Sunday, July 27, 2025

Is Sequencing, sequencing.com a Scam? Yes and no by Mary Cummins Genealogist, DNA

Is the company sequencing a scam? Yes and no by Mary Cummins genealogist


Sequencing is a company which does health analysis of your DNA. You provide a cheek swab just like other DNA sites such as Ancestry and 23andme (23andme is in bankruptcy proceedings). Within a few weeks they analyze your DNA against disease databases to give you a health report based solely on your DNA for a cost of $400. You can find out if you are genetically predisposed to certain diseases and conditions. Keep in mind genetic predisposition is just one factor in actually contracting some diseases. Lifestyle choices are a huge factor which influence disease.

Sequencing is running ads all over the internet for their service. They also offer a free service where you can upload an existing DNA file which you may have from Ancestry, 23andme, Geni, MyHeritage... They offer free DNA analysis of your existing DNA file. The scam part has to do with the "free" services they offer. 

A friend loaded up an existing DNA file. They then requested the free blood type analysis. You have to sign up with your name, address, email address to get this "free" service. They tell you it will take a few days for this analysis. The results are "your file did not contain enough data to determine your blood type. Please, pay us $400 for a full analysis." 

The friend then deleted the existing DNA file and then used the $400 sequencing file for analysis. They got the same result. That means they never even bothered to look at the data file or the full analysis will not provide that result. That is scammy and dishonest.

Another example. Sequencing ran an ad saying "Am I an Einstein?" They allegedly were offering to check your existing DNA file to see if you have genius level intelligence. Again, they make you wait a few days. They do this so you think it must be a lot of time consuming work. Days later you get the results which state "Am I related to Einstein?" Now it's a different test to see if you just related to Einstein. They only look at your haplogroup to see human migration patterns. Albert Einstein's Y-DNA haplogroup is E1b1b1b2 (or E-Z830)*, specifically the "Jewish cluster." No one ever tested Einstein's DNA. They only tested a descendant of his great-grandfather, Naphtali Hirsch Einstein, and found him to belong to the E-M35 haplogroup and its subclade E1b1b1b2. If you already took a DNA test, you already know your haplo group. You would already know if you are a part of Einstein's haplo group and don't need Sequencing to tell you. Worthless test. Then they tell you to buy their $400 test for better analysis. 

Back in the day  around 2019-2021 Ancestry offered DNA health analysis. It was $59 for basic AncestryDNA then $30 for AncestryHealth. The results came back at the same time in a few weeks. Sequencing is saying your Ancestry test doesn't have enough data to run their health analysis. This isn't 100% true. They used the same oral saliva swabbing. The Ancestry results were pretty robust showing likelihood of having cancer and many other diseases. I would agree that Sequencing probably has a more robust report today in 2025. 

In summary Sequencing offers these "free" services to lure you in to buy the $400 sequencing test. 23andme offers a similar Ancestry and health service for $199. With 23andme you can also find relatives and work on your family tree online. Ancestry now only offers DNA to find family. They also offer a very robust database of genealogical records. The monthly subscriptions are more expensive than the basic test. 

*I have the screen captures from the results of the various "free" analysis which support every statement in this article.

Genealogist at Geneanet and Geneastar
https://en.geneanet.org/profil/marycummins
 Mary Cummins Investigative Reporter
https://marycumminsrealestatemarycummins.blogspot.com
 Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser
http://www.marycummins.com
 Mary Cummins
http://www.mary.cc
 Mary Cummins Biography, History in Wikipedia format
http://wikipedia.marycummins.com/
 Mary Cummins on LinkedIn 
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