To promote and secure the return of a lost article to the owner by reducing a finder's trouble to return the lost article to the owner, and smooth the delivery of the finding and the payment of a reward between the owner and the finder while keeping their personal information from each other.

An apparatus configured to communicate with a user terminal used by a user having an article with an attached tag carrying coded identification information issued in advance for the tag, and with a finder terminal used by the finder of the article stores user information and article information in association with the identification information, and when receiving from the finder terminal the identification information and an acquisition request for the article information related to the identification information, extracts the article information associated with the identification information and sends it to the finder terminal and, if receiving from the finder terminal a message that the finding matches the extracted article information, identifies the user of the finding and sends a message that the lost article has been found.

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