Private Investigators

[genrex]

Let's say you know a person's name and date of birth. If you give that info to a Private Investigator, can you *legally* get this information:

All names used by the person (legal or otherwise).

Criminal court history, and civil court history.

Credit record, including all bankruptcies.

All marriages and divorces, and if the spouses are still living.

Number of children, and approximate ages of those children.

_

[MRM]

You don't really need a private investigator for that information. You're really looking for a skip tracer. There are at least two commercial data bases that I know of that provide most of the information you're asking about - Accurint, which is a specialized database open only to insurance companies and others who can demonstrate a legitimate use for it. Lexus/Nexus has a similar database that is available on a subscription basis. I think Westlaw has a similar subscription-based service. All of them require some training and some proof of who you are and why you are subscribing to get access and know how to use it. It used to cost something like fifty bucks to get a general background report on someone. And then you could get sophisticated.

You can get all the public data you are asking about but it is not legal to access someone's credit report. It is not difficult to gain illegal access to a person's credit report and credit history because the system isn't very secure, but it is very illegal and the penalties are high.

Essentially a basic Accurint search will get you all public data like criminal histories, work records, names, addresses, property recorda, aliases, AKAs, etc. It won't be perfect because not all public data is dumped into any central repository that can get picked up by te commercial databases. It's easy to confirm federal criminal records, but state and local records are spotty. To do a background search right you have to go to every county in every state the person ever lived in and do a physical search of their records.

But the commercial databases are very good. They get data from property records, phone records, even magazine subscriptions. They cross reference the data to get reliable data. You get a lot of false positives, but as you get experienced with it you know how to filter out the false positives and just track your subject.

Any large process service company will have a skip trace/asset search division. Just look them up in your local Google search area and call them up. If you can't find one on your own, let me know and I'll let you know who does it in your area. I used to use a guy out of California who was a licensed PI but really was an Internet-based skip tracer. He charged almost nothing and could usually find the subject as he was taking your call. He loved to do that and have you the answer before you even thought you had given him all the information. There's a whole industry filled with people like him. And then there are the professionals. . .

[Bill Douglas]

You should be able to find it out yourself. You'll find (with a bit of thought) one clue leads to the next.

[genrex]

M, thank you for weighing in. I appreciate it.

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[LakeCleElum]

To answer your question: YES..... Ask the PI what internet service he/she subscribes to....I had one for my employees that cost $1,500 per year.....It would do all of that....Scary what you could find out.....Even the names of a persons neighbors.....Good luck...

[genrex]

Man, you sound like Odd Job tonight! What you drinkin'? I want some.

[genrex]

There ain't enough aspirin in the world...

[Rick Lee]

I use a tenant screening service called Citi. It costs $19 for a basic credit report and there are all kinds of other options for tenant issues, judgments, arrest records, child support owed, you name it. I know you need an auth. signature to CYA when pulling someone's credit. But the rest of the stuff probably not so much.

FWIW, a co-worker of mine is getting a divorce now due to info a PI found for her. She suspected her husband had his hand in the cookie jar and the PI verified it for her.

[McLovin]

I routinely use PIs.

They can find out a lot of info. Not quite as much as they used to pre-9/11, though. Back in the day, for instance, they used to be able to routinely give me bank account numbers and - believe it or not - daily balances.

I would, of course, never instruct a PI to do anything illegal. But, on the other hand, I'd also never ask them the details of how they found the information. They are licensed investigators, and as far as I'm concerned, that's their business.

I also have access to all the Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw databases. They are helpful, but a good PI will easily get far more information for you.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by genrex

Okay, full disclosure....

Bill, I have to tread carefully because my sister is getting deeply involved with a guy whose story doesn't add up. Over time, he's been giving different stories on basic stuff like previous marriages, children, source of income, etc.

My sis is thinking he could be "the one"... and I'm thinking he's worse than the devil himself. But of course if she hears his real story from me, I better have professional documentation to back it up, or my heinie is grass.

There ain't enough aspirin in the world...

_

I can understand your stress but I have to ask. Shoud you be doing this?

FWIW... Recently, I hired a PI on a business matter. A PI can easily find out all of the info your looking for and they do it legally. A good one will have contacts you wouldn't believe and can skirt the law without breaking it.

Now lets say you hire one and he/she goes to work. (Mine was a woman) And they find something juicy. So you go to your sister and tell her. Surprisingly to you she says, yes I know about that. Then what?

The problem is you don't know what your sister and her new partner talk about or how honest they are being with each other. In other words you don't know the full story.

As I said. I can understand your concern but please think carefully before doing anything.

