Toohey

Well got this thing in the mail this morning from a company called CollectionPoint.

They are saying they have a Money Entitlement Claim cheque that was mailed to some address in QLD (Never been to QLD) and that i need to contact them in order to receive it.

Called them this morning and they are swamped with calls today so will call us back tomorrow.

Has anyone else received one of these letters and does anyone know if this is some sort of scam?

beer4life

Gawd, another tooth fairy.

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mango

might be legit ??

SPLog

Collection Point Pty Ltd ACN 079 904 984 is a professional Money Retrieval and Debt Recovery Organisation


Could be same company ?
Debt Recovery method/trick or legit ?

Toohey

Yup thats the web address on the letter.

Just sceptical as the saying goes "If its too good to be true........"

Will wait for their return call and see whats what.

I remember a scam a few years back similar to this where you had to pay the company a $22 - $100 processing fee and you never get your cash.

SPLog

Similar thread here


Sounds like they charge a fee for getting money owning to you, which if you know what it is you could get it for $0 dollars anyway.

Don Benosee

Yep, they tried that with me. They found some $ I was owed from some old insurance thing on the ASIC databases for unclaimed $ then tried to charge me 45% of the amount to get it back for me.

Try some social engineering, ring 'em and ask what the money's from, bullshit them into giving you some of the info then do some searching and get it yourself.

If that's too hard, lemme know , I'll do it for 30%

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SPLog

Unclaimed Monies Online Search facility, provided by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission


ato super seeker


edit added another link
Ask FIDO to dig up your unclaimed money

Godzilla

Having had a company once contact me about money that may belong to me, i called them to find out it was an inheritance in an forgotten bank account, but one that id known about for some time.

The buggers didnt want to tell which bank it was in and i didnt tell them i knew and they made it clear they wanted 25% of the ballance for their services.

To their surprise i told them i knew about it, just never got around to doing anything about it and didnt need their help.

I think they find out about forgotten bank accounts, contact the owners or relatives if they have passed on and try to make money out of them.

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Website http://www.performancecarpartsonline.com.au
Ebay Performance Car Parts Online

Twoshots

They are a "Collection" company as well...Do you owe anybody money?

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Old Dog, No Flies

SPLog

From the fido site there are a number of Unclaimed money Publications released each year so I would guess they would use them and try and contact the owners for a commission.

Toohey

Thanks for the links everyone, searched around them and no money seems to be owed to me and nope dont have any money owed to anyone (that i know of).

They havent mentioned a commision yet - but am just waiting for the sting.

ssrattus

Finding unclaimed monies and getting payment for it is a common "earn yourself thousands $ at home" scheme and the same info about "millions of unclaimed superannuation and insurance" makes the ACA and Today Tonight type shows a couple times a year.

davo

Look send me $20 dollars and I will track them down for you.

Anyone else needs my help just also send me $20. Any money I find you are owed I wont take a commission.

I will just be happy to get $20 from everyone here

Oh Hurry in sending the $20 I already have some information I found.

Davo

bambbbam

Don't forget to look in the state registers too.. not just FIDO

Check your state treasury homepage for unclaimed money.

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* Bill Paxton is the only actor to be killed by Alien, a Terminator, and the Predator.

tm07

I got a few Collectionpoint letters recently.

You can easily find the same info that CollectionPoint is giving you - eg



or



I'm guessing they trawl these databases with electoral roles and phone books to try and match people up to money. They also wanted 25% of your money plus GST - plus they have a certified copy of your identification as well.

Check out what they did to this poor guy:

wilko

thank for your help. best was is to go direct to ASIC on the following link and it tells you how to claim it without collection point.

AzzA

I had a similar thing happen about 12 years ago... they sent me a letter saying they had found my money and if I signed their papers they would claim it for me for a nominal fee. So I used my Internets Powers and found out I did actually have some money on one of the registers, so I claimed it myself and smirked in my Profit.

The dipshits then sent me a bill... so I laughed in my Profit at their weezlieness.

These jokers get the electoral rolls and run them against the lost monies registers, then they send out bulk mail, and hope for dumb-dumbs that think they're getting a good deal.

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#I don't stereotype people, not like most of you do.#

Tradesman

I had a good outcome from a debt collection agency once , an ex tenant owed me money , did a runner and the estate agency couldnt track him down.
by a major fluke , i saw the flea driving a truck in my area , noted which company he worked for and sent the details to the estate agency. I paid extra for a debt collector to track him down and work out a payment plan. the flea paid it back at $50 a week so i was happy about that.

Mark123

I've just reported them to the ACCC and to Consumer Affairs Victoria, having been a victim of their scam, and I'd encourage others to do the same.

It's quite a clever scam. They access the ASIC database to obtain records of people who have unclaimed funds. Then they generate form letters, which they send to those people and offer to recover their funds for a fee (which I've heard can be as high as 25% of the value of the funds).

Nowhere do they tell people that they can obtain their funds directly from ASIC at no charge.

In their form letter, they also state that a cheque for the funds had already been sent to the person but was not cashed (I never received such a cheque).

This scam is similar to the share buyback scams, where conmen go through the share register and offer to buy people's shares back at a fraction of their value.

What annoys me about these scams is that they prey on the elderly, and on people who may not understand what is happening.

Do not, under any circumstances, accept the CollectionPoint offer. Tell them where to go and just contact ASIC directly.