What is Skip Tracing? How to Skip Trace for Free

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For the record, typically only people in the “people locating” industry use the word Skip Trace.  The word is typically used by private investigators, bounty hunters, debt collectors, or anyone else that is looking for an individual as a profession. Generally speaking, most seasoned investigators don’t use the word in the course of business. The word Skip has been popularized by the Bounty Hunting Industry though most professionals don’t use the word.  So what does the word skip trace actually mean?

What is the Definition of Skip Tracing

Some people say the word “skip” relates to someone skipping out of town and the word trace refers to tracing or tracking down the individual.  Skip tracing is the act of using investigative techniques to locate an individual. 

 All private investigators should have the skill of skip tracing.  Some investigators are better and skip tracing than others. 

Who can use skip tracing? 

Anyone who needs to locate someone can use a Skip Tracer to find someone.  With that being said, if you call an investigator or a skip tracer to locate someone for you, the investigator will question your reason for locating the individual.  

If your reason is not legitimate or legal, the investigator may turn down the assignment in order to protect the individual they are looking to find. This is the ethical responsibility of any investigator in order to keep from putting someone in harm’s way.

One important rule investigators typically have is that they will not reveal the location or contact information of the person being found if they don’t want to be contacted by the investigator’s client.  Basically, if you hire an investigator to find someone, and they find them, you will not receive their information unless the person found agrees for the client to have it. 

The client will have to accept those terms and will not get a refund if the person does not want to have contact with them.

Here are some reasons someone might use the services of a skip tracer:

When looking for family members, skip tracers can be used.

I worked on a file once where the individual did a DNA test to determine where her family roots were. Through that process, it was determined that her father was not actually her biological father. Her mother had an affair while married and became pregnant with her during that time.

She called me to see if I could help confirm his location or contact number for him and to talk to him to see if he would be willing to connect with her.

After using some investigator databases I was able to locate a good phone number for him and explain the situation to him. He agreed to be contacted by my client so she could get some closure on the situation.

Skip Tracers are Used When Looking for Birth Parents

There are private investigators that specialize in finding the birth parent of adopted individuals.  Sometimes the birth parents don’t want to be found and sometimes they do.  Investigators must respect that request should it happen.

Skip Tracing is Used in Debt Collection

This is a very common reason for businesses to partner with an investigator or a skip tracing service.  People move and people change their phone numbers and it can be difficult to track down an individual to recover the money that is owed to them.

A skip tracer can help find addresses and phone numbers to help assist the client in finding a debtor.

Skip Tracing is Used in Real Estate

Sometimes individuals what to determine who owns a property for investment reasons or maybe they just want to buy a property for personal use.  Either way, in order to do this, they have to do a little investigating. 

For someone who wants to do this on their own, they can go to the tax assessor’s website or, they can use my property search hack to quickly find out who owns a property.

How Can You Do a Skip Trace on Your Own?

There are some things to can do to skip trace on your own.  When conducting a skip trace on your own, it would be helpful to have some information about the individual before starting your search. This isn’t the end all be all of internet researching, but it will point you to some useful resources and share a little about how a skip tracer researches. And while it is not formally mentioned, you can of course try to Google the person you are looking for but usually, it’s not that easy.

Below you will find some helpful websites to help you in your search.  I will explain how some information can possibly lead to other helpful information after sharing some of those websites that you can find useful.

There are many ways you can go with information and many starting points. It really depends on the starting information you have and where the information found can lead you.  There are so many routes to go when skip tracing that I won’t be able to fit it all in this article but this will hopefully trigger the investigation side of your brain.

Free websites for skip tracing

Peoplefinderfree.com

If I was looking for an old high school friend I might start with a website like peoplefinderfree.com.  I searched my own name and found some relevant connections though some of the information was outdated.  Try conducting a search on yourself so you can see what data is relevant and what is not.  

Some of the information you will find there is:

• Current Addresses (though these will likely be outdated)
• Previous Addresses 
• Possible Relative Names
• Partial emails

Spokeo.com

Spokeo in my initial searches seemed less helpful and accurate for information. They have information behind paywalls but it may be another resource for you.

Truthfinder.com

Truthfinder does have some relevant information in regards to contact information.  The website is very slow in populating relevant information. You will get a screen that eventually pops up with possible cities where the person has lived and possible relatives. About 70 percent of the addresses in a search of myself and about 70 percent of relatives were relevant.  Not too bad for being a free site. Of course, you can continue from that point to give them your information and they will try to sell you more information. I didn’t go that far as I didn’t want to play. 

Next Steps to Using the Free Information Obtained

Social Media Searching

If you haven’t already, you can search for the person you are looking for through Facebook. It can sometimes get tricky when searching for females as they may not use their maiden name on their Facebook.  

If that search doesn’t reveal anything, you can search for known friends of the subject if you know any of them. They may be friends with the person.  Find the friends of the subject and search their friends’ list for the person.

If that doesn’t work, move on to the possible relatives you found through the free resource. Keep an eye out for the cities the subject could have resided in as you try to find the right relatives on Facebook. 

