I Was A Skip Tracer

For those who do not know the term skip tracing, it means to find people, and social engineering is lying to extract private information. I began my career in the mid-eighties extracting phone, bank travel, and credit card information to hunt people down or sell to my investigative clients. It was a crazy time to be in such a business; no one was cracking down on the industry, which came much later.

Originally, I used sources, crooked cops, and private investigators. The trick was to have a source in law enforcement, a phone company, a bank, or an airline. If you did, you made big money. I had several sources for criminal records, but the sources themselves are problematic. Some get greedy, sell bogus info, or get busted, damaging your cash and client base.

If I wanted to stay in the skip tracing business, I would have to go to source myself. My business life turned into a daily lying for living where I was busting numbers at phone companies, posing as bank managers and local law enforcement to extract criminal records. It was a rush and thrill all wrapped up in one.

I Was A Skip Tracer is a small glimpse into the world of skip tracing and social engineering. Although I break down tracing and pretext, it is not a how-to book. For me, it is a world gone by but many wild memories.