Skip Trace Find Someone locate Person

Skip Tracing 101 – Part II ( posted in miami Florida )

Most people have the following traceable items: Automobile, telephone and other utilities, mailbox, credit card. A good number also own property. Keeping this in mind, you should exhaust all resources and trails to your subject’s items.

Tip:

If you know your subject’s last address, do this: Mail an empty envelope with the subject’s address and a return address. On the envelope write,”DO NOT FORWARD. ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED.” After a week or so, you will receive the envelope back to the return address you specified with a yellow sticker on the envelope containing the forwarding address your subject filed with the post office. Of course, there is always the possibility that your subject did not file a change of address.
W A R N I N G ! Only perform this technique when you are sure that your subject has moved, or else he may receive the letter and you might be made.

Okay. So, what if your subject lives in another state?

Again, begin with Directory Assistance and Telephone Directories that cover the state you wish to search. Call your local library and ask if they have out of state telephone directories and what years. If they do not have the directories you are looking for ask which library would have those. You can also call most state capitals to locate their respective state’s telephone directories. Most state capitals have there respective state’s telephone directories dating back for years.
What if you have NO idea whatsoever where your subject may be?
Begin looking for the subject’s relatives.
What if there are no leads for relatives?
Hire a professional to conduct some simple Nationwide searches for you. You should be able to get a listing of persons with the same name as your subject for $40.00 to $100.00. But please be aware that a large number of professional investigators are not too crazy about working for such little money, but then again you may get lucky and find someone who would be happy to help out. Note that if you’re searching for a judgment debtor, in most states you can attach the fee’s incurred from collecting the judgment onto the principal amount of the judgment.
What if you can’t afford a professional?
You are really going to do a lot of legwork. This is often the case with judgment debtors who have skipped. Contact the subject’s former employers, co-workers, or employees. If you’re lucky, these folks will have a grudge against your subject, too. Note that people are creatures of habit. A person who is likely to commit improprieties in one instance may very well do the same elsewhere. This means that there may be a good chance that one of the people you contact could have a similar experience to yours. They may or may not be willing to share the information they have. But, there is always a good chance that your contact will say, “Yeah, I heard John Doe moved to Alabama or somewhere.” Okay, that’s a good start. Ask your contact where he heard this. Try to validate his statement without insulting him. Then follow up on his lead. It could very well be nothing. Maybe it was Arkansas and not Alabama. Continue to dig. You may have to exhaust all your contacts. But that’s part of the game. Unless the guy is a complete loser or in jail, then you stand a good chance of finding him. Even if he is total loser you can find him, but he probably won’t have anything worth levying to satisfy your judgment.
Search court records.
There can be a wealth of information in civil, criminal, and bankruptcy records. If you’re searching bankruptcy files you will be able to find out if he has claimed bankruptcy, and whether or not you can make a claim against his estate, or simply whether or not it is worthwhile pursuing. You can also find his social security number, DOB, spouse, other persons involved, and list of assets and liabilities at the time of filing bankruptcy. We have also seen copies of Federal Tax returns, divorce settlements, and abstracts from other civil cases. If you search criminal and civil records, you may also find additional identifying information, such as spouse, addresses, aliases, etc. Add these to your list and follow up on them.
Search Vital Records.
Vital Records (Vitals, Vitals Statistics, Vital Stats, etc.) are birth, death, and marriage records. Say you feel that knowing your subject’s parents would be helpful. If you can locate his birth certificate, his parents will be listed on the certificate. Say you feel that your debtor has vested all his assets in his wife’s name, but you don’t know the spouse’s name: search the marriage records. For this reason you may also find it necessary to know your subject’s spouse’s or ex-spouse name.
Search Department of Motor Vehicle Records.
Note that many states have restrictions on DMV searching and some states forbid the general public from accessing those records. However, you could very possibly locate an address, vehicles registrations, or a driving record. The search criteria for DMV records varies. Some states require full name and date of birth, others require a social security number, and others require an arbitrary driver’s license number. You may also be able to search using your subject’s license plate, so always take plate numbers down.
Search Voter Registration Records.
These are still public in most places, but note that a lot of people do not vote. However, if you do not find your subject listed you may find his parents, brother or sister. Also, you will have to call around to see which city or county would have the records for your subject’s address – voter registration, like other matters, is jurisdictional.
Search Tax Roll Records.
See the city or county office that has jurisdiction over your subject’s address, and search for property tax bills, personal property tax bills, and excise tax bills.
Search for Business License Records.
You may have to dig to see which agency controls this. It may be the state, the county, or the city in which your subject’s business OR residence lies in. It may also be in one, all, or any combination of the three. And they may all conatain different information.
Contact the appropriate Better Business Bureau.
They may be able to help.
Search real estate records.
Most states have several County Recorder’s Offices which record all real estate transactions in the given county. Go to the county recorder’s office in the county in which your subject resides or has resided. The records will usually be indexed alphabetically, by date, and by grantor (seller) and grantee (buyer). Search both indices. Search by your subject’s name, aliases, spouse’s name, and all possible spelling combinations of his name. Again, know that information has to be passed through many hands before it reaches an index. Keep in mind that it is very easy to create a typographical error in that process. So it is paramount that when searching you have to exhaust all possibilities. Also keep in mind that people will use their initials in their names. So locate where this will be in the index. For example, Z. Doe might be listed in the Z’s OR he might be listed at the very beginning of the index. Look at both.

Note:

Public information is free! However, compiling it and making it available is costly. Keep in mind that investigators pay well for their information databases and would probably not be able to compete without them. They pay for the ease of access of the information and for the time their vendors have taken to compile it and make it available.

Tip:

When Searching public records like the ones listed to the right, you will be asked to use an index that will list persons and businesses by name. If you are looking for a person, search for the last name, then find the first name and ANY similar spellings of either first or last names. This is very important, because oftentimes typographical errors occur when the data is processed. Also, be aware that someone’s initials can be used in the index. Once you have found some possible “hits”, there will be a corresponding file number. Record the file number and ask the clerk to retrieve the file for you, or ask how to retrieve it if the files are self serve. by infoguys

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