# Best way to bust a scammer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 10, 2023, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357 "2023-10-10T13:01:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/21 "2023-10-10T18:05:46Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > So … should I call her back and see what the next step is? I fully intend to bail as soon as she asks for personal info. No need to call back. Just search for the California lost property page. Then look for yourself, your Dad’s, or sibling’s names. There might be ways to search nationally, too, but I don’t know. You can probably also find tips on effective ways of searching for lost property. I know for my wife, it didn’t take her very long to find her name. If you can’t find anything, then maybe it’s worth calling back to find out if they got something, or if it really is a complete scam. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/22 "2023-10-10T18:13:59Z")
I’ve found small amounts for myself and my deceased parents over the years. Each of the several state websites I’ve used, including California’s, was trivial to use. It helps to have an unusual last name. For my family name there just aren’t that many hits so I didn’t / don’t need to try filtering on plausible variations on given name spellings, initials, etc. Somebody named “Smith” or “Sanchez” in California might have a harder time. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/23 "2023-10-10T18:42:07Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > So obviously I’m not following up with her. My question is, is there a way to work with authorities to bust these assholes? Or should I just let it go? When Mrs. Cad got a check to be a “mystery shopper” and the check, company (as per the return address on the letter) and postmark were from three different states, I reported it to the FBI and Postal Service. My experience is that no one cares. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/24 "2023-10-10T20:16:10Z")
To be fair, I have all those possibilities, but I figure if it’s important, they’ll leave a message. Or send a text. Thus far, they always have. So I don’t answer anything I don’t recognize. When I did, 95% of the time it was spam. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/25 "2023-10-10T23:46:56Z")
To find out if someone really has unclaimed property, go to [unclaimed.org](https://unclaimed.org/), then scroll down to “Select your state or province”. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/26 "2023-10-11T01:21:34Z")
I second this. You never know; there might be something ELSE that is sitting there, unclaimed. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/27 "2023-10-11T02:03:11Z")
After I posted about checking the state unclaimed property website, I did so for everyone in my family; about seven people. And three of them have money waiting for them. (Weirdly, one was my mother, who has lived in the same place for literally over fifty years and another was my brother, who has lived in the same place for over thirty years. Not sure how the money got lost to begin with.) ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/28 "2023-10-11T02:53:45Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Weirdly, one was my mother, who has lived in the same place for literally over fifty years and another was my brother, who has lived in the same place for over thirty years. Not sure how the money got lost to begin with I just searched, and found my brother has less than $50 waiting for him from his car insurance company. They sure know how to find him when it comes to sending bills. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/29 "2023-10-11T03:24:20Z")
A few months ago I checked myself, my deceased sister, my deceased mother, and my deceased wife. All four of us had unclaimed property. It’s definitely worth checking. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/30 "2023-10-11T03:37:41Z")
Have you actually gotten any money back yet? ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/31 "2023-10-11T04:32:32Z")
Yeah. I got some money back. One or two of them was for such a small amount (like, less than $5) that it wasn’t really worth the effort it would take me to fill out and send in the paperwork. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/32 "2023-10-11T04:38:33Z")
Thank you. I looked up my name, and there was one anonymous one for $50 to $100, so I put my claim in. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/33 "2023-10-11T18:31:17Z")
The biggest one I ever found was on behalf of my then late Mom for about $50 from the cable company. She’d lived in that cable company’s area, had their services, and paid their bills. Then she moved to another state where they had a different cable company. And later on she died. Eventually for whatever reason the regulator in the first state sued the cable company for overcharging their customers versus the published tariff. The cable company lost the suit and the penalty was to refund the overcharge to all those customers from 10-20 years ago. Many of whom had died or moved. So the cable company did what any typical US corporation would be expected to do: they mailed the checks for every customer to the service address they had been at back then 10+ years ago. Any checks that were never cashed they simply kept the funds. And 5-10 years later when the “lost assets” law’s time limit had arrived, so now 20-30 years after the overcharging was going on, the cable company sent the state the appropriate total dollars and the list of customers and their long-ago addresses. Here state, you figure it out; our shareholders see no reason to waste a penny on doing the right thing. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/34 "2023-10-11T20:01:19Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > After I posted about checking the state unclaimed property website, I did so for everyone in my family; about seven people. And three of them have money waiting for them. (Weirdly, one was my mother, who has lived in the same place for literally over fifty years and another was my brother, who has lived in the same place for over thirty years. Not sure how the money got lost to begin with.) I found $200 or so from my Dad. It is worth checking. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/35 "2023-10-15T04:05:15Z")
At the company I work for, we were audited two years ago by the state (via a 3rd part auditor) for any monies that might be owed to people. I was required to scour our records for every check which had not been cashed or cleared (there were none). These were required to be reported to the state. All companies in the state have to follow these regulations and will be audited (in theory, at least). I personally have been reimbursed for several hundred dollars (!) for a newspaper classified ad (remember those?) in the 1990s that I’d canceled before the term ran out. My daughter was reimbursed $42 in 2022-ish for a final paycheck she hadn’t realized was still owed to her. My SIL was reimbursed for a Comcast payment when she switched carriers. I check every year or so, just in case. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357/36 "2023-10-15T04:43:00Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > Evidence it’s a scam: > > - The late-night call > - The non-secure website Not sure the non-secure website means much. In my experience, it’s pretty common for perfectly legit places to show as “non-secure.” Doesn’t mean it’s not a scam, just that I wouldn’t give this particular characteristic much credence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-bust-a-scammer/991357.md?page=1)