Generations that grew up in the modern world up until the 2000s were all too accustomed to having to answer their loud phones around dinnertime to deal with a telemarketer. It was usually a call about long distance service, or some cable provider, etc. It was an annoying aspect of having a land line, and many people believed that this problem would be solved when cell phones started to become pretty popular. However, this isn't even close to being true. While you might have custom ring tones now, that phone is still going to ring with unsolicited callers. What's worse is that they're not even telemarketers anymore; at least not in the classic sense of the term. They're primarily scam calls, trying to trick you into giving your financial details over by threatening you with the FBI or IRS or even resurrecting that Nigerian Prince scam and claiming you can share in a fortune. Another scam that's made a comeback recently is the unclaimed funds scam.

This can be a very sophisticated scam. What typically happens is that the scammer calling you already has your name, your address, and maybe even some pertinent details about your life. What happens is that they call you, address you by your name, and then tell you that you have money waiting for you. This money is sometimes from the IRS, a tax rebate that you didn't know existed. Sometimes it's from a dead relative, which makes it very creepy and even believable when these people know about family members of yours that have passed away. And sometimes it's a more general thing, like you having won some sweepstakes somewhere. The gist is that these scammers seek to make you believe that you have unclaimed funds; and all you have to do to claim them is give over your bank account information, and perhaps a small fee of $50 or so in order to get the ball rolling.

On its face, you might be reading this and wondering how in the world anyone could fall for this. However, scammers are typically targeting a very broad range of people, and an incredibly small percentage of people fall for the scam. The ones that do are typically elderly or very poor and desperate for money. It's important to understand that all of these calls are scams. All of them.
 

They Would Never Call You for This

Understand that nobody is ever going to call you about unclaimed funds. If you were theoretically owed some type of funds, the check would be mailed to you, people would stop by your door with the sweepstakes information, etc. The entire genre of "unclaimed funds" is littered with scams. While it is true that some inheritance or tax money can get lost in the fold, especially in a nation of 340 million people, the fact is that no one is going to call you to tell you this. Why would some random agent from the IRS, who barely speaks English, call you about unclaimed funds instead of simply mailing you a check?

That is not to say that unclaimed funds do not exist. But this is typically something you have to actually go seek out with your name, address, social security number, etc, because the entity that owes you this money does not realize that they do. Millions of people a year find that they're owed unclaimed funds, but they do so by seeking the information out. No one calls them to tell them they're owed money. That's not how this works.
 

Law Enforcement is No Deterrent

You would think that, on its face, scammers using cell phones to bilk people out of their money would all be easily caught and thrown in jail. However, the scams are just increasing. People have reported in the past few years that a lot of these scammers pose as literal agents of the federal government and threaten innocent people with prison unless they hand over financial information. Law enforcement and the potential consequences are no deterrent for these scammers. The fact is that it's almost impossible to trace their networks. The only way they're ever really caught is when the stupid ones actually end up scamming people and then there are bank records to trace. The more sophisticated ones use offshore accounts and it's much harder to stop them.

If someone is calling you about unclaimed funds, laugh and hang up the phone. If you want to know if it's true or not, go to a reputable, verified website and search your name. This is a great place to start.