Louisiana Treasury warns of national unclaimed property e-mail scam

State Treasurer John Kennedy on Thursday issued an alert to Louisiana citizens on www.LATreasury.com regarding a national Unclaimed Property e-mail scam uncovered by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA).

“The people of Louisiana should be on full alert for e-mail messages that request personal information regarding supposed ‘found’ Unclaimed Property,” says Treasurer Kennedy. “I want people to know with certainty that Louisiana’s Unclaimed Property Division should be the first and last stop for searching for and claiming Unclaimed Property.”

NAUPA officials say that Americans are receiving deceptive messages stating that it is from the director of NAUPA and that an abandoned package has been found belonging to the recipient. Replies to the message are forwarded to a contact with an international phone number. Individual state programs, such as Louisiana’s, are the only legitimate portal for searching and claiming Unclaimed Property.

“Anyone receiving these e-mails, or any suspicious email asking for your sensitive personal information, should be immediately deleted and reported,” says Treasurer Kennedy. “Let me be clear, our Unclaimed Property program is a free service to Louisiana citizens. It’s free to search and free to make a claim. Any person or organization that tells you otherwise is just plain wrong.”

Treasurer Kennedy and NAUPA encourage individuals to report any suspicious Unclaimed Property communication to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) online at www.ic3.gov and the Federal Trade Commission at www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov. NAUPA has provided examples of the fraudulent unclaimed property messages online at www.unclaimed.org.

Since 1972, the Unclaimed Property program has returned nearly $250 million to over 200,000 Louisiana citizens. Louisiana citizens can search for Unclaimed Property free at anytime online at www.LATreasury.com or by calling 1-888-925-4127 Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

This article was originally published in the August 8, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper