“SKIP TRACING”

So Where Do I Begin?

Copyright – 2010 IDS Group Pty Ltd

Did you Know?. The Australian Bureau of Statistics

(ABS) established that in any five-year period, 43.7% of the Australian population will change address

INFORMATION SOURCES

Electoral RollsWhite Pages OnlineFCS OnlineMirus OnlineCitecABN CheckCivil Court RecordsCredit Check (VEDA Advantage)TICA (Rental Enquiries)

Occupational Licensing Checks (Builders, Health Professionals, OFT Licences, Vets, Electricians, Engineers, Solicitors). If unsure whether a licence is required for a particular occupation then check the OFT’s Smart Licence websiteFacebookGoogle & Google AlertCorrectional Services Check (07 3227 6055)National Obituaries/Death Notices Check (The Ryerson Index)

INFORMATION THAT CANNOT BE OBTAINED

Police records (criminal history, criminal intelligence). Can be obtained with consent of the individual though.Tax records and government benefits (Centrelink details)Banking details or private investmentsHealth Records (Medicare details, health histories)

WHAT PROBLEMS CAN BE ENCOUNTERED?

Lack of information provided by the Debtor/Ratepayer initially (no date of birth, no contact phone numbers)Some searches unable to be conducted without certain informationDebtors suppressing their address on open source databases (silent phone numbers, silent voters)Address previously supplied by the debtor is a post office box

Records exist but are not updated (ie subject always uses a post office box or does not update addresses)Time & Budgetary constraints

DO’S AND DON’TS

Never just do a white pages online search alone. This can lead to the wrong person being found.Be careful of setting up fake facebook profiles in order to obtain information about a debtor.Always analyse the data found on searches and confirm that the individual found is in fact the debtor (do this prior to contacting the person about the debt!)

If in doubt or the file becomes too complicated seek assistance from professional skip tracing agencies.

QUESTIONS?