Has a client gone off the grid after failing to pay a bill? If you’ve done everything you can to reach them short of sending a carrier pigeon and are still hitting a wall, don’t give up hope yet. Professional skip tracers are masters at locating missing people and can assist in recovering the money you’re owed. Below, we outline what’s involved in skip tracing and when you should get a pro on board.
What is Skip Tracing?
Skip tracing is essentially the task of trying to find a debtor who has seemingly vanished, or in other words, “skipped” town. Your client may be avoiding payment of overdue bills, or they may have simply changed their address or phone number. It’s best to get a skip tracer involved when you can’t get in contact with someone who owes you money, whether they aren’t returning your calls, emails, or even letters.
How does it work?
Skip tracing combines detailed investigation with advanced technology in a systematic way. Professional skip tracers follow several essential steps to find people.
In Australia, there’s a set process our skip tracers follow when locating a missing person who owes a large sum of money. At Dynamic Commercial Collections, for example, we conduct comprehensive asset searches with exclusive, direct access to hundreds of databases nationwide. We can bring up a wide range of information on the person you’re searching for, including:
- Social media accounts
- Bankruptcy records
- Property records
- Corporate filings
- Title searches
- Real estate properties
Common tools and software used
Skip tracers use specialised software like Acceleon, eTrace, and Polonious to make their work smoother. These platforms connect to hundreds of millions of records, including exclusive databases like the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND). Such tools optimise the process by automating searches and creating detailed reports.
Who Uses Skip Tracing?
Skip tracing services help professionals in any discipline find people for legitimate reasons. These services are becoming increasingly essential as people move more frequently and are harder to locate.
Debt collectors and financial institutions
Banks and debt collection agencies use skip tracing to find people who haven’t paid their loans or credit card bills. These professionals can track down debtors who moved without leaving new addresses by tapping into the potential of databases with over 500 million records. Skip tracing helps debt collectors recover outstanding debts and helps collection agencies ensure bills and notices are sent to the correct addresses.
Lawyers and legal professionals
Legal teams use skip tracing in many different situations. Lawyers might bring in skip tracers to assist in finding witnesses or to track down people to serve legal papers like subpoenas, summonses, or complaints. On top of that, legal teams use these methods to find heirs and beneficiaries who might inherit property or money.
Everyday people looking for lost contacts
Skip tracing isn’t just for professionals. People who want to find family members they’ve lost touch with can use these services. These tools are a great way to get families back together and sometimes uncover properties or assets that relatives owned in the past. This makes skip tracing a valuable resource for anyone trying to reconnect with people from their past.
Legal and Ethical Considerations in Australia
Legal knowledge is vital for anyone working in skip tracing. A solid grasp of regulations helps you retain control and stay within legal limits.
Is skip tracing legal in Australia?
Skip tracing is legal in Australia, but you must obtain information through lawful means and comply with privacy regulations. Guidelines state that practitioners should avoid illegal tactics, including computer hacking, government official impersonation, threatening behaviour to get information, bribery, or accessing records without a proper purpose.
Privacy laws and compliance requirements
The Privacy Act 1988 governs all Australian skip tracing regulations, setting out the principles for handling personal information. Skip tracers need to follow the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), which lay out rules for collecting, using, storing, and sharing personal data. Skip tracers should gather only essential information and take proper steps to keep it secure.
Ethical boundaries and best practices
Ethical skip tracing reduces legal risks for clients. Beyond what the law requires, ethical considerations include:
- The right balance between persistence and personal boundaries
- No deceptive tactics or misrepresentation
- Clear communication with all parties
- Valid reasons for each skip tracing task
- Protection of sensitive data with industry-standard security
How Dynamic Commercial Collections ensures legal compliance
Dynamic Commercial Collections works within strict legal frameworks. We follow the Competition and Consumer Act and ACCC’s code of conduct, and our professional skip tracers use ethical and legal methods to locate individuals.
Need to Find Someone Who’s Gone Off the Grid?
Are you attempting to contact someone who owes you money, and hearing nothing but crickets in return? It might be time you get professional skip tracers involved to recover your money. The expert team at Dynamic Commercial Collections works with you to figure out who you are searching for, the amount of debt they owe you and whether or not they are purposefully avoiding paying you. Our professional debt collection services combine skip tracing expertise with professional debt recovery to help you reclaim what you’re owed.
Once we’ve done our job and discovered the person you’re chasing, the next step is to put together a thorough profile of them, consisting of their contact details, address and more. We reach out to the debtor directly to inform them of their situation, while protecting your business’s reputation and working within skip tracing regulations. We take care of the difficult conversations to get the best possible outcome for you and your business.
Whether you’re chasing a debt, handling legal matters or reconnecting with someone important, Dynamic Commercial Collections combines expert skip tracing with full legal compliance to get results fast.
Don’t waste time guessing. Partner with the professionals who know how to find who you’re looking for ethically, efficiently and effectively.
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