Skip Tracing: What is Skip Tracing?
Skip tracing generally involves finding information about a person who has gone missing. The reasons for the person’s disappearance can be many including, the most common, bad debts, mental illness, domestic violence, and involvement in nefarious activities among others. Investigators use a number of known and tested techniques to locate missing people.
Though skip tracing is not your regular type of service which any collection agency can do. It’s a specialist field and the skills involved can be learned easily. With the advent of internet, almost anyone can now find information about missing persons if they dig deep enough. A skip tracer’s services may be required to – repossess something like a mobile home, collect outstanding debts, find life insurance beneficiaries, locate a long lost friend, relative or loved one, locate missing heirs or people; the reasons why a skip tracer may be varied and many.
Most of us are aware of the most common ways when trying to locate a person gone missing. Usually, a person who has ‘gone missing’ intentionally or in hurry leaves behind a paper trail. This makes it easy for the skip tracer to find the person. Besides this, telephone books, yellow pages, telephone directories on CD-ROMs, and directory resources are the starting point of the skip tracing process. Though these may not always yield results, but they can definitely produce new leads. Next step, checking all the records like public records, court files, motor vehicle records, property records, which can prove to be valuable sources of information.
It is extremely important to verify and pursue the data (leads) found and search (dig) each source until all leads are exhausted with skip tracing. Nowadays, computerised records can provide a wealth of information on the missing person. Investigators who skip trace have the experience and resources to interpret accurate leads from inaccurate ones.