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. There are cases where a deceased person has not made a will or appointed any beneficiary and their property leaving them in limbo. 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.

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. Occasionally names of relatives will be required.

If there is a match the person applying is contacted and further information is required. You won’t be able to contact a real person in this process, doing all this through email. Knowing how ownerless goods recovery really works helps a person avoid the ripoffs.

Anywhere a person has their email or name made public is a source of potenential victims for the Unclaimed goods ripoff artist, it could be the phone book, email lists or email scrapers off the internet. You then get an email or a letter from the scammer, informing them of their entitlement to certain withheld and unclaimed funds. The official appearance of the letter will serve to convince you.

Once a victim sends a response, they often get a phone call from the scammer, informing them of fees that they have to pay in order to collect. In almost all cases the victim will not ever see anything from the money they have sent and the requests will continue until it is obvious they will not pay more to the con men. That is why it’s important to use telephone look up services such as 411telephonedirectory.com/Georgia/Atlanta/770/226.htm 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. A personalized bank draft from the victim opens them up for even worse scams and their name, home address, bank account number and sometimes even driver’s license number become available to the con men. Sending a personal bank check to con men can make the sender vulnerable to ripoff artists who steal their identity. 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.

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