There is $22.8 billion in unclaimed property nationwide, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. Only $876 million in assets has been returned to their owners.

What defines unclaimed assets? By legal definition, it is any financial asset that has had no activity for at least 5 years. This can include bank accounts, the contents of bank safety deposit boxes, stocks & bonds and various other investments, life insurance, or even money stuffed in a mattress.

If you moved, you might have completely forgotten about a checking account, or money owed to you, or else forgot you had something in a safety deposit box. Unclaimed assets are eventually turned over to the state, until the owner claims it or else it may eventually end up being auctioned off if it’s something other than money. On average 1 out of 8 people in the US have unclaimed assets. The average amount is $920.00.

Most states offer assistance and online forms to file claims. unclaimed.org is a helpful non-profit organization who has information about unclaimed assets.

When doing business with any company, it’s important to make sure they provide reliable contact information. A common problem I have encountered are emails that don’t work, usually return “undeliverable” or “host unknown” errors, even where it became necessary to find a contact email via WHOIS search. Surprisingly, this is a common problem with many business sites.

Many complaints from people claim they could not find where to delete their accounts from the database, and there seems to be no means to contact the company.

Your best bet is to first try free services such as Yahoo people search then after exhausting that, seek out an honest people search tool.

Infidelity is responsible for more than 50% of case loads for many of the top private investigators. Spying on a spouse is certainly extreme, but trust is usually the first thing to go in a troubled marriage.

Attempting your own spying on your spouse like you see in the movies is risky. Professionals are properly trained on all the trespassing and privacy laws. Besides that, they are trained and well versed in the art of stealth, to avoid detection, and the suspect will never recogize a total stranger.

The private investigator studies patterns, following somebody to see if the person really is meeting with a work client, or a woman. One investigator plants a small GPS unit on the suspect’s car. This is legal since the wife often has joint ownership of the vehicle.

The number of married couples who are separating and getting a divorce are hiring private investigators to spy on each other has also seen rapid growth.

One of the reasons for this growing phenomenon is the fact that married couples have greater accumulated assets and wealth. Many want to find out if their spouse is hiding assets. People today have more assets, so they want to better protect them, or try to avoid losing them.

Experts recommend checking your Public Information Profile (PIP), just as you would check your credit report. Be on the watch for identity theft (criminal or synthetic).

There are some common techniques used by identity thieves that can easily go undetected by the credit bureaus, such as using slight variations of a person’s name or SSN, in an attempt to apply for a line of credit, buy, rent or lease property, etc.. A red flag to watch out for might be a totally different address under your name showing up in public records somewhere.

The credit reporting system is far from perfect, so people with very similar names may have gotten into trouble with the law or went through a bankruptcy, and it might unfortunately show up in an innocent person’s records.

Fortunately, there is a highly recommended low-cost investigative tool. Many
people have found Net Detective enormously helpful in quickly obtaining this kind of information, to include unlisted phone numbers!

People are increasingly hiring private investigators to run a background check on a date where inconsistencies in their stories raise red flags of suspecion. Not unlike the growing trend of lieing on resumes, some people are also stretching the truth about themselves in their online dating profiles.

“I tell them I can’t, by federal law, delve into a person’s financial or medical records. The best I can do is tell you where they lived for the past seven years and their criminal background,” said one private investigator.

Most of the time criminal background checks are no guarantee somebody may not have a criminal record in another state. A registered sex offender in California, won’t be registered in Texas.

Some private detectives recommend people rely on their own intuition, and pay attention to “red flags.” Some are more obvious than others.

The internet is not really the best place to meet someone. It’s no substitute for meeting somebody in person. Many people see it as a much better alternative to the bar scene. The internet is really more of a locater more than anything. What’s really important is what happens after you meet in person.

“Intuition is not necessarily hair raising on the back of your neck; it’s just something that makes you uncomfortable. Anything you have to explain away – pay attention.”

It’s impossible to completely eliminate all risks associated with online dating.

“Before I went out with anyone, I always checked their backgrounds first.”

The man, Robert Wells is being sued by true.com $200,000.00, for representing himself. California and several other states are considering laws to require online dating sites to run criminal background checks or else warn their members that they do not screen members.

Herb Vest, True.com’s CEO: “I make a promise to my members…If you are clever enough to get around our site securities, I’m going to prosecute.”

Some dating sites such as eharmony, Yahoo, and Match.com have a contract asking members to state they aren’t convicts. They also provide a warning to their members to date at their own risk. Few dating services run background checks, leaving their members guessing.

Match.com monitors communications to make sure members don’t post offensive photos or messages, instead of background checks. Match.com Kathleen Roldan: “Background checks are not infallible. It just gives people a false sense of security.”

It’s interesting to note that in india, more of the attention is towards education and work experience, while in the US it’s on personality and criminal records.

Many employers who don’t verify their applicant’s resumes, find out the hard way. More than 50% of hiring managers who check, find inconsistencies on resumes, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

58% of HR managers found inconsistencies regarding past work experience, 54% regarding criminal background checks, and 45% inflated claims of previous salaries. 32% found inconsistencies regarding college degrees and and diplomas. The recent phenomenon of “Diploma mills” where job applicants claim bogus degrees.

Many people don’t outright lie on their resumes, but instead embellish or exaggerate their past accomplishments and other information to make it look more impressive. Long gaps of unemployment resulting from prolonged layoffs during recessions can be a real problem, especially in highly competitive fields.

HR managers often have problems checking references when previous employers are unwilling to share their information for concerns over legal liability. 54% of HR managers have a policy that doesn’t allow the release information about present or past employees.

Disciplinary actions taken varies greatly from one company to another, and is sometimes meted out according to the severity of the fraud or the person’s job performance. In some companies, if the HR manager discovers a lie or inconsistency after the person was hired, the employee may be kept but be required to complete the education falsely stated on the resume in order to be able to advance. In other companies he or she might be immediately fired on the spot.

As professionals in the US face fierce competition from job outsourcing to India, etc.., an impressive resume becomes more crucial than ever, so the temptation to be less than honest on resumes can be expected.

In Kentucky and many other states, a job seeker applying for state government jobs can simply check “No” on the job application about past criminal records, and the State will take their word for it. The gubernatorial administration may screen applicants’ political contributions and voter registrations, but not criminal backgrounds.

While the state should not necessarily refuse to hire anybody who’s been convicted and served their time, there are some situations where a criminal background check is absolutely essential, such as jobs working with children, or money.

Surprisingly, some states including North Carolina do not require criminal background checks on school employees.