The Mega Millions jackpot will be $530 million for Tuesday since no one won it. It's the eighth biggest jackpot on record. You might not have gotten lucky with the lottery, but you may still have some money coming your way. New York State has $17.5 billion in unclaimed or "lost" funds. Every day the state returns $1.5 million to people who file claims.

Credit: CBS News

Does New york State Owe You Money?

The state collects the monies from other entities and holds on to them until they are claimed. Here's where you come in. You don't want New York to keep your money, right?

Lost or unclaimed money gets turned over by organizations required to report dormant accounts to the New York State Office of the State Comptroller. This money includes things like forgotten savings accounts, lost paychecks, and stocks or bonds.

So far, the state has returned $221,828,206 to residents in 2022. Each day, the state returns $1.5 million in lost funds. There are 46 million account records that remain unclaimed.

The payout from lost funds won't be quite as big as the Mega Millions, as 70% of claims provide less than $100. But hey, if the money belongs to you it should in your bank account, not New York State's bank account. There is no fee to file a claim and collect any money owed to you. From April 2021 to March 2022, $404 million funds were paid to people and 440,000 claims were processed.

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One New Yorker reclaimed $5.2 million in lost money from stocks. The biggest amount is $8 million from an estate and it is still unclaimed!

Interest is paid for five years on interest bearing accounts—currently it’s 3%.

Here's a breakdown of where the funds came from during that period:

Utilities - 1%
Dealers/Brokers - 2%
Court Funds - 5%
Other - 14%
Corporations - 19%
Insurance Companies - 22%
Banks - 37%

New York State warns about scammers trying to pose as state officials,

Beware of people who pretend to be the government and offer to send you unclaimed money in exchange for a fee or the exchange of confidential personal information. This practice is called phishing – a criminal activity using various techniques to trick you into providing personal or financial information through an email request or through a link to a fraudulent Web site.

Here's how to find out if New York has your lost money:

Claim Your Share Of Lost Money In New York State

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