Locating People

Finding people is part art, part science. We provide the science through data and tools to help in your searches.

Our proprietary database engines combine data from hundreds of sources providing the most comprehensive collection of information about people in the United States.

This guide provides you with techniques to hone the "art" of searching. This helps you conduct effective and efficient searches. Effective searches return the information you need and efficiency reduces the cost of these searches.

Topics in this help are listed below:

• Quick Start

• Search Tips

• Results Display

• Source Documents

• Next Steps

First, try to locate the subject using one or more of the following search techniques:

• Search using the nine-digit SSN.

• Search using Last Name, First Name, and State.

• Search with Street Address, City, and State (or Zip code).

• Search using a seven or 10-digit Phone number. You may include spaces or hyphens. The system automatically strips them off.

• Search with a full or partial DOB and First Name.
  Note: DOB format can be mm/dd/yyyy, mm/yyyy, or yyyy.

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Search Tips

Reference

This may be an optional field depending on your company policy. It can be your case name or number. You can enter an alpha-numeric string. This information may be used to track all the searches for a case or for billing. For a normal user you will find Reference in the Comprehensive Report for person; for an administrator, you will find the Reference in the Activity and Billing Info.

Search by Address

Address search is the one of the most commonly used techniques, even if the address is dated. An old address may lead to the current address.

An address search returns all the individually currently and historically live at the address.

For an address search, names are not required.

To search all houses on a street in a certain block, enter the block number and an asterisk (*). For example, to search the 1200 block of Main Street, type "12* Main St."

Note: A search of the 100 block (1*) will also match addresses in the 1000 and 10000 range.

If you are unsure of the exact address, you can perform an address range search by using a colon (:) or a comma (,). For example, to search for everyone between 120 Main Street and 327 Main Street, enter "120:327 Main St." or "120,327 Main St."

Search with Radius

Radius is used in combination with name or address search.

If you are unsure of the exact city, supply the closest city and state or a zip code and specify a radius (no more than 100 miles). This expands the search area to the specified number of miles from the center of that city.

Note: If you do not include a city and state or a zip code, the Radius option is not allowed.

Search by Phone Number

You may search by a 10-digit telephone number with or without the State. If you do not know the area code, you can search with the seven digit number with the State.

When available, the search results may include the abbreviation for the Time Zone corresponding to the phone number. This additional information is helpful for pre-call planning.

The nine standard time zones for the United States are: Atlantic Standard Time (AST), Eastern Standard Time (EST), Central Standard Time (CST), Mountain Standard Time (MST), Pacific Standard Time (PST), Alaskan Standard Time (AKST), Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time (HST), Samoa standard time (UTC-11), Chamorro Standard Time (UTC+10).

Name Search

If you are unsure of the subject's exact first name, try using a variation of the name. The system’s intuitive automatic nickname feature will return results matching the subject's proper first name. For example, if you enter “John” in the First Name field, the system returns findings for “Jonathan” as well as “Jon” or “Johnny”.

If you are unsure of the spelling of a name, you may check the Search for other possible name spellings box. This instructs the system to search for variations of the name if no exact match is found.

Middle initial greatly reduces the number of records returned. But keep in mind that some records may not contain a middle name or initial. Providing one could eliminate records you may want included.

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Results Display

Returned elements include some or all of the following:

• Full Name – First, Middle, and Last

• Gender

• SSN

• Age

• DOB

• Address – Street Address, City, State, and Zip

• Dates – The date range in which the address is reported

• Phone Information – Phone number with owner’s name from the Electronic Directory Assistance

Too Many Records Found

If the system returns “Too many records found”, there is no charge for the search. This means your search resulted in more than 1,000 records. Try narrowing the list of results by adding search criteria.

Find a Subject in the Results List

Identify the proper records by carefully examining the information displayed. Make sure the record(s) you pick fits into what is known of the subject.

Indicators

Deceased Indicator

If a record has an icon to the left of the subject's name, it means the subject has been reported deceased. Move your mouse over the "D" and a text box will pop up with the date of death. For deaths reported since 2001, there may also be a "P" (which would mean that proof, such as a death certificate, has been filed with the Social Security Administration) or a "V" (which would mean the death has been verified, usually by a family member) beside D.

Current Address Indicator

If an icon is beside an address, it indicates the address is the most probable current address.

If an address does not have a land line phone number, the check mark may be missing even if it is the subject’s current address.

