the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, The NJ Department of the Treasury is warning New Jersey residents to be careful when it comes to text messages that seem too good to be true. Scammers purporting to be from Treasury’s Unclaimed Property Administration (UPA) are sending fraudulent text messages to residents, asserting that unclaimed funds can be accessed by clicking a link.
“We urge New Jerseyans to immediately delete any text messages claiming to be from Treasury’s Unclaimed Property Administration,” said Steven Harris, UPA Administrator. “When we communicate with people about unclaimed property, we do so by e-mail or letter — never by text messages. In fact, we’ve recently improved our systems to make the real process easier for people to find out if we are holding onto their property.”
The bogus text messages, which have also been reported in Michigan, Louisiana and Idaho, claim the recipient has unclaimed property held by the state in random dollar amounts. They say that this property can be claimed by clicking a link in the message. This is common to “phishing” scams, where clicking a link gives scammers access to a person’s information.
“Reconnecting people with their property is a mission Treasury is proud to support,” said State Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio. “We want everyone out there to be wise to such scams. Our overriding goal is to help reunite people with their rightful assets.”
The UPA has reunited rightful owners with $380 million over the past three years. The state Treasury Department is the custodian of lost or forgotten assets such as inactive bank accounts, uncashed checks, valuables left in safe deposit boxes and stock certificates.
Residents can check to see if the State is in possession of any unclaimed property by visiting www.unclaimedproperty.nj.gov
Even after decades of this I continue to receive email messages in poor English offering me everything short of the British Crown if I will only wire $100 to somebody or whatever. Enough already.
I got a letter from
Garden State treasury claims
140 East Risgewood Ave . Suite 415
Paramus Nj
Claiming I have unclaimed assets and want to charge 20% of total .
I received the same letter. Did it turn out to be a scam? Thank you.
Kathy
SAME WHATS THE ANSWER
Me too ,they come out of the woodwork when someone dies “Modern Day Vultures
I received a letter from them too. Within 10 months, I had a check for $24,000. ITS REAL!
I received one also…what address did they say yours was (mine was 62 bergen street in westwood, and I have no relationship with that address at all)?
I also got a letter from Garden State treasury claims address is 140 E Ridgewood ave. I want to know if this is legit or a scam.
Did you ever find out? I’m still not sure as I received a letter not a text.
I just received a letter as from Garden State Treasury Claims LLC
Is this real?
Received a letter from the Garden State Treasury Claim from the same address in Paramus. I know whomever it may be, need to stop stalking us.
This government need to change the Open Public Records Act. Our personal information is supposed to be private. What is the purpose of the Privacy Rights Act.
I am getting the same mail ( not email) from these same people asking for every ID known to man . This can’t be legit?
I received a letter from them (GSTC) and decided to go straight to NJ instead:
unclaimedproperty.nj.gov I refuse to work with a 3rd party that wants sensitive info plus 20%
of the claim. I’m just getting started – so final results are TBD. 🙂
I got notice from GSTC LLC alleging unclaimed property with respect to an address I moved away from 32 years ago. Know what? I haven’t missed the unclaimed property at all..in fact. didn’t know I had any..So GCTC LLc, you can have 100% of it, not the 20% you wanted. But – when you do get it, please let me know what it is.
I got notice too from GSTC LLC alleging unclaimed property with respect to an address I moved away from 35 years ago. The only thing I left in NJ was memory’s and my Ex.
If you want to verify if it’s true or not, do what was suggested before.
The state maintains a listing of unclaimed property at
https://nj.gov/treasury/unclaimed-property/
or
unclaimedproperty.nj.gov
If you do find that there is unclaimed property in your name or perhaps a dead relative, you can claim it and get it back with interest.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY ANYBODY TO FIND IT AND COLLECT IT.
This is a typical rent seeking scheme to either do things you can do yourself (for a slight fee) or that can be done for free or cheaper yourself. It’s not illegal, maybe unethical, but it just takes advantage of people’s ignorance of what’s out there.
EXACTLY.
I have gotten letters like that for filing annual reports for my wife’s LLC, with the fee being much higher than the published state fee if you do it yourself (easy).
Not scams, but they are not telling you that it’s easier and cheaper to do it yourself.
Just grifters who couldn’t make it into elected office.
If you ever ask yourself, “Who the hell could ever fall for a FREE MONEY scam”, reread all the comments on this article.
And I guarantee every grampa who wrote thinks “the youths” are all naive idiots.
Exactly. “… stupidity fueled by greed.”