Security issues with Ancestry.

[solidrock]

Has anyone had security issues with Ancestry? A relative of mine parents have been contact by phone claiming to be from Ancestry asking questions and also received an email claiming to be from me. The tree in question is private and only my son has access to it but last year I had a message from another Ancestry member about this tree. They wanted to know if any living family member would be willing to give a DNA sample, I asked my son first if anyone would be willing and they agreed so I gave this person my son's email address and they made arrangements between them to do the test. The person who made contact with me lives in Australia and she met up with my son and his wife when she visited the UK. Now I suspect this person of using my email address and making the phone call, I have no idea of the living persons email address or phone number, ok a persons phone number can easily be found online but email address, I don't think so unless they have posted it on Facebook or similar.

[AMBLY]

A relative of mine parents have been contact by phone claiming to be from Ancestry asking questions

When you say "claiming to be from Ancestry" - do you mean someone who works FOR Ancestry, or someone who said they have a tree or an account with Ancestry or a  DNA test via Ancestry?  Were they asking personal questions about your shared family?  Did the person who called them have a particular accent, or say anything about themselves - or indicate what their objective was?

and also received an email claiming to be from me.

Unless your email account has been hacked, I don't quite understand this - was the email actually a message sent to your relative's parents via email but generated via a messaging forum and had your name on it?  If they were to reply to what they received - what reply address comes up?

It certainly all sounds very fishy, and must be very unsettling for you - but from what you say, I'm not convinced it's an Ancestry security breach. The contacting of yourself by the Australian lady initially, seems all above board - Private trees can be still appear on Ancersty searches with minimal info, enough to reveal a possible connection and Ancestry then suggests the searcher message the Private Tree owner.

Hopefully Rootschatters with more knowledge in these things will be able to help more.

Cheers
AMBLY

[pharmaT]

Even if your tree is private, unless you tick the box to also be unsearchable it can come up that you have person in your tree.  That could explain someone messaging you.