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 for exploring unknown and unravelling it. Therefore, skip tracing is
a term which we have formulated to describe the human need of unravelling 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!
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:
1.
98% believe that Skip Tracing helps them to collect information in
the most accurate way possible.
2.
95% have improved their contact rate with the help of advance Skip
tracing methods.
3.
83% no longer have to fear finding contacts and can find contacts
within minutes with the help of advance skip tracing methods.
4.
Without Skip Tracing techniques, it requires more than two weeks
on average to locate the address of any defaulter or fraudster.
5.
We
at BizProspex have
5 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 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!
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