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Collections & Recovery | Collections & Investigations

Skip Tracing 101

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Private investigators and law enforcement officials often have to track down people who are actively trying to avoid them. This can be a frustrating process for investigators, as they have to play a sort of cat-and-mouse game with the people they’re looking for. If a private investigator can’t find a person of interest easily, they might need to resort to skip tracing. Through skip tracing, it’s possible to track down a person even if it seems like it would be impossible to find them otherwise. However, the skip tracing process isn’t necessarily easy, and it can be a complicated thing to do on your own.

What Is Skip Tracing?

At its most basic, skip tracing is just the process of finding people who don’t want to be found. The name comes from the term “skipping town,” referring to the fact that you can use this to find people who have intentionally left an area where you might previously find them. This is all about gathering enough information on someone to know where they are or where they might go next.

Why Is Skip Tracing Necessary?

Who uses skip tracing, and why do they use it? There are a variety of uses and a surprising number of industries that use these tools. These are just a few of the reasons you might need skip tracing services:

  • Debt Recovery
  • Collections
  • Finding Witnesses for a Case
  • Due Diligence Processes
  • General Legal Work

Debt recovery and collections are probably the most common uses, but other industries can also benefit, including law enforcement, government, and even legal professionals like attorneys. If you’re interested in finding someone hard to find, no matter the reason, these tools can help.

What Tools Do People Use for Skip Tracing?

There are a variety of ways that someone might be able to skip trace. The process isn’t just about doing a standard check on an individual through a public record search engine. Rather, it’s about doing as much as you can to gather information. That means including some or all of these steps:

  • Asking friends and family
  • Talking to landlords and managers
  • Checking in with law enforcement in the area
  • Looking at social media services
  • Using public record search engines

Depending on which steps are best, there are a variety of ways to benefit your company. Some processes might be best for less difficult cases. Public record search engines, for example, can help you sort through many different cases, and personally talking to friends and family may be something you only have to do once you’ve gone through the public record search engine results.

How Can Enformion Help Me with Skip Tracing?

For many skip tracing cases, a public record search engine can be the perfect first step in gathering information. Even though you might have to comb through some pieces of information personally, a public record search engine can help you gather information like current and past residences and personal relationships. With Enformion, you can run searches for whatever information you’re looking for, regardless of what industry you’re in or how difficult your needs are.

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