Shared Address Indicator

If an icon is found to the immediate left of the Address column it indicates the address is shared by multiple individuals.

Address Risk Indicator

The system may display a yellow flag below an address if the address falls into one of the following categories.

• Mail service affected in zip code due to natural disaster

• Multi Unit Dwelling

• Business

• PO Box

• Trailer Court

• Rural Route zip

• General Delivery

• Nursing Home

• Retirement home

• Hunting, Trapping, & Game Service

• Newspaper Facility

• U.S. Postal Service

• Shipping Agent

• Packing & Crating Facility

• Telegraph & Other Communications

• Mobile Home Site Operator

• Hotel or Motel

• Rooming or Boarding House

• Sporting or Recreational Camp

• Trailer Park or Campsite

• Tax Return Preparation Service

• Credit Reporting Service

Expand/Narrow List of Results

If too few or no results are returned, loosen the criteria by removing the most precise or uncertain criteria (e.g., middle name or initial, or DOB, or zip code).

If your search by last name alone and receive a long list of results, we recommend adding the following criteria, if known, in this order:

1. First Name or First Initial - If you are not sure of the entire first name, type an initial or the first few letters in the First Name field. If you are not sure of the subject's proper name, try using a variation of the name.

2. State - Entering a state narrows the results to subjects living in that state.

3. City - Entering a city, in addition to the state, further narrows the results to subjects living in the specified city and state.

4. County- Entering a county and state, further narrows the results to subjects living in the specified county. If you just enter the county name, the results will include subjects living in the requested county for all states.

5. Middle Name or Initial - If your results return multiple listings with the same first and last name, add the Subject's middle name or initial. Remember that some records do not contain middle names or initials and will be excluded.

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Source Documents

Government/Law Enforcement customers frequently question the credibility of data they are analyzing. They have expressed that the more frequent a data item shows up in a resulting search, the more credibility is assigned to it. The Source Documents feature is designed to address this interest by generating a list of sources, number of hits, and timeframe to give the end users a gauge of what level of credibility they want to assign to a result. Based on the source information they will be in a better position to direct their investigation by making more informed decisions as it relates to following up on tips and leads and conducting investigations.

Accessing Source Documents Information

Source Documents information for individuals is obtainable after a Person Search or Advanced Person Search. There is a *View Sources link under the Full Name on the search results page. A number, which indicates the approximate number of unique data sources used for this record, is placed by the right side of the link.

Clicking the *View Sources link leads to a pop-up box with source documents summary.

Only one pop-up box is displayed at one time. The box closes automatically when you click the *View Sources link for another subject.

Managing the Source Documents

You can do one or all of the followings from the source documents summary box.

• Click on the top right to print the source information summary.

• Click to close the pop-up source information summary box.

• Click the plus sign by Expand All to reveal details of every data component; or click the plus sign by a specific component (for example, Address) to reveal that particular source details.

• Click the minus sign by Collapse All or by a specific component to close the details sections.

• Click after clicking the plus sign(s) to print the full or partial source details.

• Click to close the pop-up source details box.

Data Components in Source Documents

The following is a list of components included in the Source Documents for individuals:

• Name

• SSN

• DOB

• Address

• Phone

Note: Depending on the subjects, not all the components may be present. For example, if a person never owns a phone number, the Phone information may be missing.

The list below is the Source Documents information available for each of the components above:

• Source – a list of named sources of a component. Example, Person Locator 1. See below for details.

• # of Occurrences – the number of times a component is found within a named source. For example, if the number of occurrences for Person Locator 1 is 3, it means the same record is found three times in that source.

• Dates Seen – the time range a component was first and last seen within a named source. The format of this piece of information may vary depending the availability of data. For example, you may see November, 2006 – December, 2009; or January 2, 2006 – March, 2009; or November 13, 2008 – February 1, 2009. It is also possible that you see only one date (for example, Dec, 2000) instead of a date range.

List of Sources

The system utilizes more than 50 data sources, most of which are spelled out for you. For example, Tax Assessor Records. A few are masked per contractual agreements.

• If you see Person Locator 1 (or 2/4/5/6), that indicates the data is from one of the consumer bureaus.

• Historical Person Locator is data extracted from a historical phone database.

• Phones covers records from electronic Directory Assistance listings and combined phone sources.

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Next Steps

There are a few things you can do with the results records. You can copy/print/email one or all records, export the results list to Excel, search deeper on elements with hyperlinks, launch Relavint, setup alerts, and order reports.

