MasterFiles - Professional Bail Agents of the United States

Professional Bail Agents
of the
United States
As with any skill, learning to use new
technology is an everyday experience.
Regardless of how long you have been in
this business there is always something to
learn.
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Google – www.google.com
Vinelink – www.vinelink.com
MasterFiles – www.masterfiles.com
Accurint – www.accurint.com
TLO – www.tlo.com
Tracers – www.tracersinfo.com
Spokeo – www.spokeo.com
IRB - www.irbsearch.com
BeenVerified – www.beenverified.com
Captira – www.captira.com
Merlin – www.merlindata.com
DRN License plate tracking – www.drndata.com
Yellowpages.com
Whitepages.com
Utility companies in your area
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For every hobby there is a social networking site
Anyone in the audience have another resource you would like to add?
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Twitter – www.twitter.com
Facebook – www.facebook.com
MySpace – www.myspace.com
LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com
Craigslist – www.craigslist.org
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MasterFiles (LIVE DATA)
www.MasterFiles.com
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Express Track Data
www.ExpressTrackData.com
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PPRS
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DRN
www.MerlinInformation.com
www.DigitalRecognitionNetwork.com
Skip-Collecting Starts at the Point of Sale
260 Million plates and adding
~1 million/day
Every Metro Market in US
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Public records are simply records that are
collected, maintained and provided by various
agencies for public use and knowledge.
Most public records are free for the asking.
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Marriage Licenses
Court Records
Recorded Documents (like mortgages)
Property Records
UCC (Uniform Commercial Code)
Voter Registration Records
Motor Vehicle Records
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Full Name, Former Names, Addresses, Spouse (and
maiden name), Birthdates, SSN, Address of Wedding,
County of Wedding, Date of Wedding, Wedding Official,
Witnesses, Family Members, Previous Marriages and
Divorces (with locations). It is important to look not just for
the license, but the application.
The applications contain more information and the
marriage may not have actually even taken place. As is
commonly known, Las Vegas is the hotspot of quick
weddings and a search can be done online at
http://www.co.clark.nv.us
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Probate, Domestic, Traffic, Civil, Criminal,
Bankruptcy, etc. Check circuit or superior courts,
municipal or district courts and federal courts.
From these records you will find: Addresses,
Personal Data, Attorney Names and Addresses,
Relatives, Phone Numbers, Employment, Vehicle
Information, Other Filings and other very useful
and overlooked information.
 Traffic Tickets Information
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Notary Name and Address, Document Preparer,
Addresses, Spouses, Business Partners,
Creditors, Debtors, Property Owned, UCCs, Tax
Liens, Marriage Licenses, Deeds and other
documents.
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Deed Dates, Deed Transfers, Landlords, Tenants,
Business Partners, Spouse, Mailing Address (PO
Box), Other Addresses, Other Owners, Mortgage
Holder and other useful information.
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Voter Registration Records – Current and
Previous Addresses, Phone Number, Mailing
Address, Spouse, Birth date, SSN and other
personal data.
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Motor Vehicle Records – Addresses, Residents,
Relatives, Spouses, Lien Holder, Dealership,
Mailing Address, Vehicle History.
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Uniform Commercial Code – Secured Party,
Debtor, Address, Businesses, Partners, Spouse
and other contacts.
 John Deere Tractor
 Boat Motors
Private records are those that are maintained by
individuals, businesses and private agencies. These
are generally not meant for public view or use, and
if so, only on a limited basis.
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Credit Reports – How many use them?
Medical Records - MCB
Job Application
Rental Application (now harder to get)
Bail Application
Tax Returns
SSA Wage and Detail Report - Form
Everything is a record and creates the paper trail,
or map, which you will follow to your defendant.
How that record is maintained, stored and
possibly disseminated, varies and influences the
accuracy of the information. Any record that is
kept or provided is only as good as the chain of
events involved.
Remember: Garbage in = Garbage Out.
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At the beginning of all records, is the person that
provides the information. If they lie or fail to provide
accurate information, then the information you have
received is also inaccurate.
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Have you ever had a defendant or co-signer fib just a
little on your bond application?
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Ever know of someone who fibbed just a little on a
credit application?
Trust but Verify!
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NAME: First, middle and last – sometimes followed by a
suffix (Jr., III, etc.).
Nicknames (Jack for John, Liz for Elizabeth, etc.),
variations (John or Jonathon), use of middle names first –
or first and middle (John-David, or David), hyphenated
names (Smith, Jones or Smith-Jones).
When your staff fills out a bond application, get their full
name, common name, and their “street” name.
