A lot of people out there have heard about unclaimed funds. Though most people have not. In a nutshell, there are times where people are owed money by the government or large corporations. For instance, sometimes insurance companies offer rebates, or you might find a situation where you're owed a portion of a tax refund that you did not receive. The issue, however, is that these entities that owe you money aren't exactly equipped to track you down. This is especially true if you have moved or changed your name, like if you got married and changed your surname. That's why it's important to search. As you might expect, not a lot of people know about this genre. Over the past week, however, "unclaimed funds" has been one of the most searched terms in America, thanks to an article written by Newsweek that received a huge social media boost.

Newsweek wrote a piece titled "Unclaimed Money Waiting in State Treasuries Amounts to Billions of Dollars." Of course, this was picked up and spread on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, with millions of people flooding search engines looking for money that they may be owed. During the COVID pandemic, the American government spent trillions of dollars, and much of that money was meant to go to people. A lot of people did not receive any money, and many had no idea that they were entitled to it. So, of course, that money doesn't just disappear. It sits in a treasury, in each individual state, and it's waiting to be claimed.

Do you have any money waiting out there for you? Here are a couple of things you should keep in mind when searching for unclaimed funds. You definitely do not want to get caught up in a scam.

 

Free to Search and Free to Claim

First up, it's important to keep in mind that there are a lot of shifty sites out there that will try to rob you. For instance, you search for unclaimed funds, and you log onto a website that tells you it will search for you. You just enter your name and some other details. The site finds funds in your name. You're told that you're owed thousands of dollars, and all you have to do is sign up and pay a fee. Of course, if you were to pay that fee, you would find that you don't have any money waiting, but you're certainly on the hook to pay money to the site. No refunds are permitted in these instances, as these sites are set up just to entice money out of you. So, you have to be really careful when searching.

Make sure that the site you're using to check for unclaimed funds is 100% free to use. This means that it's free to search, and free to see what's on the other end of those claims. It's an unfortunate fact of the Internet that you're likely to find scam sites in the top search results. This is because these sites are paying for advertising, so that they're the first sites you find when you search for unclaimed funds. You'll likely have to dig through this rabble until you find a reputable site that's not going to try to rip you off.

 

Use a Dot-Org Site if Possible

The majority of the time that you're owed unclaimed money, it's probably going to be owed by the government, and thus it's likely to be sitting in a state treasury. This is what the Newsweek article was trying to get across to people. So you may want to search for a government website. These sites are going to be Dot-Org sites, and not Dot-Com or Net. By searching with a verified government website, you know that they're not going to ask for any type of fee for this money. And in any such circumstance that you will have to pay a fee, it's likely going to be taxed out of the money you're owed and not something that you will have to pay for up front. Just make sure that you're going with a verified site, no matter where you're searching for unclaimed funds.

There really are billions of dollars out there waiting for people, and your name might be one of the lucky ones. You just have to remember not to fall for any scams out there that seek to take advantage of people who really need money.