‘Deadline’ to get unclaimed money puts Penangites in panic mode
GEORGE TOWN: Rumours that a deadline has been set for people to get back their unclaimed money has sent many people here into panic mode.
Since Monday, the number of people queueing in Komtar has increased drastically with the line snaking out of the government service office onto the concourse area in Level Three.
They were queuing to get the number to the registrar’s counters in the AccountantGeneral’s Department on Level 42.
An officer in the department said yesterday that the people were initially allowed to queue up on Level 42, but they quickly filled the cramped confines of the floor’s circular corridor.
She said the rush could have stemmed from fake news spreading on chat groups that a deadline has been set for people to claim the money, after which it would be seized.
The rumours, she said, were not true and that the counters would always remain open.
She said those who register would know immediately if they have any unclaimed money once their particulars were entered into the online system.
“Each day we issue 200 queue numbers in the morning and another 100 in the afternoon,” she said.
One of those who were queuing yesterday was retiree Siti Mariam Ahmad, 53, who said she was almost certain that she has some unclaimed money as she had allowed several bank accounts to become dormant with small amounts left in them over the years.
“While I was working, I used to have several bank accounts, so my daughter brought me to check if the sums I left in them were still in my name,” she said.
Trader Muhamad Affendy Yahya, 43, however was not sure whether he has any unclaimed money, but wanted to be sure.
“I found out about this unclaimed money through friends who shared the information on Whatsapp, so I came with my father and wife to check,” he said.
“I do not know if I have any unclaimed money, but no harm in checking since it is our right.”
Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Othman Aziz told Parliament on July 26 that the Registrar of Unclaimed Money has RM5.779bil waiting to be collected.
In an exclusive report early this month, The Star revealed that the Registrar of Unclaimed Money was holding on to RM327mil from more than 516,000 life insurance policies that had matured in the last five years.