Cynthia Hetherington

HetheringtonGroup.com

Investigating on the Internet:

Research Tools for Fraud

Examiners

Public Record Searches and Computer

Databases

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Limitations of Online Records

Types of records vary widely from state to

state

Searches are limited to geography

Online records may be brief abstracts of

original records

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Limitations of Online Records

Source of information must be

reliable

Accuracy and currency of data must

be verified

Online records may not go back very

far

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Public Records

Litigation history

Media history

Business and personal

affiliations

SEC filings

Corporate records

Regulatory history

Property records

Academic records

Financial Records

Vendor and supplier

relationships

Board appointments

Liens, judgments, and

UCCs

Subsidiaries and

franchises

Physical assets

Intellectual property

Political and charitable

causes

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Right to Privacy?

“Privacy” is not found in either the

U.S. Constitution or the Bill of

Rights.

It is referenced in many court

rulings, but only to address specific

circumstances or types of records.

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Online Records:

What Can They Be Used For?

UCC filings

Locating people

DMV records

Finding legal

records

Marriage/divorce

indexes

Financial or credit

information

Telephone listings

State civil court

records

Property records

OSHA records

Federal civil court

records

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Online Records:

What Can They Be Used For?

Voter registration

records

Locating assets

Credit header

information

Federal criminal

court records

Corporate filings

Professional

licenses

Tax assessor rolls

Background

checks

State criminal

court records

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Court or Litigation Records

Financial information (bankruptcy or

divorce)

Psychological state (divorce)

Medical reports (injury or accident

litigation)

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Litigation History

There may be problems identifying

court jurisdiction.

Some records exist only at the county

level.

Investigators may have to search

multiple jurisdictions if the subject

either lived or acted in multiple

locations.

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Online Records

Voter registration

Marriage license

Real property

Property tax

Civil actions

Criminal actions

Litigation history

Divorces

Bankruptcy

Probate

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Online Records

Business filings

Corporate

registration

Fictitious business

names/DBA

Uniform

commercial code

filings

Employee and

labor records

State tax filings

Professional

associations and

licensing boards

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Online Databases

Most information is available online

Some information may need to be

retrieved in hard copy and delivered

There are annual, monthly, or “pay as

you go” services

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Online Database Sources

LexisNexis

CLEAR

IRBSearch

infoUSA.com

Tracersinfo

LocatePlus

Dialog

D&B

Experian

BVDep

SkyMinder

Kompass

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Other Websites of Interest

Court websites

• State court websites

• Federal court websites

• International court websites

• Other court-related websites

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Other Sites of Interest

CPA Directory

SEC filings

Obituaries

Professional oversight committees per state

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Search Strategies

Develop a past address

Establish the date of birth (DOB)

Discover the Social Security number

(SSN)

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Search Strategies

Most services use “text string

matching”

Recognize the order of the more to

less powerful searches

Watch costs

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Types of Searches

Credit bureau header

Current occupant/new address

Last name

Bankruptcy filings, tax liens, and court

judgments

Department of Motor Vehicles

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Financial Information

and Assets

Do assets exist, where do they exist,

and are they recoverable?

Search for hard assets.

Search for asset potential.

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Start Here

BRBpublications.com

Searchsystems.net

Knowx.com

Intellius.com

Zabasearch.com

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Hard Assets: Real Property Records

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Hard Assets: Property Tax Records

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Finding Legal Records

Onsite court searches

• Jurisdictional issues

• Will not include litigation information that has been

selected by the court

• Each court has own rules

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Conducting Background Checks

Background checks are generally conducted

for two reasons:

• Perform due diligence

• Discover information about prospective employees

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More Information on Public Records

Read information journals by:

• Data2know.com: Internet & Online

Intelligence Newsletter @

www.data2know.com

• Information Advisor @

www.informationadvisor.com

• Information Today publications @

www.infotoday.com

• BRB Public Record Blog @

publicrecordsblog.typepad.com/

• Spending time in business libraries