mentioned his FamilyTree DNA test and I haven't tested there so that set off a big alarm bell. Plus he signed his name with one given name and invited me to check out his Facebook page with a different given name. I would have sworn it was spam. But not so.

Finally, in the second email, he mentioned GEDmatch so I emailed and asked him for his kit number. I figured that he'd prove himself a fake and I'd never hear from him again, but not so. He emailed right back with his kit number. My doubts about him were starting to disappear. When I checked GEDmatch, yup, there he was, just as advertised. Here's what GEDmatch said about our match, below.

GEDmatch.Com Autosomal ComparisonComparing Kit M094320 (Diane Weintraub) and F327809 (Nelson Zego)

Minimum threshold size to be included in total = 700 SNPs
Mismatch-bunching Limit = 350 SNPs
Noise Reduction Threshold = 0.85
Minimum segment cM to be included in total = 7.0 cM

Chr	Start Location	End Location	Centimorgans (cM)	SNPs
20	57307333	59326740	8.9	740

Largest segment = 8.9 cM
Total of segments > 7 cM = 8.9 cM
Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 6.4

So I was wrong. Nelson / Ivandro is now mad at me because of what I posted on this blog about him perpetrating a new kind of scam involving DNA matches. And I'm sorry about that truly, because my assessment wasn't accurate. But I'm not alone in looking at his email and thinking it was spam. But bottom line is that I was wrong about him. Sorry Nelson.

As you can see, the opinions expressed here are just my own. Sometimes right and sometimes not so right. Hey, no one's perfect. We just try.


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/07/not-spam-email-or-scam-at-all-but-new.html

The "New-to-me DNA cousin, or a scam" guy is back!

On May 15 of this year I did a post about an email I received in my junk mail folder. Some folks emailed or commented on the post that they too have received the same email from a Nelson Zego, so we all assume that it's a scam, especially with the mention of Tuscan DNA! Here's the original email just in case you missed it.

Hello,

I'm sorry to be bothering you, but I have news for you. My name is Nelson Ivandro Lima Zêgo, was born in Santo Antão island - Cape Verde.
 I Did the dna test - family finder in family tree dna match and told me that we are cousins. 

Testing my I'm 56% West africa (bantu people), 36% European (French, Norway, germany, Russian, spanish and tuscan) and 8% Middle East (turkey Jewish and north africa jewish).

My facebook is ivandro Zêgo

Greetings,

Nelson Zêgo

Well, I've just received this email, below.

If we are cousins ​​or not, I do not know. It says that the gedmatch.
You should send a message to the administrators of gedmatch to take me off your list of primes. In the gedmatch Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 6.4.
I do not blame the gedmatch says. I am not a scam. Your problem is that you have a black cousin.
With all due respect and in the name of a race (black) I wish you good health, luck and humility.
Be well

http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.pt/2014/05/a-new-to-me-dna-cousin-or-scam.html

Obviously he's now monitoring this blog. If he doesn't want his emails posted he should stop sending them.

OK, so what's going on here? The first thing I notice is that he has way better luck getting on GEDmatch than I do, what with it being down so much lately! He wants me to contact the administrators to take him off my "list of primes". If he's the real deal why doesn't he just make his name and contact info private? And however did I miss the "list of primes"?

He has gotten a bit more savvy since sending out the first email because now he knows terms like MRCA. But at a MCRA of 6.4 even if he's the real deal I'm not too keen about that poor quality match. And he is no longer referring to FamilyTree DNA and Family Finder as he did in the first  email, but has shifted his focus to GEDmatch. Deeper pool to fish in, or should I say pfish in?

But really, saying that my "problem" is that I have a black cousin?! What a clever argumentative gambit: I'm a racist! That's a first for me! But since he's claiming to be my cousin wouldn't I too have have checked my countries of origins/ethnicity and already know that I'm at least partially "black"? Then I'd be racist against myself. How would that work??

Poor Nelson Zego. I wish him as he has wished me, "good health, luck, and humility". Humility?



The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.pt/2014/07/the-new-to-me-dna-cousin-or-scam-guy-is.html