How to run a Skip Trace on a Person or Business
Perhaps your renter disappeared owing you two months' rent. Or your builder just dissolved his corporation, leaving you without a house. Maybe you want to find a lost love or a missing relative. If you want to run a "skip trace" to find someone, there are professionals who will do it for you, but if you're willing to put in the effort, you can do it yourself.
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Instructions
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Name the person you want. Find out their full and complete name--if it's a common last name, middle names will be a help--nicknames, and for women, maiden name and any names from previous marriages.
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Gather more information. Useful facts include the spouse's name; the skip's last known address and the date it was valid; previous addresses and dates; telephone numbers; Social Security number; date of birth and age; last known employment and driver's license number.
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Call and ask for the skip as if you know he'll be there if your trace has produced names and phone numbers of the skip's family, friends, employers or other contacts. If you sound confident, people will often tell you what you want.
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Check out any phone numbers you have in a reverse of "criss cross" directory. These directories list the numbers in numerical order, then tell what address, business or name they're attached to.
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Go online. Searchers have found old friends and missing debtors through Facebook, MySpace and other networking sites.
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Tips & Warnings
Find out of your state's Department of Motor Vehicles will do a search on a name or license plate for you. If you live in a state that allows it, that can greatly speed up your search.
If skip tracing requires more time than you can spare, consider paying a professional. Pros have accounts with major credit bureaus, which enables them to turn up a vast amount of information with just a Social Security number.
You can run a skip trace on a business by using the owner's name, or the names of the corporate officers. If you're dealing with a dissolved corporation, however, it will be hard to collect your debt from the individuals who ran it.
