How to Skip Trace a Person

Skip tracing a person means tracking down the whereabouts of someone who sometimes doesn't know or care whether you're looking for him, but sometimes really doesn't want to be found --- usually because he owes a debt he doesn't intend to repay. However, it's becoming increasingly harder to hide in the modern world of Facebook and Twitter, as well as computerized databases that routinely track financial transactions, customer accounts, cell phone locations and social media footprints.

Instructions

1

Gather all the identifying and personal information you have about your subject. These bits of data include full name and any known aliases or maiden name, last known address and phone numbers (home and cell), previous addresses, last known employer's address and phone number, your subject's physical description (a recent photo is helpful), make and model of car, driver license number, car insurance company, Social Security number and the names, addresses and phone numbers of all known associates including friends and family.

2

Work the phone first. Call the subject's friends, family and employer. Ask if they know her whereabouts or a phone number at which you can reach her. If they won't give you a number, ask them to pass along a message to contact you. If you're collecting a debt, the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) prohibits you from disclosing that fact to anyone other than your subject or her attorney.

3

Search for your subject and his family members by name and by phone number in Google and other search engines. Depending upon how extensive their online activities are, you may find a surprising amount of information.

4

Look for evidence that your subject or one of her family members has an online presence on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook. Search these websites for the names and nicknames of your subject and her family members. Many people talk about relatively private things on these sites --- information such as where they are going and what they are doing --- that can make it easy to pinpoint their whereabouts.

5

Use a reverse phone number search service like 555-1212.com if you have a phone number. The advantage of this particular service is that its reports include a "neighborhood search," providing you with the phone numbers and addresses of other residences in the neighborhood of the target phone number. This allows you to interview the subject's neighbors if the database search results in an old phone number for a residence where the subject is no longer living. Often, a neighbor in the old neighborhood may keep in touch with your subject well enough that he has information on his current whereabouts. The neighborhood search report feature makes it easy to interview the neighbors even if they live on the other side of the country from you.