What do Skip Tracing Companies do?
What do you mean by skip tracing?
Skip tracing refers to the process of finding a debtor who does not want to be traced. Skip tracing is required in order to collect on overdue accounts receivable. In other words, it is typically a way of locating a person who has been absconding since long. There are various methods a skip tracing company can resort to in order to find out the whereabouts of a person through asset searches and other types of investigation.
The process of skip tracing is most frequently used by bail bondsmen, bounty hunters, repossession agents, private detectives, debt gatherers, and sometimes even journalists. Skip tracing, however, may be carried by a professional — known a skip tracer — who is found to a leader of the process.
How skip trace service is delivered?
Skip tracing is conducted by gathering information about a person who needs to be investigated. All information received by the skip tracer is examined, verified, and used to ascertain the location of the individual. Skip tracing may involve collecting and analyzing a high level of information or very little information, both of which have their own cluster of advantages and disadvantages.
Though most of the skip tracing companies now refer to the Internet to gather information on the location of individuals, many also employ social engineering, the process of calling on people who may possess the information about the subject including bank account search.
It is up to the decision of a skip tracer to make the use of any number of resources and databases to collect the needed details. As such, skip tracing often involves accessing the following:
• Phone number record
• Credit checks
• Credit card applications
• Job applications
• Criminal background investigation
• Loan applications
• Utility bills
• Public tax information
• Public records databases
• Courthouse records
• Department store loyalty cards
• Air travel history
• Driver’s license/vehicle registration departments
The term skip tracing is most widely used in the domain of bail bonds and bounty hunting, and a large number of bounty hunters and bail bondsmen employs the skip trace service to find individuals who have failed to meet the circumstances of their bond. Due to this, skip tracing and bounty hunting are often incorrectly used synonymously.
Skip tracing is a distinctive process, however, and, though it is often a function of bounty hunting, the two processes are clearly different. In other terms, bounty hunters can act as skip tracers, but skip tracers cannot serve as bounty hunters.
Both bail bondsmen and bounty hunters use skip tracing to find a person who has skipped bail. Because the defendant who skips bail does not want to be located for the dread of being into the prison, the job of skip tracing in the bail bonds field can be really challenging.
Though there are no official training requirements for carrying out skip tracing, professionals who want to understand how to become a skip tracer should make it a priority to become aware of the state and federal laws regarding everything from surveillance laws to privacy laws. People interested in jobs in skip tracing may also get more career opportunities by focusing in skip tracing companies, such as bounty hunting or debt collection.
