If a stranger informed you that you had inherited $2.5 million from a long-lost cousin, there’s a good chance you’d scoff and hang up the phone, or delete the message.

What if the windfall was real?

Genealogists at the State Trustees of Victoria search for living relatives of people who died without a will and distribute more than $100 million each year.

But sometimes potential beneficiaries forgo inheritances, even those worth millions of dollars.

The five researchers, based in the Melbourne offices of State Trustees, a state government-backed financial and legal services company, once found 60 heirs of a deceased person. However, only one, an 83-year-old man, was alive.

Researcher Lee Hooper said the man’s response when told he was entitled to $2.5 million was to say: “I don’t believe it, I’ve never met this person. » This was followed by: “We are not interested. Thanks, though.

Hooper said: “He thought I was trying to sell him something. » The man’s son later indicated, however, that the family was indeed interested.

A woman living in Ukraine turned down her deceased sister’s $1 million estate, even when state administrators hired a local lawyer to knock on her door. She didn’t believe her sister had moved to Australia.

Hooper’s colleague Kath Ensor, a State Trustees genealogist for 30 years, says since scams are common, the reluctance is understandable.