Don't be fooled by unofficial websites

Monday, 28 Nov 2011

People ordering birth, death and marriage certificates were warned by the Registrar General today not to be fooled into paying more through unofficial websites.

The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint from the Registrar General about third party websites misleading customers into believing that they were ordering from the government's own website.

Theauthoritywarned UK Official Services and UK GRO Certificates that they were in breach of the Committee of Advertising Practice code and that they must stop appearing or implying that they are the General Register Office.

Three times more expensive on unofficial sites

Customers applying for replacement birth certificates can be charged up to 74.99 for an unofficial 'express' online service.

The same express service is 23.40 via the Identity & Passport Service official website.

Thestandard certificate service is available for even less - 9.25.

Welcoming today's announcement, Sarah Rapson, Registrar General and Chief Executive of the Identity and Passport Service said: 'The Advertising Standards Authority has sent a very clear message to customers and those companies that mislead them: there is just one official online certificate ordering service for England and Wales.

'It is always quicker, cheaper and safer to deal directly with the General Register Office for certificate orders.

'While other outlets can be found online, there is no reason to pay over the odds and I would urge customers to look at the official site first before ordering anywhere else.'

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/media-centre/news/misleading-websites

It really is a tribute to the success of our new Directory site that we have been targeted by spammers twice in the course of the last two days. Yesterday we were treated to a spam crossword by the dodgy SEO crowd and today the lingerie mob have been dropping comments on various Directory entries. We will of course ramp up security and expand our growing blacklist to accommodate these miscreants.

Never a dull moment here at AC/HQ.

We are enormously pleased and proud to present two new card designs by Graham Williams of Graham Williams Images . Don't forget to send out your St David's Day Greetings a day or two in advance. Give people time to reply

See our full selection of St David's day cards here

SEND THIS CARD

SEND THIS CARD

SEND THIS CARD

SEND THIS CARD

DYDD GWYL DEWI HAPUS / HAPPY ST DAVID'S DAY

We were stunned this afternoon to receive an email from John Evans, the Secretary of the Welsh Society of Portland, informing us that Tom Owen, WSOP President, had passed away, a victim of smoke inhalation from a house fire, in his bed in the early morning hours of Thursday, 16 February.

Tom was a wonderful, friendly, cheerful and happy man who liked Penderyn and beer, loved Wales, was very proud of his Welsh heritage and had dedicated himself to the Welsh Society and to making people in Portland more aware of their Welsh heritage and what it meant. Tom had many friends and people who loved him and he will be sorely missed.

Tom Owen at the WSOP Christmas brunch, 2009

Tom Owen with Diana Dream at the 2010 North American Festival of Wales, Portland OR

St. David's Society of Lackawanna County invites you to the 102nd Anniversary St. David's Day Banquet at Genetti's Manor. Dickson City (Northern suburb of Scranton). Musical Entertainment by the Lyric Consort (8 voices) singing Welsh Folk Music

SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 3, 2012

DINNER AT 6 P.M.

Welsh League of Arizona

St. David's Day Meeting
Saturday, March 3rd, 2012
12-2 p.m.
Irish Cultural Center
1106 N. Central Ave.
Phoenix

We are celebrating St. David's Day on Saturday, March 3rd with a very special treat!
Welsh League of Arizona is proud to present
"Mythic Crew" www.mythiccrew.com
in a new biligual version of a famous medieval Welsh masterpiece:
Branwen Daughter of Llyr (Branwen uerch Lyr) or the Second Branch of the Mabinogi
(Ail Gainc y Mabinogi) ...
a tale of mayhem and magic!

Mythic Crew, John Good (musician)and Liz Warren (storyteller),
two performer/scholars who specialize in the folklore and mythology of the Celtic Nations,
enliven traditional stories through the use of music, language, cultural and historical background in workshops, discussion, and performance.

Bora Da every one, well it is the morning here.

I am a Welsh photographer, originally from the Rhondda Valley, but following a number of years in military roles, working for 5 years with US military personnel in Iraq, I settled down in Newport with my wonderful wife and two children.

I have a blog site at;

http://taff-oakfield.blogspot.com/

and a web page at;

http://www.oakfield-photography.com/

It would be great to hear from you all and get some feedback on my sites.

Stefan (Taff) Edwards

If you witnessed the torrent of Welsh rugby Tweets in the feed earlier on please do not be concerned. Ning has initiated a new feature which allows NC's to turn on Twitter feeds for selected search terms. I was under the impression that these would only appear in the 'Top News' feed. But apparently not. They appear in both feeds if activated which is obviously not a satisfactory state of affairs.

I have switched off the new feature and everything should be back to normal .

The invasion of the Tweets is over! You may leave your shelters now and return your gas masks to the emergency facilities manager

Just click 'Top News' above this post to follow the Twitter stream for Welsh Rugby. To return to the main feed click 'Everything'

Not only did the Welsh men's team give Scotland a 6 Nations whomping on Sunday, Welsh women's team captain Rachel Taylor lead the Welsh Women's team to a victory over Scotland, giving Wales two 6 Nations victories this last Sunday:
http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/women/20278.php

Wales Women have been a team since 1987 and hosted the first ever Women's Rugby World Cup at Cardiff Arms Park in 1991 and won the 2009 triple crown in the Women's 6 Nations. The Womens 6 Nations began in 1996.

You can see squad profiles of the Wales women's team and find out more about the team here:
http://www.wru.co.uk/eng/matchcentre/squads_wales_women.php

The next 6 Nations match for Wales Women will be Wales/Italy, Saturday 10 March at Millenium Stadium, Cardiff and then Sunday, 18 March v France at Pandy Park, Cross Keys:
http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/women/172.php