[dad911]

As Peter said, think about how you are going to use the info if you find out something.

I'd expect a non-positive reaction from her, no matter what, for doing so behind her back, and it might drive them closer together.

If it was my sis, I'd have a chat, express my concerns, perhaps suggest to her looking into his backround, and support her either way.

[ODDJOB UNO]

Originally Posted by genrex

Man, you sound like Odd Job tonight! What you drinkin'? I want some.

man ya wanna play super secret spy vs spy action.....................hell i can find anybody with a few swipes of the keys. anybody /everybody leaves evidence hourly if not daily, unless a super secret agent like me-self.

all yer gonna do is get the info faster thru a P.I. and pay for it thru the nose. some friends of mine used to be black ops super secret decoder ring P.I.'s here. ya know the standard, whose screwing who, whose laid a big azz'd lawsuit against somebody or corp for a broken back/whiplash accident and is racing off road cars/trucks/bikes on the weekends despite claiming they will never walk again crap.

you name the dee-squise they used it. from landscapers to any contractor trade, to just parking on a street with a mattress in a camper shell with a baziilion power telephoto lens taking pics of the ol in and out at some no-tell motel.


hunter s. thompson couldnt even find me in fear and loathing in las vegas when he wanted to, thats why they call me..............."cool breeze" like off with the wind, never to be found.(hint we were on the bikes for the mint 400).


unless you live in a "total cash" world, you leave a print of yer whereabouts every single stinking time ya go into a bank(video), hotel(video),gas station(video) and on and on. just about everything is on video and when you swipe a credit card. all the cops do when someone is murr-durr'd/robbed is wait for a the vic's cell phone to ping somewhere, or their credit cards to "ping" somewhere and their off on the chase.

the best..............is yer county gov web site. shows all legal docs/criminal courts/justice courts/ civil courts/probate courts/deevorce court records actions lawsuits. so if in seattle............wouldnt that be KING COUNTY? aka king county.gov blah blah blah.

[Schrup]

I had a family member that started dating a guy that kinda worked in my field. I found out from a distributor that the guy was a crook. When I shared this, I was shunned. By the time they discovered I was right, it was too late. I'm not sure that a PI report would have made any difference. This guy was a real charmer & love is blind.

[Tobra]

What, they don't have any bridges he could "fall off" in Washington?

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Schrup

When I shared this, I was shunned. By the time they discovered I was right, it was too late.

This is usually how it works. Try to save someone from themselves and you end up the bad guy, even if you're 100% right and loved one comes to their senses later. No good can come from it.

[Crowbob]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

This is usually how it works. Try to save someone from themselves and you end up the bad guy, even if you're 100% right and loved one comes to their senses later. No good can come from it.

True. Told my best friend at the time he was making a mistake marriage-wise. Haven't heard from him since. Less than 2 years of wedded bliss resulted in him being the vicitm of domestic assault...then divorce.

Lesson learnt.

[red-beard]

Isn't Joe Bob a PI?

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by ODDJOB UNO

everybody leaves evidence hourly if not daily, unless a super secret agent like me-self.

Right.....


Because no one on this board knows your real name or where you live.....

[ODDJOB UNO]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Right.....


Because no one on this board knows your real name or where you live.....

is that really my real name?

do i really live where i say?

i quite possibly could be a figment of yer imagination................................


butt on the other hand..................................unless falling off the freeking planet with no job no income no house no car pay no taxes..................then yer on the radar.


ALL LEGAL DOCUMENTS are on yer county.gov. ALL COURT CASES are on yer county.gov. all the way down to one horsey town justice courts.


its so easy a caveman can do it.


and thats how we do our background checks. because.............EVERYONE HAS POO ON THEM! and sometimes it STICKS FER LIFE!


hell i can go down right now and fork out the dough and slap a GPS unit on any vehicle and track it at the lokal SPY HEADQUARTERS!


hire a P.I.? why?

[MRM]

Yeah, remember the guy who used to use his real name as his screen name here until a crazy ex started stalking him and read all his posts, including the ones with personal information? Poor guy had to change his screen name and swear everyone on the board to double secret agent secrecy before he could come back.

Some people just don't have Charles' sense of security and leave too many digital tracks all over the Internet. Those people don't need a PI to be tracked down.

For regular people you really do need a professional with some training to make sure the information found is accurate and complete. When I was doing it I had an analyst trained to do my link analysis. Otherwise you're just not sure you've gotten everything and aren't getting false positives, unless you really want to go to every county courthouse in the country and do a physical records search of your own. Most people don't, which is why they subscribe to commercial databases and hire professionals to search for them.