Note: There are two kinds of alerts - Person Alert and Case Deconfliction Alerts. Please reference their unique help topics on the setup.

Copy/Print/Email the Record

To copy a record so you can paste it in another application,

1. Click the icon to the most left of the record. The Record Utilities screen opens, with Quick Links box in the middle and the record information at the bottom in text format.

2. Highlight the record text and right click your mouse. Several options display.

3. Select Copy.

4. Open the application where you want to store the record and paste the text.

To print/email a record,

1. Click the icon to the most left of the record. The Record Utilities screen opens, with Quick Links box in the middle and the record information at the bottom in text format.

2. From the Quick Links box, select either Print or Email.

3. If you select Print, your printer box will open up, from where you can print the selected record. If you select Email, your default email application will launch, with the record information auto populated in the content area. Just enter the recipient’s email address and send the email.

To copy/print/email all records on the list,

1. Click the All link on top left. The Record Utilities screen opens, with Quick Links box in the middle and all the records information at the bottom in text format.

2. Copy/Print/Email the records as indicated above.

Export the Results List to Excel

Make sure you have Excel in your computer. If not exporting is not an option.

1. Click the Export to Excel link on the top right of the results list. The Download box pops up.

2. Check one of the two radio buttons to choose to download the records on the first page (records 1 to 25) or all of the records.

3. Click the Download button. The File Download prompt appears momentarily.

4. Click the Save button. The Save As dialog box displays with File name populated, and file extension as .csv (which is Excel compatible).

5. Accept the default File name or change it to anther name as desired.

6. Click the Save button again.

You can later open the .csv file in Excel and then save it as an .xls file.

Search Deeper

In the results list, Full Name, Address, and Phone Information contain links for further searches.

1. Click the desired link. A Search Selection box opens that contains all the possible options for further searches.
   Note: The search options vary depending on the element you pick for further searches. For example, the Search Selection box has more options for an address than for a phone number.

2. Make a selection from the Search Selection screen. The system automatically performs the search selected and populates the results in the same window.

If you click a particular hyperlink in the Next Steps column, say, Relatives, you get results right away in a new window.

Launch Relavint

1. Click Relavint Report link or the icon . The Relavint™ Visual Link Analysis screen appears.

2. Click the Start Relavint button. The Relavint™ Software License Agreement text displays.

3. Click I Agree.

4. Click to Continue.

The Relavint chart is ready in a matter of seconds.

To learn more about this linking tool, click the ?HELP button at the bottom left.

Order Reports

There is a set of reports available on the results list: Comprehensive Report (which covers every aspect of the subject), Finder Report (which has data pulled from a historical phone database), Address Report (which returns people/businesses that are currently or historically associated with the address), Court Search (which allows users to check the possible criminal records of a subject at any given address or period of time), and Other Reports (which breaks up the sections of a Comprehensive Report into separate reports).

To see a sample report before ordering, click the See Examples link on the far right on the same row as the report links/icons.

The following is the steps to order a comprehensive person report. The ordering of other reports are similar.

1. Click the Comprehensive Report link or the icon . The Request Report screen with report options (see below) appears.

2. Make sure all the information items you want to include in the report are checked, and those you don't need are unchecked.

3. Click the Request Report button on the top. The report populates the page in a matter of seconds.

Note: A sample report is available on the search results list.

Report Options

These report options can be set up in the Preferences screen and apply to all reports. Here is just another chance for you to manually set your preferences for this particular report.

• Select Report Type – The default is Interactive Web Page. This type returns report with links for further research. Or use the down arrow to select a different format.

• Save report for later access - If you check this option, this report will be saved to the Report Manger in My Account in PDF format and will stay there for seven calendar days. You can access this report anytime within the seven-day limit by clicking the View Report icon . If you do not check this option, you will need to re-run the report to access the same information.
  Note: If you check this option once, it will be checked by default next time you run a report. You can decide each time if you want to turn this feature on or off.

• Prompt me for these options for each report – Check this option if you want to see the Request Report window every time you run a report. If you uncheck it, next time you will be brought to the Entitlements Report directly. You will not have a chance to change the report options at this point.
  Caution: It is recommended that you leave this checked all the time. Once you uncheck it, when you need to see the Request Report window, you will have to change the specific Report Options by the Preferences tab of My Account.

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