Skiptrace

Skiptracing (also skip tracing) is a colloquial term used to describe the process of locating a person's whereabouts for any number of purposes. A skiptracer is someone who performs this task, which may be the person's primary occupation. The term comes from the word "skip" being used to describe the person being searched for, and comes from the idiomatic expression "to skip town," meaning to depart, perhaps in a rush, and leaving minimal clues behind for someone to "trace" the "skip" to a new location.

Skip tracing tactics may be employed by debt collectors, bail bond enforcers (bounty hunting), private investigators, attorneys, police detectives, journalists or as a part of any investigation that entails locating a subject whose contact information is not immediately known.

Although the term "skip trace" tends to have negative connotations and be associated with persons who have not paid debts, criminals, etc., the same techniques can be used to locate high school or college friends or classmates for reunions, relatives for genealogical research, witnesses to a crime or a historical event, co-owners of real estate or intellectual property rights, persons entitled to receive royalties, former members of a group such as a church or club, and many other purposes.

Method

Skiptracing is done by collecting as much information as possible about the subject which is then analyzed, reduced, and verified. Sometimes the subject's current whereabouts are in the data, but is obfuscated by the sheer amount of information or disinformation. More often the data will be used to identify third parties that might be able to assist the process. This is where the job becomes more than mere research since one must often employ methods of social engineering to finesse information without compromising the situation. A common tactic involves calling or visiting former neighbors, employers or other known contacts to ask about the subject, sometimes under false or misleading pretenses. In most jurisdictions this deception, known as pretexting, is legal. A particularly common tactic is to call claiming to be with a well-known package delivery service such as Federal Express or United Parcel Service in the United States and claim the caller has a package but the address is illegible.

Records that "skiptracers" use may include phone number databases, credit reports (including information provided on a loan application, credit card application, and in other debt collector databases), job application information, criminal background checks, utility bills (electricity, gas, water, sewage, phone, internet, and cable), social security, disability, and public tax information. These methods don't break any law because the information is freely available due to the nature of the business, whether it be debt collectors, bounty hunters, or other "skiptracers".

Even when no specific information is returned, public databases exist that cross-reference skiptracing information with others the "skip" may have lived with within the recent past. For instance, if previous records show a "skip" lived in the same house as a third party, the third party may also be "skiptraced" in an effort to locate the "skip."

In the United States, the Fair Credit Reporting Act prohibits credit reporting agencies, commonly referred to as credit bureaus, from providing credit-related information in their databases to persons or companies that do not have at least one of the "permissible purposes" specified in the statute. One service the agencies provide to entities lacking such a purpose is address and similar information but not information regarding lenders, retailers, and other entities that have had financial dealings with the subject of the report. However, one illegal technique skiptracers sometimes use is to develop an "inside contact" at a retailer, or other such company, who, usually in exchange for a bribe, then accesses bureau records without authorization and provides the information to the skip tracer.

Criticism

Controversy is sometimes raised in connection with the industry, due to persons selling pirated information under false pretenses.

One example of this type of scenario would be an unlicensed "company" selling cell phone numbers or records to anyone with money. This is obtained by the abuse of social engineering/pretexting methods which are normally used by enforcement agencies for the common good when information can not be acquired by more direct means. Cell phone data can be legally acquired by the use of a subpoena.