New skip tracing technologies are transforming how businesses recover debt and manage risk
The term “skip tracing” is a relic from the days when bounty hunters and debt collectors used any means necessary to “trace” the whereabouts of people who “skipped town” and did not want to be found.
Skip tracing still exists, but times have changed. Today’s investigators use sophisticated search technologies and data-mining techniques to track individuals and hard-to-find information buried deep in public databases. As a practice, skip tracing has also expanded to many different types of professionals and organizations, including financial institutions and corporate risk and fraud investigators.
Jump to ↓
| Corporate skip tracing: an essential risk-management tool |
| Data sources used for skip tracing |
| Overcoming limited or incomplete data |
| Battling information overload |
| Take the lead with CLEAR Skip Tracing |
Corporate skip tracing: an essential risk-management tool
Corporate investigators use skip tracing to track down former employees or vendors suspected of fraud and assess risks when conducting business with unknown or foreign entities. Financial institutions leverage skip tracing to conduct due diligence on new clients and strengthen their anti-money-laundering and regulatory compliance protocols.
Organizations don’t just use skip tracing to find missing people—they deploy it as an essential component of their risk-management toolkit. The information that skip tracing delivers supports legal, compliance, and financial initiatives while protecting organizations against fraud and theft.
Debt recovery is still the most common use case for skip tracing, but there are many other applications:
- Corporate: To identify beneficial ownership in shell companies, trace assets, or locate people suspected of embezzlement or other types of fraud
- Compliance: To make sure legal documents, regulatory notices, contracts, or other information reaches the intended recipient
- Banking: To investigate synthetic or stolen identities, conduct M&A due diligence, or identify sanctioned parties or politically exposed persons (PEPs)
- Insurance: To verify claims, locate witnesses, or recover abandoned or stolen property
Data sources used for skip tracing
Software is the primary tool investigators now use to gather, analyze, and verify skip-tracing information. There are, however, strict rules about the data sources investigators can legally search, and personnel who use proprietary investigative software must be properly trained to ensure compliance with data-privacy laws.
Some common data sources used for skip tracing are:
- public records (court filings, business licenses, property records)
- credit bureau data (employment information and address history/verification)
- utility records (gas, electricity, internet)
- vehicle and DMV data (registration, licensing, and ownership records)
- social media (publicly shared information, social networks)
- sanctions lists
- proprietary databases (e.g., curated risk intelligence content through Thomson Reuters CLEAR)
Overcoming limited or incomplete data
As efficient and effective as software-based skip tracing is, however, data quality and the skills of the investigator are still extremely important. The power and capabilities of the software itself is also a major factor in the success of any skip-tracing venture.
For example, one of the biggest challenges skip tracers face is limited, incomplete, or outdated information, which can result in false leads and time-consuming detours. Conventional search engines are not much help in situations where investigators only have partial clues, which is why so many investigators rely on Thomson Reuters CLEAR Skip Tracing software.
One of the reasons CLEAR Skip Tracing is superior to other search tools is that it can enhance skip tracing to another level: extrapolate useful connections from partial addresses, phone numbers, license plates, or other fragmented data. Using machine learning and artificial intelligence, CLEAR Skip Tracing can cross-reference, aggregate, and map disparate data connections to identify probable matches and other relevant patterns that can further inform a search.
Battling information overload
While incomplete data can be a problem, an equally formidable obstacle is too much information. The internet contains more than 175 zettabytes of data (1 zettabyte = 1 billion terabytes), and much of the information skip tracers rely on is buried in databases that are technically public but still difficult to find and search.
Again, investigators turn to CLEAR Skip Tracing because it is specially designed to locate information in obscure public databases that conventional search engines tend to overlook and are ill-equipped to mine.
Such capabilities are important because locating people who don’t want to be found is rarely a straightforward process. Breakthroughs in difficult cases often come from small or seemingly insignificant details. CLEAR Skip Tracing’s intuitive interface and advanced data-analysis tools help investigators connect dots that an inferior search tool might easily overlook or dismiss. Those connections can help solve cases where the trail might otherwise go cold.
Take the lead with CLEAR Skip Tracing
In these and many other ways, CLEAR Skip Tracing dramatically reduces the amount of time it takes to conduct searches, locate the subjects in question, and ultimately reclaim any recoverable funds or assets. Corporate users should also be aware that CLEAR has built-in compliance features to ensure that all tracing activities adhere to legal and ethical standards. All search activity is also recorded and audit-ready to facilitate admissibility in court proceedings.
Skip tracing may be an old term, but advanced tools and techniques have renewed its importance in risk management and debt recovery. Streamline your search process and boost your success rate with CLEAR Skip Tracing’s comprehensive data and compliance features.
Take a closer look at CLEAR Skip Tracing’s industry-leading technology.
Disclaimer
Thomson Reuters is not a consumer reporting agency, and none of its services or the data contained therein constitute a ‘consumer report’ as such term is defined in the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. sec. 1681 et seq. The data provided to you may not be used as a factor in consumer debt collection decisioning, establishing a consumer’s eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, government benefits, or housing, or for any other purpose authorized under the FCRA. By accessing one of our services, you agree not to use the service or data for any purpose authorized under the FCRA or in relation to taking an adverse action relating to a consumer application.
