The DNA Hacker
(Part three) Spam messages from "relatives" you don't know through apps about DNA
Hello There! I just wanted to give a quick thanks to all my new subscribers. I guess a story about surprise DNA matches touched a nerve. Thanks to all of my faithful readers that have stuck it out with me these two years. I’m loving the community driven Substack. Please take time to say hello and let me know what this story stirs inside for you… and now part three….
You have arrived at part three of my DNA (Do Not Assume) story. You can start here or read part two here.
There was a match. But I didn’t find out from the Ancestry app. I received a private message through the app only two days from the moment my ancestry results were revealed. Because I have historically been slow to figure out what questions I should ask about my past, most specifically about what happened when I was born and shortly after; how the heck I ended up thinking my grandmother was my mom and thinking my mother was my sister - even though they were both around me my formative years.
Every time I’d tell this story (which I could count on one hand growing up) I’d be confronted with multiple (seemingly obvious) questions to which I had no answers. Mostly because I just hadn’t thought of the questions yet. Kids are resilient. I was too. I just went on living my life. I was loved, nurtured and protected. “Now tell me again who the players are here?” didn’t come up on my daily basis. You get on with it. Living that is.
A TECHNICAL GLITCH
I’m no coder but I can find my way in this tecchy age. Unless we’re discussing Safari’s “ingenius” Private Relay. Heard of it? It seemed like a pretty good idea to me; hiding my email from the imaginary Ancestry Weirdo I’d formed in my mind when thinking of perhaps finding those aunts and uncles I’d dreamed about. I want to meet you, Auntie! But I want to make sure you don’t know where I live first.
So I hit the little button that activated Private Relay which hides my real email.
That prevented my ultimately being able to achieve the very purpose of being on the damn Ancestry site in the first place! Possible DNA Matches!
But I do get “results” and find out all the fun spices that make up my own personal melting pot. Scottish! England and Northwestern Europe! Levant (what’s that?)! Wales! All rounded out with a dash of Norway and Ireland. (Incidentally the irish being much less than I would have guessed. Ok.) Fun fun fun!
Back up. What’s “Levant” and why do I have 23% of it?
According to Google, Levant is “a region in the Near East that includes modern-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria.” But it seems Ancestry knew I’d ask and had a more specific (DNA) answer ready: Lebanese. That Levant “thing” in my case? Lebanese. I’m roughly a quarter Lebanese? I take a quick look in the mirror. Well, okay.
Now we’ll circle back to where I’m dim and I don’t put 2 and 2 together… or 23% in this case. That technical glitch. The glitch was that I was able to see my personal melting pot percentages but because I hit what was effectively the “you can’t see me” button… meant that I couldn’t see *them* either.
So in the time it was taking me to figure out why I couldn’t see any DNA matches (ie aunts and uncles), I got a message through the Ancestry app. A personal message.
SPAM MESSAGES FROM “RELATIVES” YOU DON’T KNOW THROUGH APPS ABOUT YOUR DNA
A mere two days after I appeared on Ancestry I received a message from a name I didn’t recognize. (So already my guard is UP.)
“Dear Mrs. Dobbins….” (My eyes squint with immediate distrust.)
The message was from a man I’d never met with a name I’d never heard telling me that according to the DNA findings, he was my biological father.
Which was impossible of course! Because my biological father was - is - dead. My six-foot something bushy silvery haired ruddy skinned all welshy-irishy looking man had been dead since ‘09. HA! Gotcha, spammer! (It had taken 35 years but I had seen a picture of him.)
An instant mixture of dread, fear and disgust welled up within; that there are people out there spending their time hacking into programs like this just to prey on our vulnerabilities. Amazing how these hackers can even invade DNA sites! Terrifying. But you tried it on the wrong gal, Bucko! You should have done better research. What a jack ass, I thought.
So I immediately blocked him. Having been on social media for a while, you see these spammers trying to prey on you in myriad ways and learn this tactic fast.
What irritated me even more was the great detail and tenderness he took in his attempt to manipulate me. “You have a loving family here.” “We are a Christian family.” Ewwwww WEIRDO! BLOCK BLOCK BLOCKING BLOCKED.
This was approximately week two of 2024. But the earth will revolve and the tide turns and what had been in darkness must come to light - no matter how long it takes. But what happened next I would
believe as soon
This whole earth may be bored, and that the moon
May through the center creep, and so displease
Her brother's noon-tide with th' Antipodes.1
And now, a call must be made to Ancestry.
To be continued…
Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
You have a fascinating story of a mystery on par with an Agathe Christie thriller. One that is not about a fictional character, but real life, and presented in a way that leaves us in suspense anxiously awaiting the next episode. You leave us feeling like we are part of your family tree sharing the adventure.