FLTreasureHunt: Legit and Safe?

Here’s everything about FLTreasureHung.gov or FLTreasureHunt.org being legit and safe to use:

Both FLTreasureHunt.org and FLTreasureHunt.gov are legitimate websites.

The .org website redirects to the .gov website, meaning that they are run by the same group for the same purpose.

In this instance, both are managed by the state of Florida and help residents find an unclaimed property that is actually theirs.

So if you want to learn all about how legit and safe FLTreasureHunt is exactly, then this article is for you.

Let’s get started!

FLTreasureHunt: Legit and Safe? (.Gov and .Org)

Is FLTreasureHunt.org Legit? (3 Things)

Keeping it simple, FLTreasureHunt.org is very, very likely a legitimate website.

I cannot give it a perfect 100% confidence level, but it’s definitely not a scam or a harmful website at this point in time.

As of right now, it automatically redirects to FLTreasureHunt.gov, which is a legitimate site.

I’ll explain that fully in the .gov section, but if FLTreasureHunt.org redirects to a safe website, then it’s also a safe website.

That might not be the most compelling explanation possible, but it might help if we go through the primary trust signals together.

I’m going to cover two particular trust signals, and together, they demonstrate that this is not a harmful website.

#1 A Promising Redirect

Simply redirecting traffic doesn’t make a web address safe.

In fact, it can be a very negative trust signal.

If you type in one thing and end up somewhere else, it can raise red flags, and redirects like this are even how some malicious websites operate.

You think it’s safe because it has a respectable name, but the redirect causes you to download something malicious or takes you to a darker corner of the internet.

But, that’s not what is happening with FLTreasureHunt.org.

While the site does redirect, it takes you to FLTreasureHunt.gov.

That’s not a malicious or dark website.

It’s a safe website run by the state of Florida (feel free to make your Florida man joke here).

So, in this case, the fact that the redirect is verifiably safe is a good sign.

In fact, it looks a lot like the state of Florida snatched up both the .org and .gov websites in this case, which I’m explaining next.

#2 The Registration

This might be the most compelling evidence for you.

You can look up how and where any web address is registered.

While some information is kept private, the list of publicly available information still tells a lot about a website.

Here’s what you need to know about the registration for FLTreasureHunt.org.

It is unambiguous, meaning no one is using shell companies or anything to try to hide what it is or does.

It is registered in the state of Florida, which suggests it’s owned by the same person or group as FLTreasureHunt.gov.

More importantly, FLTreasureHunt.org is managed by servers at FLDFS.com.

Again, you can trace publicly available information, and it turns out that FLDFS.com servers are run by the Florida Department of Financial Services.

This is a real government body, and it’s controlling the redirect for FLTreasureHunt.org.

So, when you follow the breadcrumbs, you can see that the FLDFS is the same group managing both websites.

#3 Room for Uncertainty

But, I said it’s only extremely likely that the site is legit.

Why?

Well, there’s a specific set of circumstances that are still technically possible here.

An independent user could route their website through the FLDFS servers as long as they have the right information to set it up.

That means there’s a hypothetical scenario where someone is running a long con by registering FLTreasureHunt.org and building trust by associating it to the .gov site.

Some day, they’ll pull the rug out, and they can use FLTreasureHunt.org however maliciously they choose.

It’s a bit of a ridiculous idea.

The point is that the publicly available information gives powerful clues, not a concrete paper trail.

All of this said, I have no qualms telling you that it’s safe to visit this site, and I did so with my personal computer using no security software.

That’s how confident I am that the site is just fine.

Is FLTreasureHunt.gov Legit? (2 Points)

If you’re reading all of this in order, then you already know that FLTreasureHunt.gov is a legitimate site.

It is run directly by the Florida Department of Financial Services to a specific end (which I’ll explain in a minute).

Regardless of how you might feel about governments in general, the site is definitely not a scam.

It has no known malicious software associated with it. It’s not causing any identifiable harm to anyone.

You can visit the site quite safely, and there’s a chance the services on the site might even do you some good.

So, it’s safe and legit.

Still, it might be worth a minute of your time for us to go through what the site is actually doing.

I’ll also cover why I’m so sure that it’s safe and legitimate.

#1 What Is FLTreasureHunt?

Why does this site exist?

It’s a database run by the state of Florida.

The goal is to help Florida residents find unclaimed property that is rightfully theirs.

Explaining that process is probably worthy of a whole new article, but here’s the overview.

Sometimes, a company owes a person money.

They try to pay that debt, but they can’t get a hold of the individual.

After a certain amount of time, that owed debt is added to the FDFS database (at least for Florida companies and residents).

You can go through the database and see if there’s any unclaimed property in your name.

If there is, you can claim it.

By doing this, the department is helping people collect what is rightfully theirs.

There’s also the fact that this process can help Florida with tax receipts.

For large enough unclaimed properties, the state is missing out on tax revenue.

When someone claims a property, it gets back into the taxable system.

Take that as you will, but the database really does connect people with unclaimed property.

#2 How Do You Know FLTreasureHunt Is Legit?

First off, .gov websites are much more closely watched than others.

The suffix is specifically reserved for government use, so a government entity has to register the domain.

Despite that, scams can happen, but government watchdogs keep an eye on .gov websites and keep a database of every single one.

If you want to run a scam, using a .gov address is unnecessarily risky.

On top of that, the site has been reviewed by users.

There are plenty of examples of people in Florida who used the site to successfully claim property.

They made money off of the site by using it as intended.

As much as the name and concept might trigger your inner skeptic, this one happens to be real.

Author

Theresa McDonough

Tech entrepreneur and founder of Tech Medic, who has become a prominent advocate for the Right to Repair movement. She has testified before the US Federal Trade Commission and been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, helping influence change within the tech industry.

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