Skip-tracers are the bounty hunters for debt collection industry. You owed money and instead of paying, you ran away, skipped town.
Skip tracers use everything at their disposal like public records, internet, lies, threats or whatever they can get away with.
They will call your relatives pretending to be a long lost school friend. They will call your friend or employer and tell them that you won a Caribbean cruse and more information needed to contact you.
Still, laws restrict what a skip-tracer can do. The federal Gramm-Bliley-Leach Act prohibits a skip-tracer from lying to a bank when tracing assets. To protect privacy and prevent stalking or identity theft, some states have laws regulating the use of public records.
Skip tracer can
- identify himself
- state that he is conforming your location
- identify whom he works for if asked
- call you, your friends and relatives
- review your loan application and account docs
- call other creditors
- review any public information
- send you a letter with "Address Correction Requested" - letter must state the purpose and identifies that it is from bill collector
- use Caller ID
Skip tracer cannot
- tell that you owe money
- call the same person more than once unless the first response was incomplete in his opinion
- sent postcards
- use an envelope with returned address and name of a collection agency
- talk to anyone after debt collector knows you have an attorney
- use misleading information, lies, tricks, traps and deceptive methods with anyone
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