A Joshua Tree resident received a letter claiming he could recover about $2,000 worth of unclaimed property held by the state, for a fee. Sounds like a scam? Apparently not, says reporter Dan Stork…
According to the web site of the California State Controller, the state is holding more than $7 billion of unclaimed property. That’s because of a law that corporations, business associations, financial institutions, and insurance companies must annually report and deliver property to the Controller’s Office after there has been no customer contact for three years. Why is so much property unclaimed? Maybe the owner forgets about it, or moves and does not leave a forwarding address or the forwarding order expires. Or maybe, the owner has died and the heirs have no knowledge of the property. The unclaimed property records are public, and there are private firms that mine the data, search for the owners themselves, promising to help with the reclamation paperwork, for a 10 percent recovery fee—after recovery. A Joshua Tree man was contacted after such a search, and he recognized the address given for the unclaimed property as a place he had lived almost 30 years ago. He found the public record with an online search and, not being afraid of paperwork, filed for the lost property himself. He has no recollection of having owned the property. If you’d like to research whether some government—not just California—might have something that belongs to you, there are some links to follow in this story at z1077fm.com.
National lookup of unclaimed property: http://www.unclaimed.org/
California unclaimed property: http://sco.ca.gov/upd.html
