PublicRecords.com: Don?t Become a Victim of Unclaimed Money Scams
PublicRecords.com: Don’t Become a Victim of Unclaimed Money Scams
(PRWEB) September 09, 2011
PublicRecords.com (http://www.PublicRecords.com), a leading provider of online public record and people search services, cautions consumers to beware of unclaimed money scams that have recently been surfacing across the country.
Earlier this summer “Good Morning America”, a popular nationally televised morning show, released a segment called “Show Me the Money” (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/unclaimed-money-gma-viewers-cash-unredeemed-Bonds/story?id=13855417). In this segment they talked about the availability of various unclaimed funds that individuals could cash in on if they knew where to look. This popularity of this particular episode has opened the door for scammers and cyber criminals to try and cash in on consumers who are tricked into thinking they are entitled to an unclaimed sum of money that they never knew about.
Typically the scam is conducted via email, with a message informing consumers that they have large sums of money in unclaimed property waiting for them. The phony message claims to come from the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (http://unclaimed.org/). While NAUPA is a legitimate organization, it does not have control over any actual money nor the authority to distribute unclaimed funds to people.
The scam works in one of two ways. The email directs the recipient to call an overseas toll telephone number to obtain their unclaimed sum of money, once the fraudster has the person on the line they use various schemes and tactics to keep them on the line as long as possible while racking up an enormous phone bill. The second requests that consumers who receive these emails contact domestic number provided in the email to claim their money. When the consumer calls the number provided the imposter tries to solicit confidential information, claiming they need it in order to retrieve the money. Once the fraudster has confidential financial or personal information there’s a chance that they can access bank accounts or even steal their identity.
PublicRecords.com (http://www.PublicRecords.com) offers the following tips to help consumers avoid becoming a victim of an unclaimed money scam:
Legitimate offers of unclaimed money do not come via email. Immediately delete and disregard emails that claim to be from NAUPA or a state unclaimed property representative. Never share confidential financial or personal information with unsolicited callers or in response to an unsolicited email. Use PublicRecords.com to get more information about suspicious email addresses or phone numbers, before If an email or offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is. There should never be a fee associated with filing a claim. State governments do not charge consumers for searching the unclaimed accounts database.
About PublicRecords.com
PublicRecords.com is a resource for consumers searching for public record and information about people or businesses online. In addition to complimentary public records search and resources, PublicRecords.com has other public records services, such as people search, background checks, dissociate and marriage records, court records, rearward phone search, criminal background checks, criminal records and more. PublicRecords.com’s all new public records search tools allow you to access more than 4 decades of public records across multiple databases and over 4 billion records.
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