Nov 23 2008
The Free People Search Blog!
What can people see about you on the internet?
I do what is known as a form of skip tracing. How would I get into something like that you ask? The 2 main jobs I have held in my adult life. The first of the two I was a representative payee and in charge of peoples money. They would generally have a drug problem or some sort of condition and some would be in my office continually trying to scam me out of their money. Not that I would keep their money, my agency charged a fee of $30.00 per client per month to do this and keep them from buying $600.00 worth of crack every month and then sleep in a cardboard box. I would often double check new “landlords” that would come up demanding rent money and was able to see just who owned the house they were claiming to be “renting out” to my client.
At the second job I would review applicants history’s to some extent. Not that a theft charge 20 years ago means you’re a bad person now but if you were repetitively caught stealing then hey, you may have some problems we don’t need for our business. I would also look up people that issued bad checks to the company - if we got a check that bounced I would see if this was a habit for you and if you didn’t have 10 bounced check convictions on your record, then hey, you were probably telling the truth, it was an accident and we’d be willing to work with you.
In doing this I got quite good at locating information. Free information. The scary thing is, is how much you can actually find out about a person - just you or me, being a civilian on the street all through “public record”. The public has a right to know but there apparently isn’t a right to disclose a whole hell of a lot.
So here are some links - use them to see what people can find on you if they’re looking - so that you, yourself have that knowledge and can take measures accordingly.
First let’s cover the social engine networks: Myspace, Facebook, etc, etc. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if your boss has one or not. Are you missing work due to the party last night or what? Think they don’t keep an eye on you? These searches (in no particular order) are aimed directly at the new age of “social networking”. If you have an option for a private profile TAKE IT!
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◊Pipl |
| ◊Yasni |
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| ◊Wink | |
| ◊Yoname | |
| also one of the most thorough I’ve found: | |
| ◊123 People Search |
Other resources include:
◊ Whitepages.com ◊ Yahoo People Search ◊ Melissa Data
| ◊ Zabasearch - when you check it out, sign up for the Zabasphere so you will be notified when someone is searching your name! ◊ ◊ Black Book Online is a multi-faceted search tool. It is easy to get lost in here as there are so many resources available. ◊ |
Now some of these places offer you the choice to opt out via email or snail mail (rarely phone call). If you don’t like what you see, I would contact the company and ask for opt out details. Maybe they’ll let you, maybe they won’t. At least you have an indication of what is out there about you now. Hopefully you like publicity.
Good luck to all!
Cryptic Muse
