There are many free skip tracing resources the average person can use to find someone. There is no magic site that gives you all the information you need for free, but using a few free tools to piece together a bigger picture can help you narrow down your search to locate someone. Whether you’re a creditor trying to track down a debtor, or just someone looking for a long lost loved one, these tools may help.
1. NETRONLINE
The public records section of NETR Online serves as a portal to public records searches nationwide. By providing a clickable map of the US and a breakdown of each state’s county, they facilitate the process of finding the web addresses of county database search engines for locating people and their assets.
2. SPY DIALER
A sneaky and free reverse phone and e-mail lookup that works with both cell and landlines. Check out www.spydialer.com.
3. ONLINE WHITE PAGES
A basic online white pages search like 411.com can be a handy little tool to help narrow down a search for someone.
4. FACEBOOK SEARCH
It’s amazing what you can learn from Facebook. When logged into your Facebook profile, visit this link to perform your search.
5. GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH
Searching for the individual’s first and last name in Google’s image search can be very useful. Not only can you put a face with a name, but in many cases you can find links from the images to the individual’s social media profiles, blogs or professional profiles.
6. BLACK BOOK ONLINE
A tremendous resource for free public records searches is BlackBookOnline.info. They provide links to public records search engines nationwide and also link to several other useful skip tracing websites.
7. PIPL
A comprehensive online search that searches the ‘deep web’ – Pipl.com can return some pretty detailed results if you enter a person’s name, e-mail address, phone number or username.
8. LINKEDIN
LinkedIn is a great people finding resource because people on LinkedIn aren’t hiding behind an ambiguous social username. Profiles usually have clear headshot portraits of the individual for fast recognition; and as a creditor, this site may be a great way to quickly find your debtor’s current employer.
9. GOOGLE CUSTOM SEARCH
To maximize the power of the Google search engine, you really need to use search operators. Search operators are punctuation marks and key words that allow you to highly customize the search results Google will provide you. For example, if you put a search term in quotation marks, Google will only return results that have an exact match to the terms put inside the quotes. If you put a minus sign (-) before a search term, Google will exclude results that contain those words. The very useful search operator (site:), allows creditors to search local newspapers for the debtor’s name. This can give the creditor the ability to see newspaper notices for bankruptcies, foreclosure sales or arrests. To use this search operator, you would type a person’s name followed by the search operator site: and the web address of the local newspaper you’d like to search.
Example: john doe site:orlandosentinel.com or doe site:orlandosentinel.com
10. INMATE SEARCH
Sometimes people are hard to find because they are behind bars. Searches like the federal Inmate Locator are helpful in tracking down those that may be in prison. BlackBookOnline also offers a lot of helpful links for searching local and state prison databases here.
Skip tracing can be very tedious and sometimes free tools available to the average person don’t quite get you the information you need. Judgment Enforcement Solution, Inc. has access to the top professional skip tracing resources. If you are looking for someone and need help, please contact us for options.
Disclaimer: The information, opinions and materials contained in this blog are provided for general informational purposes only and are not intended to be legal advice. Being general in nature, the information, opinions and materials contained in this blog may not apply to any specific factual and/or legal set of circumstances. No attorney-client relationship is formed nor should any such relationship be implied. The information, opinions and materials contained in this blog are not intended to substitute or refute legal advice given by a licensed attorney. You should not act upon information, opinions or materials contained in this blog without seeking advice from a licensed attorney in your own state or jurisdiction. Laws change frequently and vary in different locations. If you require legal advice, please consult with a licensed professional attorney in your state or jurisdiction.
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