Treasury Scam

By Odesi Desko

The English term bona vacantia refers to property that no longer has an owner, and is taken over by royalty. Various countries use different names for this procedure. There's no official name for this in America; it just consists of land that is unclaimed and, as a result, goes to the government. If everyone is unaware of it, however, you can recover it.

Unclaimed property can consist of bank accounts, property, company assets, or any other item of value. Many times a person passes on without a will or designation of where the items are to go. These funds and/or properties are held for an indefinite amount of time by the departments responsible for them until claimed by an heir or the original owner if it was abandoned.

This possibility of being the heir to unclaimed property or having unknown money floating in governmental coffers has opened a wide field for scam artists. Everyone hopes that some deceased relative has left money or property that will make them rich simply by answering a letter or e-mail. Dishonest people take advantage of this desire to scam people out of their money.

Victims will usually see some sort of advertisement or communication online stating that they should submit their personal information in order to determine whether or not they qualify for the bona vacantia, or unclaimed property, that is being held by the government of their home country. You might even have to enter names of family members.

Contact will soon follow, provided the family names you submit match their list, and you'll be asked for more information. You won't be able to contact a real person in this process, doing all this through email. If you know this, you'll be less likely to be scammed by tricksters.

The Bona vacantia, or unclaimed funds, scammer selects names at random from telephone books, e-mail spyware, or anywhere the person's name is published. The victim is then contacted by e-mail or letter and told they are heir to money that has been unclaimed. This correspondence is designed to look very official and authentic.

Upon responding to the scam correspondence, the victim is then contacted by phone and told that there is a fee or fees that must be made to collect the money. Many times, other money requirements and this ends up with the person contacted losing quite a bit of money without receiving anything in return. That is why it's important to use telephone look up services such as telephone-owner-search.com/412/390/ in order to be able to verify if the caller is really whom he or she says.

Scammers are especially happy when the victim sends a personal check. This allows them access to the bank account number, the required signature, complete address, and other information. A large number of identity theft cases come about because of this action. Under no circumstances should a person respond to this type of correspondence but, if interested, should contact the proper governmental agency via the Internet or by letter.

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