Glossary
Skip Tracing Glossary
The terms of professional skip tracing, defined in plain English. Each entry links to the guide or service where the term does real work.
- Skip Tracing
- Skip
- Permissible Purpose
- FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act)
- Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA)
- GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act)
- DPPA (Driver’s Privacy Protection Act)
- FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act)
- Credit Header
- Right-Party Contact
- Service of Process
- Substituted Service
- Due Diligence (Service Context)
- Judgment Creditor / Judgment Debtor
- Judgment Enforcement
- Asset Search
- Occupancy Verification
- No Hit, No Charge
- People-Search Site
- Pretexting
Skip Tracing
The process of locating a person’s current whereabouts (address, phone, employer) by cross-referencing public records, licensed databases, and investigative sources. Named for the collections-era "skip," a person who skipped town. The full picture: What Is Skip Tracing.
Skip
The person being located. In trade usage, a debtor or subject whose trail has gone stale: mail returning, phone dead, address outdated.
Permissible Purpose
A specific, lawful reason recognized by statute for accessing regulated personal data, such as service of process, judgment enforcement, debt collection, or fraud investigation. Every order on our platform requires one, certified at checkout. Background: Is Skip Tracing Legal.
FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act)
The federal law governing consumer reports, files used for credit, employment, housing, or insurance decisions. Skip trace reports are not consumer reports and may not be used for those decisions; that boundary is what separates investigative locates from background checks.
Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA)
A company that assembles consumer reports for eligibility decisions (the credit bureaus are the famous ones). We are not a CRA, deliberately: it is a different product under a different legal regime.
GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act)
The federal financial-privacy law covering nonpublic financial information, including much of the data in investigative databases. Access requires a GLBA permissible purpose; obtaining such data under false pretenses (pretexting) is a federal offense.
DPPA (Driver’s Privacy Protection Act)
The federal law restricting motor-vehicle records: licenses, registrations, titles. It carries its own list of permitted uses, which is why vehicle searches are restricted services with an extra certification step.
FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act)
The federal law governing third-party collection of consumer debts: who may be contacted, when, and what may be said. Its "location information" rules are where skip tracing and collections law meet: FDCPA-Compliant Skip Tracing.
Credit Header
The identifying portion of a credit file (names, addresses, dates of birth, phones), available for permissible-purpose use without the financial details. A core ingredient of professional locates.
Right-Party Contact
Reaching the actual subject rather than a stale number’s new owner or a relative. In collections, verified right-party contact is a compliance control, not just efficiency: wrong-party calls create third-party disclosure and harassment exposure.
Service of Process
Formal delivery of court papers that brings a defendant under the court’s authority. A recognized permissible purpose, and the reason a verified current address matters more than a probable one: How to Find Someone to Serve Court Papers.
Substituted Service
A court-permitted fallback after diligent personal-service attempts: leaving papers with a competent adult at the defendant’s verified home or workplace, plus mailing. State rules vary; all versions still depend on the address being right.
Due Diligence (Service Context)
The documented effort courts require before allowing alternative service like posting or publication. A professional locate report is standard evidence of diligence: it shows a licensed-source search was performed and what it found.
Judgment Creditor / Judgment Debtor
The party owed under a court judgment, and the party who owes. The creditor’s enforcement path, locate, asset map, then garnish, levy, or lien, is walked in How to Collect a Judgment.
Judgment Enforcement
The court-supervised tools that turn a judgment into money: wage garnishment (employer pays you from wages), bank levy (sheriff takes funds from an account), property lien (a recorded claim that waits for sale or refinance), and the debtor’s examination (compelled financial disclosure under oath).
Asset Search
An investigation into what a subject owns: real property and titling, vehicles and vessels, business interests, employment. Used to decide whether and how to enforce before spending on it: Asset Search.
Occupancy Verification
Confirming a subject presently lives at an address rather than merely appearing in its record history. The difference between a serviceable address and a wasted trip; central to the Address History Report.
No Hit, No Charge
Our guarantee: if a search cannot produce a meaningful result, the order is refunded automatically. It moves the risk of hard cases from the client to us.
People-Search Site
A consumer website selling raw database matches to anyone, built for curiosity rather than lawful professional use. Not usable for regulated purposes, and the accuracy matches the price. The professional alternative is described in What Is Skip Tracing.
Pretexting
Obtaining personal or financial information by impersonation or deception, such as posing as an account holder to a bank. Prohibited by the GLBA and off-limits in professional skip tracing; compliant work relies on licensed data and analysis instead.
The Terms End Where the Work Begins
Analyst-verified skip tracing for legal and collections professionals. Same day, from $59.