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Skip Tracing Made Easy Through Social Media

With personal debt increasing, there are more and more employment options for skip tracers.  Skip tracers are responsible for finding missing people.  The top reason people voluntarily go missing is because of debt.  In an effort to get away from debt, the debtor will dodge the collectors by up and leaving their debt behind.

Skip tracing used to be an impossible job.  The only way to find people used to be through word of mouth.  The skip tracer would have to go to the person’s places of employment, and even occasionally search for family members to ask if they have seen the skipper.  This is no longer the case.

Finding a debt skipper is becoming much easier with the rise of the internet and social media.  By using such websites as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, skip tracers are able to get a much better idea about the whereabouts of their prospects.  These days a skip tracer’s job can be as easy as just doing a simple Google search on the debtor.  With that being said, it’s important to note that skip tracers are NOT legally permitted to contact the debtor through social media means. 

If a debtor’s Facebook profile is found, it is typically quite simple to determine their location.  There may be clues left by looking at the status they have posted.  Even if the debtor didn’t post a status specifically pointing out their location, skip tracers can also look through recent pictures to get an idea of their location. 

Facebook has also added a feature that shows the actual city that the person was in when they posted a status.  If the debtor has this feature enabled on their Facebook, it makes the job of a skip tracer all the more easier.  Luckily we are in the technology age, and with this comes the ability to easily track down those that are indebted to us.  

The Proven Formula for Locating Debtors

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Lenders are constantly faced with the unfortunate reality that plenty of their debtors will attempt to go off the grid to avoid the responsibility of paying back their loan. While many lenders have procedures in place for collecting from debtors who are easy to find and contact, most lenders find themselves powerless to track down and elicit payments from debtors who have skipped town. Yet just because a case is difficult for a lending agency doesn’t mean it’s impossible for a professional collections agency.

Debt collection agencies and debt buyers develop proven formulas for finding skipped debtors. This process is referred to as “skip tracing” and it employs many of the same methodologies as private investigators and other professionals use to locate any missing person.

One of the most important skip tracing actions involves contacting and putting an acceptable amount of pressure on the debtor’s contacts. Speaking with all listed employers, all institutions and organizations the debtor is associated with, and contacting any references the debtor listed on their loan application often bears fruit. Even if these connections fail to offer assistance they will often offer up the name and contact information of other leads who may provide access to the missing debtor. The key to receiving useful information from a debtor’s connections and their leads lies in communicating with them in the right manner. E-mail and phone calls are easy to dismiss and to ignore, but in person meetings and attempts at making contact are more likely to result in open and honest communication.

The skip tracing formula will vary from debtor to debtor, but ultimately there are a few key principles which never vary.