Secrets of Repo Men: Online Person Finder Databases

Unfortunately, the recovery business is booming. It is a billion dollar industry that is used by banks, car loan companies, used car lots, new car dealers, car rental agencies and occasionally private citizens. How do these companies go about locating people who have defaulted on their loans?

With a staggering 10% increase in new and used car recalls, there are now about 5,000 companies in the United States. A total of about 1.51 million vehicles in 2007 were repossessed according to a consulting firm and the industry average is about 2.37% of all vehicles with payments due.

To repossess a car, the bank or car dealer uses a repossession agency and can provide the repository clerk with information from the credit application, such as social security number, address, phone numbers, and other information. This is very useful as the Repo agent can easily find the location of the vehicle.

However, in many cases, when people fall behind on payments, they move the car and try to hide it. This is where it gets very interesting. The search begins and is called “skip crawling.”

Somehow technology has come to the rescue for those who can afford it. New license plate identification hardware and software systems have been introduced to quickly identify a vehicle’s history. ALPR (Automatic License Plate Recognition) is expensive and difficult to implement successfully unless there is some clue to the general location of the vehicle. It is primarily used by law enforcement agencies that can pay the price and labor required to implement it.

The Repo Agent is generally based on “tricks of the trade” and these are generally kept secret. One of the many ways that a hiding car owner can be located is by using the various databases of public and government records on the Internet. The information kept in these databases includes the last known address, business partners, relatives, and neighbors. Reverse cell phone and email searches sometimes also provide clues to the whereabouts of missing persons. Online databases can be of great help in determining the proximity of the car owner and providing the Repo Man with a valuable tool to perform the assigned task. Sometimes it just comes down to old-time “research” to find the delinquent debtor.