Around October 25, I received a postcard from a Mark F. Maloney. He's the Relationship Manager for Keane. This was unsolicited. They contacted me about unclaimed assets tied to my father's old property. I made the mistake of e-mailing him and I've been harrassed ever since.
They charge a 35% contingency fee, which they take from unclaimed assets.
Sounds reasonable, right?
Well, several months ago, I was told in the first e-mail that the unclaimed assets totalled $2,200. Today I received an e-mail stating it's more like $2,300. Supposedly they've done the research, so why are they changing the alleged unclaimed amount?
I've checked with the state of Texas. There are no assets in my father's name that have been unclaimed.
I receive letters, phone calls, and e-mails from Mark. Today he claimed that if I went my own route that I would have had to hire an attorney and whatnot.
That's not what the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts site says. The Comptroller's site makes it sound like it's fairly easy to collect unclaimed assets yourself. They even provide the necessary forms for free and tell you what kinds of documents you need to send them if there is an asset.
Save yourself the trouble. If you ever receive unsolicited mail from Keane, just chunk it. It's clearly a scam. For the price of a stamp and some stationery, you can contact your state's treasurer and find out for yourself. But when the state says the money doesn't exist, then it doesn't exist.
And besides, had there actually have been assets available, the state would have only charged 1%. So tell me, which would you prefer paying: $22 (the state's 1%) or $770 (Keane's whopping 35%)?
Boy, that's a pretty good scam going there.
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