Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we're peeling back the curtain on one of the most interesting and honestly misunderstood parts of the legal world.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: It really is. It's the part that sounds like it's straight out of a movie. I mean, what happens when you have to get court documents to someone who, you know, has basically vanished?
[00:00:16] Speaker A: Exactly. How do you find a ghost? And we're going to move past the whole Hollywood trope of the private eye sitting in a car for weeks.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Right.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: The reality of finding a hard to locate person, a Skip they call them, is this really sophisticated mix of technology, strict legal rules, and just good old fashioned investigative work.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: And that whole process has a name.
Skip tracing.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Hmm.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: So today our mission is to really open up the toolbox these professionals use. We're going to get into the powerful databases they use, the ones you and.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: I can't access, and maybe most importantly, the legal framework that keeps it all in check.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Yes, specifically federal laws like the Fair Credit Reporting act, the fcra, and the Grand Leach Bliley act or glba. Those laws dictate exactly what they can and can't do.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: That's such a critical point, the difference between a legal investigation and just snooping. Okay, so let's get into it. Where does a search like this even begin?
[00:01:14] Speaker B: It always starts with the basics. You can have the best tech in the world, but it's. It's useless without good starting information from the clinic.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Yeah, garbage in, garbage out, Right?
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Precisely. The whole search really hinges on the quality of that initial data. It's like putting the right coordinates into a gps.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: So what are those coordinates? What are the, you know, the absolute must haves to even start a trace?
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Well, there are four key things we look for. First, and this one's obvious, is the full legal name. And any known aliases are huge.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Like a maiden name or maybe a professional name they use.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Exactly. But, you know, that name can be common. So that brings us to the next absolutely vital piece of information.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: The thing that separates all the John Smiths in the world.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: You got it. The date of birth, the dob. Almost every professional database search relies on a DOB to filter the results. Without it, you're just looking at a giant unusable list.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: It's the unique identifier.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: It is. And then number three is the last known address. Even if it's 10, 20 years old. It's a starting point.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: A point on the map where you know for a fact they once existed.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Yes.
And number four, which can be the most powerful, is the last Known place of employment.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: Oh, that's interesting. Why is the job so important? I think the address would be more critical.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: Well, people move houses all the time, right? But their employment history tends to get logged more reliably in certain financial and professional systems. If you can find where someone works now, you often have a stable place to serve them. It's a massive shortcut.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: That makes perfect sense. Okay, so we've got the foundational info now for the tech. Because like you said, if someone's really trying to disappear, a simple Google search isn't going to cut it.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Not even close. This is where we really get into the deep dive. We're past public records. Now the number one tool is access to these legally compliant restricted access databases.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: And I'm zeroing in on that word restricted. What gives a process server the right to see this stuff when I can't?
[00:03:12] Speaker B: That is the absolute key to this whole thing. And it comes down to a legal concept called permissible purpose.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Permissible purpose.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: Okay. Under the Fair Credit Reporting act of the fcra, there are very specific, legally defined reasons why someone can pull certain consumer information, like an address history.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: And serving court documents is one of those reasons.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: It is if they're acting for the court, for an attorney to carry out legal service or process, they meet the standard.
But if they were, say, trying to find an old friend for a reunion.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: That would be breaking the law big time.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: That legal requirement is the firewall. It's what makes the data so powerful, but also so protected.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: That's a huge distinction. So now that they're in legally, what are these databases showing them that's different from public records?
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Think of it less as a single file and more like a huge profile built from thousands of different data streams, all compiling in real time.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: They're pulling from things like credit header data. So that's your name, dob. Current and past addresses tied to your accounts. They're seeing proprietary utility records, DMV data.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: Wait, credit header data. Let's be clear. They're not seeing my credit score or my bank balance, right?
[00:04:20] Speaker B: No, absolutely not. That's protected. They're only seeing the demographic info at the top of the report, the header name, address, that kind of thing. Got it. But the power is seeing the pattern, the whole address history over, say, the last 10 years, you could see a person's entire pattern of movement.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: You also mentioned they can find known associates. How does that work? Isn't that a privacy issue?
[00:04:44] Speaker B: It's incredibly useful, especially in tough cases. The databases map out connections like shared addresses Cosigned loans, family members listed on public records. So they can see, for instance, that the target's brother just bought a house in another state.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Ah, so if the trail for your target goes cold, you start looking at the people they're legally connected to.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: Exactly. But, and this is critical, that's just a lead. It's not proof.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: So you have to verify it.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: You have to. You cross reference?
