How To Find a Deadbeat, Lost Loved One, Classmate & Others

Skip tracing (the method used to find missing persons) is defined by Wikipedia as "a colloquial term used to describe the process of locating a person's whereabouts for any number of purposes." Most often these purposes are for the collection of a debt such as child support.

What all do you know about the person for whom you are searching?

It seems everyone is social networking these days, regardless of age. When I'm searching for someone, the first place I visit is Facebook - followed closely by Twitter and MySpace.

The more information you have about someone in the beginning, the better your chances of narrowing down the results will be. (Especially true for extremely common names) Identifiers such as maiden name, hometown, high school, college, and current or previous employers are great for this purpose.

With places like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter that allow you to see "Friends" or "Follows," you can check those lists also to help determine if you have found your missing person by matching up known family members and/or mutual friends.

As an individual, I hate these companies that are pulling our information from a variety of sources including public records, social networking sites, and credit reports. On the other hand, I've found them to be a fantastic skip tracing resource.

One of my personal favorites is MyLife.com. You've probably seen this advertised all over the television with the catch phrase, "Who's searching for you?" Maybe you've even visited the site and inserted your name. Well, if you did, you provided them more than just your name, age, and current zip code.

For the best use of MyLife, I always Google the person's name in quotation marks and last known state. For example, "John Doe" Texas. Typically, one of the first results will be for MyLife. With more common names, there is usually more than one result.

By inserting it into Google as such, I'm avoiding all the pop-up solicitations to pay for their services and I'm still privy to possible cities, six digits of a phone number (if available), and associated relatives and their cities.

Using sites such as Anywho that offer free online telephone directories, search for your subject (or the name of anyone they may be residing with) in any areas you believe they may be living.

If your search produces no results, then search with the missing person's last name only, in the last known area of residence, and make a list of everyone with that surname and their telephone numbers. You may need this list later and saves you the trouble of doubling back on your research.

Most of these sites also offer reverse phone searches that can come in very handy. If you have a telephone number, but no address; try plugging it in to the reverse search directory. It may turn out to be all you need!

You may be wondering why I would suggest sending a letter to someone that you are obviously unsure of where they are, right?

Using the list you made previously of known family members and those with the same last name in the missing person's last known area of residence, start calling.

In the past when I have used pretext calling as a means of skip tracing, I always pretended to be a friend of the missing person just looking to get in touch with them. And here's a tip in using this method: the less professional you sound, the better the results. My favorite way of doing this was to use my innocent, young voice and a persona that was a bit on the, well, "dingy" side. It was amazing the information I was able to get people to tell me.

Even if the people you talk with don't know the subject's current address, be sure to write down any new information they provide such as girl/boyfriend's names, jobs, vehicles, etc.

Continue to work with all the information you have until you have exhausted this method of skip tracing.

Warning: Most states have laws that make it illegal to present yourself as a law enforcement officer, government official, or legal counsel. Stay far away from using such personas when trying obtain information about a missing person.

One last tip: remember that most people have a Caller ID service on their telephones these days. Either use *67 to block your number or make your calls from a neutral location such as a payphone (you'll receive better results using this latter method as people are automatically leary of private name, private number calls). The use of a personal cell phone, even using blocked number services, is not recommended for pretext calling.

Most legal matters filed with the Court are considered public record and available for anyone to view. The only exception to this rule includes juvenile records and adoptions.

Skip tracing can be a time consuming effort, but the rewards are often tremendous. As a matter of fact, once you've completed your first successful skip trace, you may easily find yourself addicted!