The concept of skip tracing comes from an age-old phenomenon of finding something new or finding something which was lost. Human beings have an inherent desire of exploring unknown and unraveling it. Therefore, skip tracing is a term which we have formulated to describe the human need of unraveling the unknowns. In the world as we know it today, skip tracing has taken multiple forms. Also, since the internet has become a part of our lifestyle, skip tracing is also done on the virtual platform of the internet.
Skip Tracing – Unravel the Unknown
The world is full of information which we can call data. There is a famous modern saying “Anything uploaded on the internet stays forever.” We are uploading lots of data on the internet everyday – sometimes deliberately and sometimes without even realizing it. Even a simple Google survey form that we fill is capable of giving away a lot of crucial information about us. Honestly, our lives are not so private anymore. We all are leaving digital footprints everywhere on the internet. These digital footprints are utilized for innumerable purposes by both positive and negative elements present in the modern world today.
Skip tracing is often used by fraudsters and cyber criminals to trace confidential information about any individual. They use this information to fulfill their dirty motives and satisfy their greed.
As a preventive measure, the banking and finance industry often use Skip Tracing to trace debtors, fraudsters in order to gather information about them. Thus, just like every coin has two sides, Skip Tracing is used for both positive and negative purposes.
What is Skip Tracing in the digital era?
Skip Tracing is a method of finding the right addresses of the clients or the debtors who have absconded to avoid paying the debts. In the internet realm, skip tracing is an art of finding the right address of the person in charge by tracing their digital footprints. Data on the internet is highly sublime. Currently, the decay rate across all the industries is close to 30% annually. Thus, the information on the internet is constantly getting irrelevant or incorrect. It is important to update the information continuously to avoid any major mishappenings and also to maintain the sanctity of the data.
Skip Tracing particularly becomes very crucial in the banking and finance industries as both the industries require highest level of accuracy when it comes to customer data. Further, both industries are highly susceptible to crimes. Thus, skip tracing plays a crucial role in the banking and finance segment.
Why Banking and Finance industry need Skip Tracing?
In news published in Financial Express it was stated that Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has recovered a sum of 74.60 crores with the help of skip tracing. The amount was recovered from retail borrowers between January and May 2019. It may seem like a small sum on a global level but in a third world nation like India, it can be considered as a huge amount.
Skip Tracing is a way of finding addresses of the defaulters, debtors who have disappeared without a ‘trace’. These defaulters often owe a huge sum to the banks but have eloped in order to avoid paying debts. Due to the economic slowdown and dipping morals of human beings these days, people tend to find shortcuts to avoid the problems rather than solving them. People lose jobs, fail to pay their credit card dues, default on their house loans or personal loans all the time. Thus, deploying skip tracing services has become quite a norm for banks these days.
The Skip Tracing Process
A lot has been discussed about Skip Tracing and why does Banking and Finance Industries need skip tracing. However, we also need to know the process behind Skip Tracing to fully understand its importance and need. In the following article, we further discuss in detail the complete process behind Skip Tracing.
Skip Tracing is not an easy process. It is a multi-layered, multi-faceted process which takes into consideration a lot of factors. The customer information is firstly verified from multi sources and if the information found is misleading only then rigorous Skip Tracing methods are brought in to action. Therefore, Skip Tracing can be broadly broken down into the following steps:
1. Identify the Defaulters/ Debtors
The first step involved in the process of Skip tracing is identifying the debtors or defaulters. The bank shares its database with us. With the help of our Skip Tracing database we identify the anomalies in the data. We later match this anomaly with the record and identify the defaulters. We communicate the found information to the bank to further confirm our doubts about the defaulters. Once we know how the defaulters are we carry out research to find out the missing or changed information about them.
2. Verify the data from multiple sources
We verify the customer’s data from multiple resources or platforms. We leave no stone unturned at following the digital trails left behind the defaulters. We cross verify their personal information from various sources and platforms:
We carry out Google String search:
When it comes to tracing someone online who can be rather trusted than Google itself. Keeping this basic mantra in mind, we verify the customer’s information by carrying out Google string search. Though it may sound superficial but the results that we get with the help of Google search is often astounding!
Also Check: 10 Things Google Loves to See on Every Website! Does your Website have them?
Social Media Accounts – Facebook, LinkedIn and others:
Just to double check and re-verify we also look up the customer’s address and other information on social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Social media has become a strong tool for tracing the addresses and finding out crucial information about any person. Social media sites not just give out the address of the person but also their personal information such as job profile, date of birth, phone number which can come handy for banks and finance industries.
Email Checkers:
We have a tried and tested email checker tool which checks and verifies the email addresses of people. With the help of email checkers we can verify the email addresses of the customers and sometimes all we need is the email address to find and contact the customer.
Look up at public directories:
We look up for the right address at the public directories available online or otherwise. We also have our own master database which consists of data about people living at various demographics. We compare the customer’s information from our master database and verify it.
Reverse Search Sites:
There are several reverse search sites into the existence which can verify the information about the person in question. The website only requires the first name and the last name along with some information like phone number. The job of these websites is to use the given information and match it to the address of that person. Thus, reverse search sites can also be used to verify the address of the clients or customers.
Conclusion
The more accurate you are with your information, lesser are the chances of frauds or other mishaps. Thus, skip tracing is a must opted for service in today’s time. All the major banks and finance industries use skip tracing methods in order to trace information about their clients. We also have some facts to present here:
- 98% believe that Skip Tracing helps them to collect information in the most accurate way possible.
- 95% have improved their contact rate with the help of advance Skip tracing methods.
- 83% no longer have to fear finding contacts and can find contacts within minutes with the help of advance skip tracing methods.
- Without Skip Tracing techniques, it requires more than two weeks on average to locate the address of any defaulter or fraudster.
We at BizProspex have 8 plus years of experience at providing Skip Tracing services, email address search, data mining services, data scrubbing, data appending, email appending services, data verification, web scraping services, PEP Lists, Aml sanctions lists, global sanctions database and have garnered much trust from some of the most elite clients. Over the years we have perfected the art of skip tracing for our clients. Our clients have trusted us time and again and every time our results have met their due expectations. We have a dedicated and highly specialized team for performing the Skip Tracing. Our methods are agile and communication is one of our key components at providing the best possible results to our clients. If you are looking for the best-in-class skip tracing service, contact us now!