WRCC Program 2012 Due Diligence

1. Due diligence
(Fraud and skip tracing)
Brenda Terreault, JD, CBA
NACM Oregon
October 19, 2012
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2. Internet sources
 Official
 Unofficial but Reliable
 News
 Unofficial and probably Unreliable
 Search engines
(www.blackbookonline.info)
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3. Search Engines
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7. 7

8. 8

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10. 10

11. Important
 Spydialer says “sneaky but legal”, but…….
 Call “comes” out of Reno NV
 Can’t Spydial the Spydialer phone number
 Says it goes to voice mail – but could be
answered
 Once answered, can’t dial again
 BETA
 Only on U.S. cell phones
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12. Other search engines
 www.yahoo.com
 www.Webcrawler.com
 www.mamma.com
 www.dogpile.com
 www.twingine.com
 www.bing.com
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13. 13

14. Official Websites
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15. Official sources
 Secretary of State
 Department of Licensing
 Department of Revenue
 State UCC filings
 Real property search sites
 Other sites depending on industry
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16. State filings
 Most businesses register with the some
state office, usually providing
 The legal name
 Assumed business name (s), if any
 The principals or corporate officers
 The agent of record
 The date of filing
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17. State filings
 Search engines providing multi-state links
 www.llrx.com/columns/roundup29.htm for a
national listing of Secretaries of State offices
 www.blackbookonline.info
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18. 18

19. State filings
 Some states require filing of trade names and
corporations/LLCs at Secretary of State’s Office
Colorado
http://www.sos.state.co.us/biz/BusinessEntityCriteriaExt.do
Nevada http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/
Oregon
http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.login
Idaho
http://www.accessidaho.org/public/sos/corp/search.html?ScriptF
orm.startstep=viewentity&ScriptForm.startScriptForm.start.Script
StepView.viewentityFILEvalue=C137507
Utah https://secure.utah.gov/bes/action/index
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20. State filings
 Some states have filings of trade names and
corporations/LLCs at different state offices
Washington – file trade names and corporations/LLCs in
different offices
http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/corps_search.aspx
https://fortress.wa.gov/dol/dolprod/bpdLicenseQuery/
 Some states have filings of trade names at county office
and corporations/LLCs at state office
California
http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/
http://www.coordinatedlegal.com/fbn.html
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22. Taxes
 Washington -
http://dor.wa.gov/content/doingbusiness/re
gistermybusiness/BRD/Results.aspx?Req
uestType=1&Criteria=clark+systems&City
=#brdResults
 California - http://www.boe.ca.gov/cgi-
bin/deliq.cgi
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24. UCC filings
 Oregon –
http://www.filinginoregon.com/ucc/index.htm
 Washington - https://fortress.wa.gov/dol/ucc/
 Idaho -
http://www.sos.idaho.gov/ucc/uccindex.htm
 California -
http://www.sos.ca.gov/business/ucc/
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25. Licensing and other necessities
 Different industries may require different
things for a business to operate
 Construction
 Transportation
 Restaurants
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26. Construction
 Oregon - http://www.ccb.state.or.us/
 Washington -
http://www.dol.wa.gov/business/UCC/index.html
 California -
https://www2.cslb.ca.gov/OnlineServices/Check
LicenseII/CheckLicense.aspx
 Idaho - http://dbs.idaho.gov/publicworks/
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27. Restaurants
 Health inspectors tend to be on the city or
county level
 Example: Portland/Multnomah County
http://www3.multco.us/MCHealthInspect/List
Search.aspx#search
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28. Transportation
 Department of Motor Vehicles
 Cost involved
 Privacy Concerns
 Accuracy
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29. Miscellaneous licensing
 Most towns require a local business
license.
 Check the municipality’s website for on-line
license information
 For example,
http://www.portlandonline.com/licenses/lookup/
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30. Real Property
 Tends to be a county by county decision
 Every search site is different
 A great site in New Jersey
http://www.njactb.org/
http://php.app.com/mod4_10/search.php
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Categor
y=DATA
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31. Real Property
 Oregon - County tax assessor
 Portland maps - http://www.portlandmaps.com/
 Deschutes -
http://www.deschutes.org/index.cfm?objectId=836F545
E-BDBD-57C1-91EC7EC87DBBD7EA
 Douglas -
http://www.co.douglas.or.us/puboaa/puboaa_search.as
p#results
 Washington -
http://info.kingcounty.gov/Assessor/eRealProperty/default.
aspx
 California -
http://assessor.lacounty.gov/extranet/Outsidesales/saleintr
.aspx
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32. Unofficial (but
probably reliable)
Websites
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33. Individual business websites
 Google the business name
 Sort through multiples
 May need to include additional info: city and
state where located?
 Google the street address
 Could find multiple businesses
 Could find virtual office
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34. Individual business websites
 Might not find a company website
 Might find company website has been
taken down
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35. Reference checks
 The ones on the application
 The other ones
 Landlord
 Utilities
 UCC filings
 Visual “references”
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36. Listed reference
 Try their website
 Compare the phone number and address
 Google
 Try the phone number search sites
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37. Investigation: Business Information
 Directory searches for contact information:
 www.switchboard.com
 www.dexknows.com
 www.411.com
 www.lead411.com
 www.jigsaw.com
 www.blackboardonline.info
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38. Miscellaneous People
 www.pipl.com
 www.123people.com
 www.linkedin.com
 www.facebook.com
 www.myspace.com
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39. Getting a different reference
 Consider what language you have in your
terms and conditions
 Who and when
 Potential places to locate those “references”
 UCC filings
 Industry Groups
 Other resources you may have
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40. Investigation: Public Records
 www.llrx.com/columns/roundup29.htm -
An especially helpful site that attempts to
cover all public (state) records.
 www.blackbookonline.info – A site used by
skip-tracers and others trying to find
additional information.
 http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/
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41. Miscellaneous
 Real property
 www.zillow.com
 In General
 Better Business Bureau -
http://www.bbb.org/us/Find-Business-
Reviews/
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42. Arrest records
 http://convicted.me/inmates
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44. News Sites
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45. News
 Local papers
 Wall Street Journal
 Business Journals
 Trade rags
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46. Monitoring Accounts or Topics
 Use a website to track information on
specific accounts; e.g. Google Alerts -
http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en
 Set up alerts
 As found, daily, monthly, etc.
 Receive by email
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49. 49

50. Unofficial (and
probably unreliable)
Websites
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53. Pay Sites
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54. Public records can cost you
 Pacer
 http://www.pacer.gov/psco/cgi-bin/links.pl
 Must set up an account with the court and place a
credit card on the account
 Card is charged once a quarter. You get an email telling you
to print off invoice for your records.
 Rules of thumb
 Don’t print unless you HAVE to (even then it’s only 10
cents a page)
 Use Mozilla Firefox
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55. Other skip tracing and asset searching
 Credit reports
 Read between the lines
 Look for mortgages
 Car loans or leases
 Look for bank info
 Equity lines
 Credit card information
 Look for names of financing companies that stores
use for same as cash programs.
 FTL Finance
 Credit inquiries
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56. Other skip tracing and asset searching
 NACM Report
 NACM Groups
 Signs
 Post office
 Landlords
 Neighbors
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57. References
 The Cybersleuth’s Guide to the Internet;
Carole A. Levitt, JD, MLS and Mark E.
Rosch
 The web itself
 Don’t be afraid to play
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58. Questions?
bterreault@nacmoregon.org
971-230-1196
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