Turns out scouring the Internet to find lost or unclaimed money is a popular pastime. You enter your name on sites that specialize in this, and see if anything matches (old bank accounts, uncashed checks, tax refunds, etc). If not, you enter the names of close members of your family. I know a lot of people who do this; most come up empty handed. But no harm trying right? There are billions of dollars in unclaimed funds sitting around in state coffers.

There's plenty you need to be aware of before you embark on a mission to fatten your wallet. So here are some good sites and some tips.

All U.S. states have laws that seek to reunite "abandoned property" with their rightful owners and the Web has become a terrific way for those reunions to occur. "Property" here does not mean property as in land, but cash, stocks, bonds, etc. We're not talking about tangible assets such as homes or lost luggage.

Almost all the states maintain Web sites or contract out sites that allow consumers to see if any money is owed to them. And they do this at no charge. There are, however, private sites that charge anywhere from $10 to 50 percent of collected funds for finding you money. I don't recommend using those. Instead I suggest going to these two sites:

Unclaimed.org: This free site is run by NAUPA, the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, a non-profit organization affiliated with the National Association of State Treasurers. It lists each state and has direct links to the state's own Web site that controls the unclaimed property. You have to go state by state if you want to see if there's anything waiting for you.

MissingMoney.com: This site, which has free one-stop searches for 14 states and links to others (including some federal missing money sites) is an excellent place to look. It does not cover New York, New Jersey or Connecticut right now, but it expects to add them. It is contracted by NAUPA to build this one-stop search capability.

If you do find your name and the state can confirm your identity, it can take anywhere from two weeks to 18 months to receive the money. And, of course, the laws vary from state to state, so pay careful attention to the fine print.

If you find some money this way, let me know!

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