Skiptrace

Skiptracing (also skip tracing) is 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 "skip" refers to the person being searched for, and is derived from the idiomatic expression "to skip town", meaning to depart (perhaps in a rush), leaving minimal clues behind to "trace" the "skip" to a new location.

Skip tracing tactics may be employed by debt collectors, bail bond enforcers (bounty hunters), repossession agents, private investigators, attorneys, police detectives, and journalists, or by any person attempting to locate a subject whose contact information is not immediately known. Similar techniques have also been utilized by investigators to locate witnesses in criminal trials, resulting in the development of witness protection programs aimed at providing former witnesses with new identities and locations to avoid detection.

Method

Skiptracing is done by collecting as much information as possible about the subject. The information is then analyzed, reduced, and verified. Obtaining new and correct points of contact is key. Sometimes the subject's current whereabouts are in the data, but are obfuscated by the sheer amount of information or disinformation. 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, which involves calling or visiting former neighbors, employers or other known contacts to ask about the subject, sometimes under false or misleading pretenses.

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. While some of these records may be publicly available, some cannot be accessed without an appropriate search warrant, which is generally only available to law enforcement or licensed private investigators.

Even when no specific information is returned, public and private databases exist that cross-reference skiptracing information with others the "skip" may have lived with with in 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".

Social Media Skip Tracing

A new form of skip tracing has emerged with the recent explosion of websites such as Four Square and Facebook. In todays fast paced digital world people are posting their where abouts thru check-in apps and other sources sometimes without even realizing it. This information in the hands of a professional skip tracer allows for real-time locating as well as social pattern behaviors such as favorite places to shop, dine and meet with friends. Most of the information is widely available to the public and when skips are smart enough to lock down their accounts with security options it only takes a friend request to get inside their personal life.

This is where skip tracing takes on a whole new face (or faces) since there is no limit to how many online profiles one person can have these days. A good skip tracer will have anywhere from 5 to 10 online identities allowing them to be different genders, ages, and backgrounds. Once the skip tracer knows enough about their skips likes and dislikes it only takes an online introduction and friend request from a profile that fits the needs and preferences of that skips current life style to get accepted. From there the skip tracer can now follow post that will eventually contain dates and times of where the skip is going to be for a wedding or a gathering of some type. In the case of wants and warrants there are task forces that utilize this information to pick up skips that have eluded law enforcement otherwise.

In todays digital world it has become common practice to post information about our personal lives with the false sense of security that only my "friends" can see. Do you know all of your online friends personally? Most people have at least one person in their friends list that they have never met in person and everything they "think" they know about that person is only what that person has let them know. Most likely if you are hiding from someone for some reason then a skip tracer is looking for you and will eventually find and locate you.