The top portion (header) of a credit report
 Information included in a credit header
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 Name and AKA’s
 The most recently reported address and
historical addresses
 SSN and age or date of birth
 Phone numbers
 Often without area codes
 Not necessarily reliable
 Sometimes an unlisted number is provided
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Much of the information in a credit header is
supplied by consumers through applications for
credit.
If a consumer puts an unlisted cell phone number
on a credit application, it will show up in the
credit header.
Inquiries from skip tracers at subscribing
financial institutions often introduce incorrect
“reported dates”.
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Accessed directly from the various credit bureau
companies including Masterfiles.
Can only by searched by Name plus Address, or
by Social Security number
Includes the last three reported addresses and
the date those addresses were reported.
 Historical information is purged
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A credit header file that is housed and managed
by a data provider such as MasterFiles or IRB.
Data is usually updated weekly or monthly.
Includes historical information going back 25-30
years.
Can be searched by name or address – a huge
advantage over real-time credit headers.
Can also be searched by Social Security Number.
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GLB (Gramm Leach Bliley Banking Privacy Act
signed into law November 12, 1999)
 “Limits the instances in which a financial institution
may disclose non-public, personal information about
a consumer to a non-affiliated third party.”
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With a few exceptions, data collected from
financial institutions after July 1, 2001 may not
be distributed in credit header files.
Text of GLB is available at www.ftc.gov
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Credit headers are non-permissible reports.
 No FCRA permissible purpose is needed
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Credit header inquiries do not show on the credit report.
Updated daily with information from financial
institutions.
Exceptions in GLB Act (15 U.S.C.A. Section 6801):
 “For required institutional risk control or for resolving
consumer disputes or inquiries.”
 “To protect against or prevent actual or potential fraud,
unauthorized transactions, claims, or other liability.”
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Witness and victim locating
Apprehending criminals – law enforcement only
Fraud prevention and locating fraud victims
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Insurance claims investigations - Bail
“For required institutional risk control or for
resolving consumer disputes or inquiries”
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Collection of a delinquent account - Bail
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Truncation means masking (covering) certain
personal identifier information in the results of
database searches.
A truncated Social Security number is displayed
as: 555-44-XXXX instead of 555-44-3333
A truncated date of birth is displayed as:
08/1974 instead of 08/13/1974
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Poor Hiring Choices
Inadequate Employee Training
Failure to Shred
Password Sharing
Unencrypted Connections
Unencrypted Back-up Data
Data Security Breaches (Internal and
External)
Failure to Employ “Reasonable”
Security Measures
FEDERAL FACT ACT
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Data Destroyed Properly
Reasonable Protection Measures
Prevent Unauthorized Access or Use
Every Business is Covered. No Exceptions
Skiptracing is a lot like solving a crime. You find
someone who knows your subject’s current location
and you persuade them to tell you.
Those most likely to know your subject:
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Neighbors or current tenants at the last known addresses
Relatives
Former landlords – usually overlooked!
Co-workers
Business associates
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Remember the index is not the public record.
There is often more information on the
document itself.
Search by address whenever possible. Business
and individual names are often spelled
incorrectly.
The next link is the person recording the information. Any
typos, misprints or other related mistakes also affect your
record. We have all seen these mistakes on our credit
histories. Even in my own.
Anybody can find information and present it to you, but can
you rely on it? Any error in this chain of record keeping will
impact your ability to search the records, as well as the
accuracy of the record and ultimately your investigation and
findings.
What about databases, do I use them? Absolutely –
but not exclusively. If done properly they can save
time and money.
Many databases have outdated data – but they
have information, which turns into leads and leads
will eventually become results.
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One of the beauties of most databases is the
wildcard search. Partial names, addresses, and
birth dates – anything that can be manipulated
to produce a record.
Uses include: females that change names for
marital purposes, common names, and relatives
– databases can help produce a variety of leads
where none may have thought to exist.
What resources are available and what is
right for you? That depends on your needs,
what is available, and the costs versus your
budget.
All records begin somewhere. What you
can obtain, how much you pay and how
accurate the information is are the primary
concerns.
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Toll Free Live
Acxiom Insight Investigate
American School Directory
Ancestry Death Index
~Annual Credit Report – Free
AT&T 800 Number
Bank Foreclosures
BOP Federal Bureau Prisons
BRB Publications
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BSO Social Security Numbers
~Call Recorder Card
Can You Tape?
CARFAX
Corrections Connection
Corrections Statistics
Courthouse Direct
Credit Bureau Reports
Credit Reports -Microbilt
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Doc Edge Property
Doc Edge Video
Detectnu Spy Phone
~Did They Read it?
