Web investigation websites. Are they any good or a con?

[The Seeker]

Hi all.

Does anyone know the effectiveness of the 'Web investigator'-type websites? I'm researching my family history and have found adverts for various databases which offer, for a fee of course, info not available elsewhere.

 Are the electoral rolls on these databases current?  I logged onto a free website which gave electoral info and I found that it was about 2 years old.

 Some of these websites boast of giving out unlisted numbers and other sensitive infomation! Is this legal? What about data protection?

I did a preliminary free search on my name and, surprise surprise, there was some info next to it. I'd have to part with some readies to access the info. Obviously, I'm not keen on doing that if I don't know how relevant it will be for me.

Cheers, in advance, for any advice.

[Joanne-G]

My experience of this is that most are leachers seeking your money, for a fee they give you a link to legitimate information via their own server. This is a simple scam, don't believe the promices made.

That is unless anyone can PROVE me wrong!