There is no questioning that the amount of unclaimed money or property being held by both State and Federal agencies is staggering and growing each year – current estimate is believed to be in excess of $40 BILLION.
On the prowl for new sources of revenue, cash-strapped States are pouncing on UNCLAIMED PROPERTY by shortening the ‘dormancy’ period of most abandoned property and strictly enforcing their statues for holders or companies to transfer over these funds to the State’s custody. If a state audit discovers the company has been laxed or under reported these funds face stiff fines. As a result in the past few years, millions of unclaimed accounts worth over a $ billion are transferred to the States each year.
With all that said, the emergence of Unclaimed Money web sites have appeared on the Internet hoping to gain from such. Some are legit and do offer a valuable service and information to assist one in locating an unclaimed or lost asset. However, many offer a useless, misleading and costly service especially those that market themselves as “FREE” and “INSTANT” searches.
Here is the 3-prong trap and how it works:
There is NO National database for unclaimed accounts. Every State has its own Unclaimed Property Division and each Federal agency handles its own unclaimed accounts. All of the former and many of the latter have online databases for one to search.
The web sites have collected a few millions names with unclaimed accounts from States’ online databases that can be readily done with software that converts the online information into their own database. Even though these sites have only processed/collated only 5 million +/- accounts, their database will likely have 90%+ of all American last/surnames.
One is asked to insert your name into their search box…and the “Instant’ result says there is i.e.) $25,000 of unclaimed money in your name. Well, there can be many/hundreds of others with your name and their software generates varies spellings, variations of fist name or numerous first initials i.e.) if your name was Cathy Stevens, the query results would include: C. Stevens, Kathy Stevens, K. Stevens or if name was William Smith, the query results would include Will Smith, Bill Smith, Billy Smith, W. Smith and B. Smith. The web site’s software aggregates all amounts due under these variations to inflate the dollar amount…luring one into subscribing.
The 2nd tier of the trap is more serious. They purport that they normally charge i.e.) $29.95 for a single search, but a special promotion allows unlimited searches for 30 days for only $12.95 – a deal right?! First of all, to conduct a thorough search, one needs to be checking regularly to find any lost asset. One’s unclaimed asset may not be transferred to the State and placed into its database until 2006 or 2007. One needs to have unrestricted access to the appropriate and current databases. Note again, these web sites’ databases are not only restricted, but also incomplete and not updated.
It gets better/worse. If one does not read the terms and conditions, you will be charged $29.95 at the end of the 30 day period if you do not cancel the subscription. Based on one’s credit card billing cycle, one may not see the second charge (assuming you forgot to cancel) in your statement until still another $29.95 is charged to your credit card.
Last, some of these services purport a 100% Money Back Guarantee. One gets his subscription back if the State says the unclaimed account found in their database is not yours? Their database information came from the State’s database. The information that accompanies the unclaimed account will definitely tell one if it is yours. One only gets a refund if the State refuses to return your rightful account. That is not legally possible. The guarantee is worthless. Plus any written correspondence to the State could take 4-6 months to confirm that the unclaimed account was never yours. These web sites are banking on one will not follow through and not bother to submit for the ‘Money Back Guarantee’ refund after 4-6 months.
Here are the sites that offer such service and have same limited, incomplete and not current database. They mask themselves under various URLs and affiliates, but appear to be the same according to ‘Whois’.
There are web sites that offer a valuable service for assisting one in locating unclaimed or lost money or property. Just be cautious of above services and their costly traps. The only truly thorough search is to have access to all the States and other databases and search regularly. A 30 day access to a limited and incomplete database is a waste of money. Ones unclaimed property may not be transferred to a State or other government agency and listed in its online database until 2006 or so.
This article was posted on September 12, 2005
