What Is Skip Tracing?
When someone disappears of his own accord by moving, changing his phone number or using a different name, it may be difficult to contact that person. Skip tracing is the process of gathering all the available information on a missing person in order to find where he is currently living. Whether people are wanted for bad debts, bail jumping, back child support or any other reason, they usually leave a trail that an experienced skip tracer can follow.
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Function
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Skip tracers are often licensed private detectives that offer their services for a fee to a creditor or to another person who wants to locate someone. By using public records and other documentation, the skip tracer generates new leads and eventually locates the missing individual. Not all subjects of a skip trace deliberately disappear. Attorneys handling estates hire skip tracers to find missing heirs, and adopted children may hire a skip tracer to locate a birth parent.
Types
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An individual may research legal means of information in an attempt to locate a missing person but a private investigator is more knowledgeable in surveillance techniques and may network with other investigators to locate a missing person. A bounty hunter uses skip tracing techniques and locates bail-jumpers for a fee. The activities of bounty hunters, like private investigators, are subject to state regulations (see Resources below).
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Identification
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When you're trying to find a missing person on your own, leave no stone unturned. Visit the public library for back issues of phonebooks and use reverse phonebooks to find old street addresses. Look through public voter registration records at the courthouse. Utilize the power of the Internet for a variety of skip tracing resources. Spies Online, a resource for private investigators and citizens, offers links to free searches and maintains a database of licensed investigators for hire (see Resources below).
Considerations
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When searching for a missing person, you must obey the law. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires communities to make some records public, including criminal records but the Financial Modernization Act of 1999 prohibit you from calling an individual using a pretext to obtain personal information. You may not misrepresent yourself as a utility, a lender, a creditor, a medical professional or any other professional entity in order to trick the person into giving you private financial information or a Social Security number.
Potential
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Skip tracing has the potential of tracking down deadbeat parents, missing witnesses, long-lost loved ones and those who skip out on their debts. With the Internet, a private individual can make use of free searches and specialized searches for a fee but the time-honored methods of dumpster-diving for discarded information and visiting a country courthouse are still valuable in locating missing individuals.
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Resources
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