So you got a letter from BC Unclaimed: What now?

Finding an unexpected letter in your mailbox can be surprising, especially when it says you may be entitled to money. Your first reaction might be skepticism, and that's understandable. With scams and fraud becoming increasingly common, it's necessary to question any unexpected communication about money.

If you received a letter from BC Unclaimed, there's a simple explanation: BC Unclaimed is a non-profit organization dedicated to reuniting British Columbians with money that belongs to them. We administer unclaimed property under the Unclaimed Property Act, safeguarding funds until we can return them to rightful owners.

One of the ways we do this is to proactively search for the owners of unclaimed funds. Rather than waiting for people to discover us, we use specialized databases and search tools that aren't available to the general public to locate individuals who may have money waiting for them.

Often, we're able to identify the correct owner with confidence. In other cases, we may find several people with the same or similar names. When that happens, we may send letters to potential matches.

Receiving a letter doesn't necessarily mean we've confirmed you're the owner; it means you may be, and we'd like to help you find out.

How to verify legitimacy (of your letter, and BC Unclaimed)

If you're ever unsure whether a letter from BC Unclaimed is genuine, or whether we’re legitimate, period, we encourage you to verify it independently.

You can:

• Visit BCUnclaimed.ca and search for your name in our public database. If you find a potential match, you can inquire directly on the website for more information.

• Contact BC Unclaimed directly by phoning 604.662.3518 or 1.888.662.2877 or contact us through our official website.

• Visit the Province of British Columbia’s Unclaimed Property Program page, which links directly to BC Unclaimed as the province's designated administrator under the Unclaimed Property Act.

• Check our business profile with the Better Business Bureau.

• See what Consumer Protection BC has to say about us.

• Search for information about us on People’s Law School.

• Check our posted Privacy and data security policy to read about how we handle privacy, records retention, cybersecurity, and data/information security.

Taking a moment to verify the information yourself is always a good idea, and we welcome it.

What BC Unclaimed will never do

Your trust is important to us. BC Unclaimed will not:

• Ask you to pay money to claim your funds.

• Charge you a fee to search for or recover your property.

• Pressure you to act immediately or create a false sense of urgency.

• Send unsolicited emails asking you to claim money or provide sensitive personal information.

If someone contacts you claiming to represent BC Unclaimed and asks for payment or pressures you to act quickly, treat it as suspicious and contact us directly to verify the communication.

Still have questions?

If you've received a letter from BC Unclaimed, don't ignore it, but don't feel pressured either. Take a few minutes to verify the information, search your name, and contact us if you have any questions.

Our team is here to help make the claims process as straightforward as possible. If the money belongs to you, we'd love nothing more than to return it.