Paramount Investigations - Skiptracing Terms

Active Phone Line	A phone number that the skip has actually been known to answer; as opposed to a voicemail number, disconnect or always rings.
Commercial Data Service	Internet-based websites that sell restricted access to collections agencies and other related businesses. Much of their information cannot be sold to the general public, most notably credit headers.
Credit Headers	The single most important data source for skiptracing. It includes name, address and SSN information off of credit reports; but not actual account information. Sold by all commercial data services, although often under a name other than credit headers.
Creditor Networking	A largely phased-out method of skiptracing that consisted of calling other creditors of a skip to see if they had current information.
DMV	Short for Department of Motor Vehicles, a source of skiptracing data including vehicle ownership records and drivers license records.
Fair Credit Reporting Act	The federal law that regulates permissible use of credit reports.
FCRA	See Fair Credit Reporting Act above.
Gag Call	Also known as a pretext call. A controversial method of skiptracing that involves tricking information out of a person who otherwise would not give it.
GLB Act	The federal law that regulates use of credit headers.
Information Brokers	Controversial services that provide hard-to-find data such as non-published and cell phone customer information. Often used by skiptracers when traditional data services are coming up cold.
MVR	Short for Motor Vehicle Records, a source of skiptracing data that includes vehicle ownership records and drivers license records.
Neighbor Search	Similar to a reverse lookup of an address, except it provides information on neighboring addresses as well.
Occupational Licenses	A category of public records that is important to skiptracing. Including state-issued licenses for a wide-variety of professions. The licenses often contain important address leads. Also called Professional Licenses.
Phone Company Identifier	A simple data search that tells if a phone number is a landline or cell phone. For example, www.PhoneValidator.com
Pretext Call	See Gag Calls above.
Professional Licenses	See Occupational Licenses above.
Public Records	A general term that means any type of record that is created by the government and can be accessed for lookups. Includes court records, voter registration records, business filings, many others.
Reverse Lookup	When a skiptracer has an address or phone number and needs to know what published phones are connected to them, he will run a reverse lookup through directory assistance data. The opposite of a traditional name lookup of directory assistance information.
Skip	A person who has "skipped" out on their financial obligations.
Trapline	A special telephone service that "traps" the originating phone number of an incoming call, regardless if caller I.D. is blocked. If a skiptracer knows someone who knows a skip, they will get a message passed to the skip, hoping he calls the trapline.

Complements of Crime Time Publishing Co.

Back To The Top    Site Map

- Made in the USA -
Paramount Investigations - www.Paramount-pi.com - Since 1976