In Britain, the Sovereign has always traditionally granted titles, though in the last couple of centuries, this has very much been at the instigation of the Government of the day.

The title (except in the case of Baronets or Knights) conferred the right on the recipient to sit in the House of Lords, and pass on the title to his nearest male heir.

Whilst there have always been pretenders to real titles around, in cases like the Tichborne Inheritance, the rise of companies selling fake titles is a relatively recent phenomenon; assisted enormously by the growth of the use of the Internet.

But are many people taken in by these sites peddling so-called titles that are not worth the impressive looking paper that they are written on?

The answer unfortunately is that far too many fall for their slick sales talk, though quite frankly it astounds me that so few actually question what they are signing up to, yet the purchaser ends up paying too much for something quite worthless.

The purveyors of these fake title sites not only advertise quite openly in upmarket magazines, but you can even sign up your own website to an affiliate deal and sell them directly to the gullible public yourself.

The fact is that there are only two forms of genuine titles that you can buy and use legitimately: a Lordship of the Manor, which does not actually give you a title but enables you to put after your name, Lord of the Manor of Lower Piddling-in-the-Trough or some such place, or a Scottish Feudal Barony.

However, you would not believe that to be the case on the Internet as you are presented with a bewildering display of Titles in Britain for sale, you can even purchase the title of Laird of Scotland, by buying a square foot of land at $67.

As there are 43,560 square feet to the acre, this works out at a gigantic income of $2,918,520 per acre, presumably of rather poor land, which could probably be purchased for about $100 - not a bad return.

Then there are supposed English Feudal Titles, Hereditary Knightships, there are pyramid schemes involving so-called Feudal Noble titles of Baron Marshall, Non-Inheritable Titles (all they get you to do is to illegally change your name using a Titled prefix, something that only the Sovereign can convey).

They make amazing claims about how you will get the best tables in restaurants or be upgraded on aeroplanes; seeing as, though holding a genuine English title myself, this pleasant surprise has never yet taken place, it seems even less likely to happen to the purchasers of these spurious offerings.

They neglect to mention about how you will be ridiculed by your friends, talking behind your back about what a ‘mug’ you are, as you have so obviously bought something quite worthless and meaningless!!

The British Embassy in Washington is so worried about Americans being misled into buying fraudulent titles that it even puts out the following advice for the unwary on their official website:

"The sale of British titles is prohibited by the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act, 1925. However, misleading advertisements for lordships of manors sometimes appear in the media and on the internet. A manorial lordship is not an aristocratic title, but a semi-extinct form of landed property. Lordship in this sense is a synonym for ownership. According to John Martin Robinson, Maltravers Herald Extraordinary and co-author of The Oxford Guide to Heraldry, ‘Lordship of this or that manor is no more a title than Landlord of the Dog and Duck.’ It cannot be stated on a passport, and does not entitle the owner to a coat of arms."

On my site, Fake Titles, you will find explanations about British Titles, and how you can earn them legitimately; then I have included some of the more blatant examples of sites peddling Fake Titles on the Internet, a list that seems to grow almost continuously. I hope that you find the information enlightening.

Visit www.faketitles.com for more information.

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