[00:05:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: Does the brother's new address show up in any other database, connect to your target? Does a phone number match? You're looking for multiple points of data to line up before you act.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: So the database doesn't just give you the answer. It gives you a list of strong possibilities.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: That's the perfect way to put it. It gives you probable locations. The investigator's job is to use their judgment to turn that probability into a.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Certainty, which is the perfect segue. The tech has pointed you to a specific house on a specific street. Now you need to do the on the ground confirmation, the field work.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: This is where experience really comes into play. You have to confirm the person is there, but you have to do it carefully, legally, and without tipping them off that you're coming. So.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: So what does that actually look like? What are the techniques? They can't just knock on the door and ask, right?
[00:05:54] Speaker B: Well, the first step is usually discreet observation. We're not talking about a week long stakeout. It's more about short, targeted visits.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: Like what?
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Does the car in the driveway match? The vehicle registered to the target is a person matching their description seen leaving for work in the morning. You're just verifying the data before you attempt service.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: And then there's talking to neighbors. The neighborhood canvas. That feels like a real tightrope walk.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: It is. It's a very delicate thing. It's all about professional, ethical questioning. You're not allowed to lie or misrepresent yourself, but you're very careful about what you ask.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: So instead of, does Jane Doe who's being sued, live here?
It's more subtle.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: Much more subtle. You might just show a photo and ask, have you seen this person in the area? Or I'm trying to confirm who lives at 123 Main Street.
You're gathering confirmation, not spreading gossip.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: What happens if you get there? The data looks solid, but the person who answers the door says, oh, they moved out last month.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: That happens all the time. A real professional doesn't just turn around and leave. They'll try to get a new piece of information. You know, legally. Do you happen to have a forwarding address or do you know which city they moved to.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: So the fieldwork itself can generate new leads instantly.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: That new piece of info, even just a state, goes right back into the system and the skip trace starts again. But now it's much more focused. It's that combination of high tech data and human experience that leads to a high success rate.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Let's circle back to the legal stuff, because that's what holds this whole process together. We know it's legal, but you mention these federal laws, right?
[00:07:28] Speaker B: The compliance framework is non negotiable. We keep mentioning the Fair Credit Reporting act, the fcra, because it's the bedrock. It's the law that defines that permissible purpose we talked about. Without a valid legal reason, the data is off limits.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: And what about the other one you mentioned, the glbi, how does that fit in?
[00:07:45] Speaker B: So the Gramm Leach Bliley act is more about financial privacy. It governs how institutions, and by extension the investigators who get data from them, have to protect non public personal information.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: So even if they're only seeing a.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Name and address, that data still originated from the financial system.
So the GLBA puts another layer of security requirements on top of it. Dictates how they have to handle, store and protect that information. They have to maintain total confidentiality.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: So it's not just about getting the data, it's about having the secure systems to manage it.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Exactly. Any firm that breaks these rules faces huge fines. But more importantly, they lose access to the databases. The system polices itself because that access is everything.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: That makes a lot of sense. So a practical question. I'm sure you get all the time.
How long does this all take? Are we talking hours or weeks?
[00:08:39] Speaker B: It varies so much. I mean, if the person just moved and their new address popped up on a public utility record, a trace could be done in a few hours. Quick data hit, quick confirmation.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: But what about the really tough cases? The people who go off the grid, pay in cash, live with family.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: The true hard skips. Yeah, those can turn into a multi day investigation. You're digging deep into that associate data, maybe visiting multiple locations, talking to more people. A really complex case can easily take several days of dedicated work.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: Wow, it really is a methodical hunt. Okay, so we've established the entire process from the client. Uploading documents to the investigator on the ground is professional, it's regulated, and it's all in service of due process.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: It's the engine that makes sure the court system can actually function.
It ensures everyone gets notified, no matter how hard they might try to hide.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: And that brings us to the end of our deep dive. What we've really learned is that finding someone isn't about luck. It's a methodical process combining that restricted legal data access granted under the FCRA's permissible purpose rules with smart ethical fieldwork.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: It really highlights how every step in the legal world, even just finding an address, is governed by these strict federal laws that balance the need for justice with the right to privacy.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: And that legal framework, all that mandated security and compliance is the perfect jumping off point for our final thought. So think about this. We've just spent this time learning how professional investigators for a legal purpose have to abide by the really strict rules of the FCRA and the GLBA just to access your address history or employment data. So if professionals operating under a legal mandate have to navigate such a complex regulatory minefield, it raises a pretty important question.
What does this level of complexity imply about the protection of your own personal information when it's being handled by non legal groups like, say, data brokers or marketing firms who operate under a whole different and often looser set of rules?
[00:10:36] Speaker B: It's a sobering thought. It reminds you that your digital footprint is out there, but who gets to see it and why is really what matters.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: We'll see you next time for the next deep dive.
