Being scammed is just another part of life anymore. Whether or not the scammers are successful is up to you. There is an old saying, "Trust, but verify" that should be the philosophy of everyone.
Private Eyes subscribe to services that allow them to access a lot of data. These services are restricted since they contain personal information. There are websites, many of them scams, that promise to sell you information. Most of these sites have hidden fees that pop up when you put your request in for the information.
There really isn't an easy way to get the info unless you are a licensed PI. Some places even require previous law enforcement experience before they will sell to you. Thus, you need to talk to a PI for the comprehensive background checks. If you are involved in a business deal with thousands of dollars on the line, or personal wealth, then pay the $60-70. It's money well spent.
However, I'm going to list some free sites that will allow you to make a superficial check on someone. For the purpose of this discussion, I'm going to assume you met someone on Facebook, and you are in contact daily, or you have discovered one of you minor children had been in daily contact with someone, and you want to know who they are.
Facebook, and other social media sites can give you a lot of information about someone. They are a favorite source of information amongst PIs because the government is closing a lot its once public records to try and combat identity theft.
First, gather all the information the person is presenting on Facebook. City of residence, birthday, and any names of relatives.
A friend of mine lists his name, birthdate, wife's name, anniversary date (Which I already knew since I was at the wedding), universities he's attended, his current city of residence, and a email address.
His photos are also tagged, which means his, and other people's names appear when you move your cursor over them. If he was being cagey, and didn't put his current city, I could search for those people. He also has professional wedding pics up with the photographers name in the corner, which would be another way of letting me find him. I might be able to fool the photographer into giving me his address (Which I already know, of course), but at the very least, it would tell me where he was when the pics were taken by way of me tracking the business name. Of course, more than once we've used profile pics on social websites to get current pictures for bounty hunting work.
One of the first things you should do when you are interested in someone is to check them against your state's sexual predator. The U.S. Department of Justice has a website for looking up offenders. it is http://www.nsopw.gov/Core/Conditions.aspx. Look carefully, and you'll see you can also search by location, it's just under the fields where you input the names.
You can also look up www.sexualoffender.com to find your state's list and access it. Some of the sites will probably want to charge you, but you should be able to find a free registry. In Kansas, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation maintains a Violent, Drug, and Sex Offender website anyone can access. The also will issue Criminal background checks for $20. Their website is http://www.accesskansas.org/kbi/ro.shtml.
The next thing I would recommend is to run their name through Pipl.com. This site usually give the most info about people. If his name is common, you will get multiple hits from various locations around the U.S. A full check will cost money, but you should be able to get an address and usually the age of the person you are looking for. Be aware that the ages on these sites are not always correct and should only be considered ballpark figures. Of course, if they put their birthdates online, then you will already have that information, which you can match to the ages given on your searches to figure out which is the person you are looking for at that time. Beside Pipl.com, you can also try zabasearcg.com and Whitepages.com.
Once you get a address, find out what county that person lives in with a Google search. Once you have the county, search for that county's assesor or appraisers website and put the address into the property tax info site and you will get the current owners name, and their spouses name. If the name is different, that means they have a landlord, or they'e giving a false name, or if they are living with a step-father who has a different last name than they do. If your county's website allows searches by name, put the landlord's name in to see if there is any other property listed to them. Check all the names you find with the sex offenders registry, it might be eye opening.
If you didn't get a phone number using the free searches, try running the spouse's name or the landlord's name to see if you could find one for them.
If that doesn't work, head to the library and ask to see their reverse directory, that may give you their number.
A young person will have less records online than an older person, as they are not established. Sometimes as a PI, we have to go sit in a car, with the windows up, when its 100 degrees outside because physically tracking someone is the only way to find out the information we want, even with the nifty services we pay money to use.
If you have any questions, email me at Sam@wichitadetective.com, and I will try and point you in the right direction.
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