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From: Internet ScamBusters™ -
The #1 Publication on Internet Fraud
Unclaimed Money Scams
Who wouldn't want to find free or unclaimed money that legitimately
belongs to you? Free or unclaimed money is very appealing to many
people -- especially if it's legitimate. ;-)
The interesting thing is that there really is unclaimed money and
unclaimed funds available -- in fact, there are huge amounts of
it. Much of it belongs to people who have passed away. And much
of it is just forgotten.
However, finding free or unclaimed money on the Net is one of the
oldest scams in the book, so red flags should go off whenever you
read anything about this.
For example, there is a very popular unclaimed money scam going
around right now via email. One such email starts off: "There's
over 400 billion dollars in unclaimed money in North America --
and some of it belongs to you!"
(How do they know?)
Another email starts off: "You are owed money. Nine out of
ten people over the age of 25 are owed money they didn't know they
had, and you are one of them!"
(Again, how do they know?)
These emails go on to claim that Oprah recently did a show on this
unclaimed money phenomenon, and that it's been documented that '9
out of 10 people are owed money' by the country's banks and other
financial institutes.
Finally, comes the pitch -- the company that's sending you the email
will, of course, help you locate your unclaimed money. All you need
to do is call this particular 1-809 number 'right now'!
The company claims that they'll do a 'search' for free, and that
you don't have to pay them anything until they've found your money.
And even then, they'll only take 15%.
What they DON'T tell you is that they're going to make money on
that 1-809 call they've convinced you to make, for starters.
In fact, this is one the most popular 809 phone scams going on right
now. You can read more about 809
scams in the Scambuster website.
They also don't tell you that they'll send you a 'refined' search
that includes your last name and first initial in an official looking
database list, and then they'll tell you that although they can't
guarantee it's you, you'll need to pay a fee (or perhaps buy a membership)
before they'll check any further.
If you'd like to read a popular version of this unclaimed money
and unclaimed funds scam email that's going around, click here now.
Besides the 809 scam, what are the other fraudulent aspects of the
types of email?
First, they are spam, so you know that the chance is at least 95%
that they are fraudulent.
Second, almost all want to charge you a fee to help you reclaim
the money -- something you can do for free for yourself (see below).
Others charge the fee even if they simply locate the $2.64 you left
behind in a paper route account when you were 12. And still others
are aimed at getting your personal information, most likely to get
bank account numbers or other financial information in order to
commit identity theft.
The good news is that you can do this research for free -- and see
if there is really any unclaimed money or property owed to you.
And you can do this without paying any fees!
Here are the state-sanctioned unclaimed funds registries...
National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators
==> http://www.unclaimed.org/
(Click on the link for 'Owners' and then click on the link to 'Find
Property' -- this will let you select your state.)
Missing Money
==> http://www.missingmoney.com/
Both of these sites link you to databases in each state where you
can do the search online.
Using unclaimed.org, we actually found a couple of hundred dollars
of funds that belonged to Audri's father after he passed away. So,
we can vouch that there is actually unclaimed money to be found.
;-)
Good luck finding unclaimed money that might belong to you!
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