Directory Assistance
~Emergency Interpreter
FDIC Directory
Free Multi Search
Federal Bank Wire
Genealogy Resources
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ID Info – Real Time 411
Internet Archive
IRB Search
KnowX
Landings Tail # Search
Mobile Phone Directory
NANPA Area Code
NetOnline Real Estate
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~PACER Bankruptcy Records
Portico – Databases
Political Money Line
~Fone Finder
PI Websites
RealQuest Property Records
~SAFER – Trucking Info
Public School Search
Service members Civil Relief
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Telephone Prefix Locator
~National Postal Address
USPS ZIP Code Lookup
Verizon Reverse Number
~ZabaSearch
www.masterfiles.com
www.reachdirect.com
 www.anywho.com
 www.5551212.com
 www.bigfoot.com
 www.switchboard.com
 www.allonesearch.com
 www.hometownusa.com
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pacer.psc.uscourts.gov
 $.08 cents a page
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www.daypop.com
journalspace.com
www.blog.com
faganfinder.com/blogs
www.feedster.com
www.blogdigger.com
www.easyrss.com
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a9.com
Syndi8.com
newsisfree.com
completerss.com
2rss.com
search4rss.com
rss-network.com
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MasterFiles – This is a favorite of many bail agents
They offer access on a per transaction rate.
http://www.masterfiles.com
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IRB Search – IRB is similar and the basic cost of a
search is $0.95 per search.
http://www.irbsearch.com
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Tracers Information Specialists – Specializing in
providing access of accurate, affordable information to
investigators, legal professionals and law enforcement
professionals. Credit header information is “real-time” and
cost-effective.
http://www.tracersinfo.com
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ChoicePoint – many powerful search capabilities with
current and historical records, including “real-time”
information. Can be more expensive – and more
comprehensive – then similar vendors.
http://www.autotrackxp.com
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Merlin Information Services – This is a favorite of many
investigators, although not all states are available and it caters
especially to California. They offer access to Flat Rate Info and their
own super database.
http://www.merlindata.com
IQ DATA – powerful search capabilities, access billions of records
including digitized public record documents with point-and-click ease.
Full document retrieval services are also available for every jurisdiction
in the United States, including Secretary of States, County Criminal /
Civil / UCC / Tax Lien / Judgment, U.S. District & Bankruptcy courts and
more. Documents are delivered via mail, fax or electronic delivery to
your desktop PC
http://www.iqdata.com
MasterFiles Real Time Data.
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Fax Machine vs. eFax ($16.95/month)
Voice Mail to Email & Telephone Answering
Service ($299 year) www.phonewire.net
GPS – Offender Monitoring
 Electronic Resource Associates
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Bumper Beepers
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Who is the long distance carrier 700-555-4141
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Bankruptcy – Nationwide
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Toll Free Carrier ID 800-337-4194
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Zip Code ID 800-ASK USPS
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Name searching
1. Use the whole name to get the broadest search.
Remember their may be middle initials.
2. Search for names backwards, and search for
variants. Names in lists are often last, first.
3. If you are getting too many results use “quotes”
around the name.
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“john smith” or “smith john”
“john smith” or “smith john”
Respect the space.
Use the * for NEAR – proximity searches
Use the tilde ~ for synonym searching
Use the alternate Google services
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Scholar.google.com
Finance.google.com
Video.google.com
Phone/fax: Notice the quotes & spaces between the numbers
Address: Try your search with & without the quotes
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There are millions of databases
Millions of websites
Dozens of possible experts
Thousands of listservs, mailing lists, email groups
The volume is staggering. Someone has done this
before, and you need to find him or her.
Do not forget: TRY ALL NAME VARIATIONS!
 You may spell it right, but others may not.
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Proximity search
The NEAR operator finds documents where the query terms
are within 16 words of each other. The NEXT operator finds
documents where the query terms are next to each other.
movie star NEAR hollywood
Searches for documents where movie star appears in close
proximity to hollywood.
movie NEXT star
Searches for documents where movie and star appear next to
each other in that order.
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Postal Address Verification
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One of the first things to do on a forfeiture
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No database knows where your subject is. You
must learn to verify addresses found in
databases.
Join your state and national bail agent
associations. They need your dues for lobbying
efforts and to help protect your livelihood.
Help you local State Representative or State
Senator by donating to their campaign. You will
need them someday.
Someday this is how Pizza will be done!
www.aclu.com/pizza
Jeff Kirkpatrick
517-788-9150
jeff@pbus.com
Join PBUS today! – www.pbus.com