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Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:28 pm Subject: Unclaimed Funds

I was wondering if anyone can help me. Today my father received a unsolicited letter by USPS saying a person is an independent unclaimed money tracker. Basically its saying there is a refund amount of 1366.31 for a property he used to own. The are asking for no money up front only after he receives his refund. The letter says its from a US Government branch. Does anyone know any websites for the government on unclaimed funds? Or can this be a scam? The letter that was sent had his old address so I'm thinking they found some sort of database.

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:43 pm Subject:

What are they asking for AFTER he receives his refund, and are they asking for a lot of personal information? Like SS#, drivers license #, etc.?

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:17 pm Subject:

Call the state you live in department of revenue to see if there is any unclaimed property they have records of that. Do not give out any personal information.

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:02 pm Subject:

Each state had an unclaimed property web site and it is free. My husband had some stock that he needed to cash in several years ago, although it wasn't much, but it was a little bit, and it didn't cost us anything to claim it.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 1:45 pm Subject:

Yeah, unclaimed property is run by the states, not federal -- especially since it is apparently involving real estate taxes, that would have to do with your county treasurer who would report it to the state.

The other thing to consider is that official government mail is not sent first-class with any postage. Rather it is considered penalty or franked mail. Since the government gets free use of USPS to send official mail, they put their "frank" on the envelope showing which branch of the government it's mailed from. There is usually a penalty too -- like "$3000 penalty for private use." If you've ever seen that warning on your mail and wondered what it means -- it means that if a government employee is taking their personal mail to work to mail it for free, then they can be fined for privately abusing the franking privilege.

Back to my point, if the mail you received was not franked by the government, then it is not coming from the government at all. In that case, you should take it to a postal inspector as it may be considered mail fraud for someone pretending to be the government.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 1:57 pm Subject:

Most of these things are scams. As posted by others, your father can check on his own to find out if he is entitled to any unclaimed property or funds. And if he is, there would be no need to pay anyone, either before of AFTER he has received what he is entitled to.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 4:29 pm Subject:

The envelope never looked like it came from the government and the letter states he's more like a bounty hunter. I have checked our county and state agencies on unclaimed funds and never found anything. My father believes he overpaid his property tax one year. He's a postmaster for a post office and was wondering if I ever heard of it being a scam. If the federal government doesn't do unclaimed funds then I feel this maybe could be a scam.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 6:27 pm Subject:

It sounds to me that it is a scam...sorry to say. These people make me mad praying on people to try to scam them out of money.

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 8:45 am Subject:

If your father feels he overpaid his taxes, all he has to do is either call them or go to the courthouse. They will not sent this type of money via an unclaimed money type of thing.

Listen to the others- if his name isn't on the states' website for unclaimed funds, it is a scam. I had a friend that had left a deposit on untilities years ago, and they published his name under the unclaimed funds on the web.

Any time someone asks you for money up front to get something is most likely a scam.

I am glad you are watching out for your father. So many seniors get taken by scames like these and others. Best of luck to you. Karen

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:02 am Subject:

The thing that threw me off was they hunter is only asking for money once my father got paid from who is holding the funds. I will have to take a look at the form to see what personal information they are asking. He's not at a senior age just yet, I think my father was hoping it wasn't a scam.

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:24 am Subject:

If there is any unclaimed property for him, he should not have to pay to recover it, even if it is the IRS. There are companies out there that will "help" you find any unclaimed property, but there is a "fee". No sense paying someone to do something you can do yourself or your dad can do, for free.

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 1:15 pm Subject:

I used to live in Florida and about 6 months ago, I received a letter from an "independent money tracker" saying I had an unclaimed refund coming to me. I knew that 7 years ago I was supposed to get a rebate from a satellite company - never got it - when I spoke with the satellite company they said the check was never cashed. Since I cancelled the service within a years time, I assumed that I forfeited the rebate. As an accountant, I know that companies must accrue for rebates/refunds and after a certain amount of time, if they are unable to locate the "owner" it gets turned over to the state treasury.

So when I got the letter from the "money tracker," it said he would get his share from my refund. Knowing that I didn't have to pay him for money that is in the state treasury I just contacted the state directly and filled out the forms and got my money within 30 days.

I would contact the state treasury of any states your dad has lived in to see if there really is money due him. You can usually search their database online. Very easy to do!

So, not necessarily a scam that the independent money locator has here. He's just taken HIS time to find you, b/c the state certainly isn't going to try to locate you - one, it takes $ and two, if they don't find you, the STATE gets to keep the money!! (Conflict of interest here, don't you think!?!)

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:49 pm Subject:

Just an update, my father found his unclaimed funds. The government does have a website and its hud.gov. I guess he was owed some money on his loan. Thanks to the bounty hunter who sent that letter, he would never known $1,500 was out there. That letter got his wheels turning and finally found it.

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 4:38 pm Subject:

Good for him! And good for you to help check things out for him here!

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:58 pm Subject:

Well that was a nice surprise $1,500.00 I bet he could use that for sure...glad everything worked out:)

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:20 pm Subject:

LOL! The bounty hunter kind of shot himself in the foot, didn't he?

I wonder if it was "Dog the Bounty Hunter?" I imagine he's looking for work.

I'm sorry, any man that wears feathers in a mullet can't be all there!

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