Skip tracing, as the name suggests, is the method of searching for someone who has relocated himself and whose present location particulars are unknown. Skip tracers are the professional people who are hired for carrying out this job.
Skip tracers are hired by bail bound enforcers, private investigators, debt collectors, journalists, attorneys, police detectives or basically by anyone who is need of searching anyone.

Skip tracing is best left to a professional as it can be hard and even dangerous work depending on the subject you are dealing with. You can learn to be a skip tracer expert if that is what you would like to do. These days, with the availability of technology that makes finding people easy, most cases will be solved quickly. However, there are those skips who are very good at hiding themselves and their whereabouts, and that is when you will need to employ the most of the skill and knowledge.

The goal of skip tracing is to collect as much information about the subject as possible. The information about the missing person is analyzed, reduced, and verified. The missing person may have their whereabouts included in the data, usually obscured by the amount of information.

There are many resources a skip tracer can use to locate a missing person. These include phone number databases, credit reports, loan applications, credit card applications, job application information, criminal background checks, any utility bills, social security, disability, and public tax information.

Additionally, a skip tracer should keep a flow chart to keep track of information, searches, and leads. This will prevent the skip tracer from becoming aimless. He/she should also keep an activity log so that if the records are subpoenaed or used in court, his documentation will be unchallenged. Finally, when all public and database sources have been exhausted, interviews with family, friends, employers, and enemies should be conducted for leads to the current whereabouts of skips.

There are three different types of skip persons. The first is unintentional, meaning they are not trying to hide from anyone but just missed a responsibility. The second is intentional, when a person is trying to hide from a specific agency. The third is fraud, where the missing person is trying to hide from everyone.

There are certain qualities for each of these types of missing people. Unintentional type probably moved to another town, broke and perhaps moved in with their relatives or friends. They may be unaware of their debt, unsure of their options, and possibly low on cash.

Intentional skips are aware they have debt and cannot or will not pay it. This type of person most likely has excessive debts in other places. Friends and relatives are most likely helping them hide from skip tracing. Their problems may be more significant than debt. Fraudulent skips often never have any intention of paying their debt. They could be hiding from law enforcement or avoiding child support payments. Friends and relatives most likely have lost contact with this person. Collection from these people requires a harder approach.