Is Skip Tracing Legal? Understanding Legality, Techniques, and More
Maybe you’re trying to find someone for a lawsuit, or you’re on the hunt for someone who owes you money. In cases like these, skip tracing saves the day. Few people can hide from professional skip tracers like those at Professional Process Servers & Investigators, Inc.
Is skip tracing legal? You’ll learn the answer below. You’ll also discover a few tactics skip tracers use to track down their quarry.
What Is Skip Tracing?
In simplest terms, skip tracing is the process of finding someone who has gone “off-grid.” Normally, you can find someone by looking up their contact information, such as their address or phone number. But clever folks who don’t want to be found may move across the country, change their name, and even alter their appearance.
When this happens, it’s the skip tracer’s time to shine.
Skip tracers help process servers find lawsuit defendants so they can serve legal documents to them. However, that’s not all they do. Skip tracers can find:
- People who owe debts to creditors
- Insurance beneficiaries, claimants, and policyholders
- Witnesses and missing persons
- Potential real estate buyers and sellers
Is Skip Tracing Legal?
Is skip tracing legal? Yes, as long as the skip tracer doesn’t break any laws to get their hands on information. Examples of illegal and unethical skip tracing practices include:
- Accessing private email accounts or phone records
- Impersonating someone to access their tax records or bank accounts
- Accessing police reports (except for traffic incident reports)
- Hacking someone’s computer
- Stalking or harassing someone to learn their personal information
- Bribing people in exchange for information
To avoid running afoul of the law, all skip tracers must comply with regulations, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which mandate ethical and lawful data use.
Skip Tracing Methods
How does skip tracing work? It’s not as easy as looking someone up in the phonebook.
Skip tracers have access to various public records and databases from which they pull and cross-reference information. Techniques used by skip tracers can include:
- Looking at credit reports and utility records to find a person’s last known address
- Scanning court records, property records, and marriage/divorce records
- Searching criminal background check sites
- Interviewing the target’s family and acquaintances
- Checking social media for updates the target has posted
DIY Skip Tracing
Skip tracing costs can add up quickly, especially if you’re hunting for someone who’s very hard to find. With the right tools and a bit of luck, you may be able to do it yourself.
As mentioned above, social media is a great place to start. Many people frequently update their social media pages, which could give clues about their whereabouts.
You could also try a reverse image search. If you have a picture of someone, you can use Google to find matching images across the web. This could lead you to their blog, website, or LinkedIn page.
You may also want to try people search websites. These websites compile data from hundreds of public sources — handy when you don’t want to spend weeks looking for someone. The best ones cost a bit of money, but you may find the expense worth it.
Looking for Someone? Contact Our Skip Tracers
Is skip tracing legal? Yes, as long as skip tracers don’t break any laws while gathering information. If you’re having trouble finding an elusive missing person or want to know more about what skip tracing involves, we can help. Reach out to Professional Process Servers & Investigators, Inc. at (844) 530-0255 to learn more now.
