I got elaborately scammed by a fake DNA testing company.

So I had a little extra money, and upon researching online which DNA testing kit was best, I decided on myheritagedna.com.

My kit came in the mail about a week later. These are the contents, the swabs and containers were sealed, but of course I used them thinking I was going to mail them in.

Per the instructions, I was to go online and "activate" my kit before mailing off my DNA sample.

Here's the email receipt I received after purchasing the kit online.

I don't know any family on my father's side. Myheritagedna.com will actually pair you up with known relatives that have also taken a DNA test. Kind of a long shot, but there is an entire half of my family I don't know, and I have no idea where we derive from. I was super excited to get the results.

So here's how I was scammed: While looking through Google for reviews on the best site, I made the absolute rookie mistake of following links from a review to the website. The "fake" myheritagedna website looked exactly like the real one I had visited earlier, so nothing tipped me off there. I ordered the kit, received the kit, but then when I went to activate it, the customer service at myheritage kept telling me the code on the box belonged to another account.

So then I looked harder at the receipt, and the bank charge. It says "healthycarex" which after a quick search informed me they are a scam company that buys used myheritagedna packaging in good condition off ebay, puts new swabs and plastic containers inside, reseals them and ships them to schmucks like me.

Why even send anything at all? To buy time? Who knows. But I thought I'd write this post so some other unknowing person doesn't get scammed and disappointed out of 60 dollars.

TL;DR: DNA kit scammed me hard and made me look like a punk ass buster, check the web address before clicking a damn link.

EDIT: lots of people saying I didn't make it clear enough that myheritagedna.com DID NOT scam me, a copycat website did. The legitimate company myheritagedna did nothing wrong.

Dog tax, Marty and Data.