[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
[quote]timbofirstblood wrote:
[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
anyway, you can find out a surprising amount of information with very little information. it’s like layers of an onion, except in reverse. a source here gives you some info, and you use that to gain more. you just build the layers. it takes a certain expertise but i’ve done it repeatedly. [/quote]
I was interviewed for a job recently where this type of skill would have been useful. If you don’t mind my asking, where did you pick up that expertise?[/quote]
I’ve done a lot of skip tracing (my first real job was a debt collector) and I used to do a lot of background checks and witness locates for insurance defense firms. It’s kind of one of those things you have a knack for or don’t. I pulled a locate out of my ass years ago…a missing witness to an insurance case and all I had was a first name. Case was 4 years cold too. I did some diabolical shit to pull that one. It wasn’t exactly “color by the numbers”. However, like I said, you get a piece of information and you build on it. You just have to know where to look and have some creativity. In that example, all I had was a first name and by the time I was done, I located her and had her full name, telephone number and address. [/quote]
Heh, I had a person make several nasty violent threats against my client by anonymous voicemails. AT&T wouldn’t give up the incoming phone records without a subpoena, and my client had no idea who this person was. I filed suit against Jane Does 1-10 to get a case, issued a subpoena, got the records, and figured out the person’s first name and city.
I asked my client if she knew anyone named “______.” She immediately said, “oh shit, ____ ____? Yeah, I told her to pick up after her dog a year ago. She’s crazy. And it sounds like her, you’re right.”
Ended up getting a permanent restraining order because, basically, the judge said “well, if you were drunk and leaving these messages I could understand it, but sober? You crazy.”