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Some companies may sell instant deception as well. Halbert's and Sanson's carefully note that "no genealogical representation is intended or implied." Still, many genealogists are outraged by mailorder heraldry. "It's a search for the buck," complains Virginia Westhaeffer, president of the National Genealogical Society. "The implications are not honest. They would have people believe that every surname has a coat of arms and everyone with that surname has a right to it." In fact, genealogists note, only the eldest son of the eldest son in families whose ancestors actually bore arms are entitled to a shield. Says Gunther Pohl, chief of genealogy at the New York Public Library: "A similar surname does not entitle a person to claim a coat of arms." Kenn Stryker-Rodda of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society is "deeply concerned about the American public misleading itself in purchasing coats of arms by mail or in the corner drugstore."
The U.S. Postal Service shares that concern; it is considering filing a complaint against two offenders for false advertising, under the post office's false representation law. Explains Tom Ziebarth, a Postal Service attorney: "People should know that what they are getting for their money is in all probability a coat of arms that is the result of an artist's imagination."