If you find a possible relative, this can lead you to other relatives as well that you saw on the previous list which can reinforce that you have the right individuals.  From there you can search their friends’ lists for the subject.  

If you still can’t find the subject though you know you have the right relatives, message the relatives and explain your situation and why you are looking for the individual you are looking for.

If this doesn’t work, from here I would go to check other locations like Linkedin or Instagram in a similar manner as when searching Facebook.

Reverse Searching Information

If you find some possible addresses for the subject you can use a few free resources to determine the information that may be relevant.  

WhitePages.com (Incredibly Valuable Free Information)

Whitepages.com is a free resource that allows you to reverse search addresses to determine who possibly resides at them.  Run a reverse search on your address to see what information comes up. Within that information, you receive you may receive some possible phone numbers as well. 

Reverse searching a phone number may provide you with the name of the registered owner and what address the phone is associated with. 

If you do a people search on whitepages.com it will provide some pretty accurate information should you choose a city the person is associated with.  Check this yourself by searching your name and the city you live in, or have lived in. It’s pretty accurate information from my testing.

You can purchase more information however I can not validate the accuracy of that. 

Federal Court Search

If you are looking for Federal Cases you can access Pacer.Gov. After you create an account with Pacer you can search federal court cases within the system that would include criminal cases, civil cases, and bankruptcies. 

How do Skip Tracers Find People?

Skip tracing can sometimes be easy and many times it can be difficult.  Sometimes we have to locate people without them knowing and sometimes we can be obvious about locating someone.  From my experience, it can be much more difficult to locate people when it has to be done covertly.

With that being said skip tracing is an art form just like many things in the investigation industry.  It can take piecing together information that is not obviously linked.  It is following the web of information that is collected.  And that information can come from several sources including the following but not limited to these main areas:

• Proprietary Sources- IRB, Skipsmasher, TLO, Tracers, etc.(Credit headers)
• Public Records
• Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Youtube, Instagram, Linkedin)
• Family Members
• Neighbors
• Vehicle Information
• Pretexting
• Property Records – Through the County Assessor
• Criminal Records
• State and Local Court Records
• Federal Court Records through Pacer.gov
• Permits
• Licensing (Professional, Business, and you can check)
• Online Searching (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc..)

Each one of these sources can lead an investigator (aka skip tracer) in a direction that can lead them to either more information or the individual.

Skip tracing in the digital and internet age has made things easier and more accessible to an investigator looking to find someone.  Despite all the information that is available online, information alone does not help someone piece the puzzle of information together.  Piecing information together comes with time and experience.

How do you Become a Skip Tracer?

There are many books that can help provide a foundation for skip tracing and seminars you can participate in that will help you learn the skills to locate people.  But there is no real formal training that will (like schooling) certify you as a skip tracer.

With a foundation of resources, some reading, and some practice you can teach yourself how to find people and analyze the information from data sources. On-the-job training is also possible should you be willing to find a company willing to train you on the job.

I find people and information about people daily but even I continue to learn new tricks and find new resources to help find people easier.  You will never be finished learning new things when it comes to finding people as techniques, laws, sources of information and technology are always changing.

Companies that need skip tracers are the following:

• Private Investigators
• Bounty Hunters
• Debt Collectors
• Repossession Companies
• Any Company Needing to Locate Someone

Not all skip tracing opportunities are good ones.  Some job opportunities will be paid upon locating the individual or how many individuals are located. Sometimes the pay is not worth the amount of work needed to locate individuals. Collection companies are known for work like this and may not be the greatest job opportunities to pursue.  If given an opportunity I would recommend determining if the job is right for you based on the amount of money being paid.

What is the Job Outlook for a Skip Tracer?

The job outlook for the skip tracing industry is a mix of a Bill and Account Collector, a Private Investigator, and a Bounty Hunter.

The 2021 job outlook for a Bill and Account Collector according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the median pay in 2021 was  $37, 700 a year which is only $2,700 up from 2015 as it was $34,440 then.   The entry-level education is a high school diploma which reinforces that there is no formal education to enter this industry whether it be skip tracing or being a private investigator. There were 223,100 jobs in 2020 and the numbers may be skewed due to the pandemic however it should be noted that there are 350,000 jobs in 2014 which is quite a dip regardless of the pandemic.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics believes there will be a continuous decline in the industry (-9%) leading up to 2030.  

Any increase in hiring will be due to replacing retired workers or workers that have left the industry. The advancement in technology and resources for the average public may also play a part in the decline of professional skip tracing services. 

A skip tracer can only get so far from behind a desk.  Don’t assume you can completely do this job from your home or office.  Sometimes you have to physically be in a location to find out information. 

My last bit of advice about the skip tracing industry is that the real money to be made is in having your own business.  Learn the skill and then eventually go out on your own to enable you to make a decent living in this industry.

Ongoing education is important and I have recommended several personal development and private investigation books in an article recently that you might find valuable.