(Canadian Press/J.P. Moczulski) "You could already be a winner!"

Sounds like a cheap ploy from one of those magazine-floggers that clogs up your mailbox from time to time. But wait. This is better. We have nothing to sell. There's no contest to enter. It's simply about re-uniting you with money you didn't know is rightfully yours.

You could be the deserving recipient of cold, hard cash that's waiting for you in some long-lost bank account, insurance policy, tax refund, Canada Savings Bond, or old stock certificate. There's millions to be had. Hundreds of millions actually. And hundreds of thousands of Canadians are eligible. All you have to do is find it.

In some cases, that's easier said than done, especially in Canada. But there are ways of searching for almost every kind of financial commodity gone astray.

What's the catch? None, really — other than a little time and effort. No guarantees, of course. Maybe you won't get lucky. But even hunters and fisherfolk don't consider it a wasted day if they come back empty-handed. The thrill of the search and all that.

Here then, is CBCNews.ca's guide to the quest for unclaimed fortunes: where to search, how to claim, and who to talk to. We'll leave the how-to-spend up to you.

To Part1: Unclaimed bank accounts