A new scam. This time it's personal!!!

David · David's Garage

I just received a letter stating that my dead father may have inherited some property. It gave his name and date of death (over 30 years ago). It also gives another alias name that must have been tracked even farther back in the family tree. On the surface it appears to be from a law office, but there's only a PO box and an 800 phone number. No such law office exists. My brother received a similar letter. He talked to his company's corporate security and they said another employee received a similar dead parent letter. What is this world coming to?

The letter appears to have been mailed from Houston, so I've contacted the Houston police and I plan to play along if they want to.

Neilk · 03-21-2006, 03:37 PM

A friend of mine got a phone call from a company saying that she had a small fortune in stocks from in an oil comapany that had been bought out and somehow that oil company lost track of her. The company said that they would charge her 25% to recover her money which in her case would have been about 75k. She placed a call to her broker and he was able to track down the lost shares. She called the company and thanked them for making her aware of her lost shares. She got lucky and it wasn't a scam.

Good luck... perhaps the claim is legit, but the fees they charge are outrageous. Google a key phrase in the letter and see if anybody else got the same letter.

vangndy · 03-22-2006, 06:38 AM

There are legitimate "heirfinder" companies that look for assets in a states unclaimed property bureau and then track down the heirs for a fee. The first post does sound like a scam, legit companies will have better contact info, but again, just because they have contact info does not mean they are legit. My grandparents were contacted by such a company, then went to UCP and got the assets themselves. I think the best tell would be that a legit company would not ask for any money until assets were handed over. Just be aware that there are legitimate companies that do similar things, but it is usually nothing you can't do on your own.

Eric 951 · 03-22-2006, 06:49 AM

Usually every sate's Treasury Dept. website has an unclaimed property look-up. You just enter your name, they search the database and up pops the description of who owes and a vague dollar amount--(under 100 or over 100) is displayed, then you can take the steps to claim. A buddy of mine had a 250.00 security deposit he got back from a University-owned apt. he was staying in back in the early 90s.

VaSteve · 03-22-2006, 06:51 AM

Google "escheat". This is the term for unclaimed property that is turned over to the state. Like Vangndy and Neil said, some people work those records looking for stuff that hasn't moved in a while and try to "inform" you of it. If you look in the paper, there's often public notices of such stuff. If you look in the paper, there's lot of puplic notices of lots of stuff nobody reads. Fascinating really.