A person who has gone missing can often be found through a process known as skip tracing. There are many reasons a person may disappear. Bad debts, abusive home life and mental illness are just a few of the reasons why thousands of people disappear each year. Skip tracing investigators use a number of techniques to locate missing people.

Many people are aware of the most common routes when trying to locate a missing person. Telephone books, phone directories stored on CD-ROMs and calling directory resources are the first point of call. They may not always be successful, but can produce new leads. Public records, court files and motor vehicle records are a valuable source of information. Property records are also used, and old addresses can be followed up with new forwarding addresses for the missing person.

With skip tracing, it is important to verify and follow up the data found, then search other sources until all leads are exhausted. Computerized records can hold a wealth of information on a missing person. These records have increased the amount of data they include, but have also increased the amount of inaccurate information held on. Skip tracing investigators have the experience and resources to decipher accurate from inaccurate leads.

Investigators who use skip tracing techniques usually offer three ways to pay. A flat fee is a higher fee for a successful case and a reduced fee, or even no fee, if the case is unsuccessful. Services for a flat fee include checking CD-ROMs and online routes such as credit card bureaus. In a budgeted fee payment, a client states the amount they are willing to pay and then pays an hourly fee until expenses are exhausted.

The third payment option is known as find them no matter what the cost. This is when time and money is not a consideration when locating the missing person. This is usually an option chosen by large businesses when a person or business owner has skipped out on debts. The investigator will use every skip tracing technique to locate the missing person. The search will only be halted after all search avenues have been exhausted.

With the advent of the Internet, skip tracing techniques have become highly sophisticated. There are many avenues and leads that can be checked using computers. As well as the previously mentioned routes, these include social security number checking, voter registration searches, neighborhood inquiry searches, traffic ticket and marriage record checking. As more personal information is held on databases, skip tracing has become less time consuming with a higher chance of success.