Fraud Information And Prevention Methods

The English term bona vacantia refers to property that no longer has an owner, and is taken over by royalty. In other places depending on the location, it is called by other terms. 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 you know about the goods and can prove you should have them they can be recovered.

Almost any item of worth can be considered ownerless goods such as, abandoned checking accounts, real estate, or even jewelry Many times a person passes on without a will or designation of where the items are to go. Whatever department is responsible for overseeing the money or property holds onto them until such time as an heir or other recipient can collect them as stipulated in some kind of will.

Conmen have found that the lure of unclaimed goods or having cash come to people from the blue can be used to perpetrate scams on hopeful victims. It’s easy for many to fall into the trap that the email they just got is true and all they have to do is respond and they are rich. These same people can be preyed upon by scammers who just want their money.

Availability of Bona vacantia, or unclaimed funds, is usually advertised on the Internet or by other means stating that there are unclaimed funds and one should apply, giving their name and other personal information so that a check can be made to see if they are on the list. Sometimes various family names will also be requested.

Contact will soon follow, provided the family names you submit match their list, and you’ll be asked for more information. This is all done by correspondence and no agent will be contacting the applicant. A person aware of this information will not be taken in by a scam.

Those who wish to scam people through bona vacantia claims just pick email addresses or phone numbers at random and contacts them. The victim is then contacted by e-mail or letter and told they are heir to money that has been unclaimed. A simple glance won’t usually reveal these communications to be frauds because the con men take pains to make it look as if the letter were from a government or state agency.

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. For the most part, this money gets paid to the con artists, and the victim never receives any of the money they were led to believe they would. That is why it’s important to use telephone look up services such as cell-registry.com/707/527/ in order to be able to verify if the caller is really whom he or she says.

Over any other form of payment a bank draft is considered the best by ripoff artists. This allows them access to the bank account number, the required signature, complete address, and other information. Sending a personal check to a con artist can result in identity theft. The proper place for letters of this sort is the garbage can and of course never write back to them, the next step would be to email or write the proper agency to report this type of scam.