==Phrack Classic== Volume Three, Issue 32, File #4 of 12 ***** T H E A R T O F I N V E S T I G A T I O N ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** Brought to You By ***** ***** ***** ***** The Butler ***** ***** ***** ***** 10/31/90 ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** There are many ways to obtain information about individuals. I am going to cover some of the investigative means of getting the low down on people whom you wish to know more about. Some of the areas I will cover are: Social Security Checks Driving/Vehicular Records Police Reports FBI Records Insurance Records Legal Records Credit Bureau Checks Probate Records Real Estate Records Corporate Records Freedom Of Information Act Governmental Agency Records Maps Tax Records To obtain information from some organizations or some individuals one must be able to "BULLSHIT"!!! Not only by voice but in writing. Many times you must write certain governmental bodies requesting info and it can only be done in writing. I can't stress enough the need for proper grammer and spelling. For you to obtain certain information about another person you must first get a few KEY pieces of info to make your investigation easier. The persons Full Name, Social Security Number, Date & Place of Birth will all make your search easier and more complete. First of all in most cases you will know the persons name you want to invest- igate. If not you must obtain it any way you can. First you could follow them to their home and get their address. Then some other time when they are gone you could look at their mail or dig through their trash to get their Full Name. While in their trash you might even be able to dig up more interesting info like: Bank Accout Numbers, Credit Card Numbers, Social Security Number, Birth Day, Relatives Names, Long Distance Calls Made, etc. If you can't get to their trash for some reason take their address to your local library and check it against the POLKS and COLES Directories. This should provide you with their Full Name, Phone Number, Address, and how long they have lived at the current location. You can also check the Local Phone Book, Directory Assistance, City Directories, Post Office, Voter Registration, Former Neighbors, Former Utilities (water, gas, electric, phone, cable, etc.) If you know someone who works at a bank or car dealer you could have them run a credit check which will reveal all of their credit cards and if they have ever had any late payments or applied for any loans. If you are brave enough you could even apply for a loan impersonating the individual under investigation The Credit Bureau also has Sentry Services that can provide deceased social security numbers, postal drop box address and known fraudulent information. You can get an individuals driving record by sending a letter to your states Department of Revenue, Division of Vehicles. You can also get the following: Driver Control Bureau For Driving Record send Name, Address, Date of Birth and usually a $1 process- ing fee for a 5 year record. Titles & Registration Bureau For ownership information (current and past). Driver License Examination Bureau To see what vision was rated. Motor Carrier Inspection & Registration Bureau To check on licensing and registration of trucks/trucking companies. Revocation Dept Can verify if someone's driver's license has ever been suspended or revoked. You can even obtain a complete vehicle history by sending the vehicle descrip- tion, identification # for the last registered owner, and a small fee. Send this info to your states Dept of Vehicles. It is best to contact them first to get their exact address and fees. I would advise using a money orders and a P.O. Box so they cannot trace it to you without a hassle. Police Records All Police and Fire Records are Public record unless the city is involved. You can usually get everything available from the police dept including: Interviews, maps, diagrams, misc reports, etc. FBI Records If the individual you are inquiring about is deceased the FBI will provide some info if you give them Full Name, SSN, Date & Place of Birth. Contact you local FBI office to get the details. Real Estate Records Recorder of Deeds offices in each county maintain land ownership records. Most are not computerized and you have to manually search. Then you must review microfilm/fiche for actual deeds of trust, quit claim deeds, assignments, mortgage, liens, etc. A title company can run an Ownership & Equity (O&E) search for a fee ($80-$100) which will show ownership, mortgage info, easements, taxes owned, taxes assessed, etc. Most county assessors will provide an address and value of any real property if you request a search by name. Social Security Records Social Security Administrator Office of Central Records Operations 300 North Greene Street Baltimore, Maryland 21201 301-965-8882 Title II and Title XVI disability claims records, info regarding total earnings for each year, detailed earnings information show employer, total earnings, and social security paid for each quarter by employer. Prices are approximately as follows: 1st year of records $15.00 2nd-5th year of records $ 2.50 per person 6th-10th year of records $ 2.00 per person 11th-15th year of records $ 1.50 per person 16th-on year of records $ 1.00 per person ** Call for verification of these prices. ** Social Security records are a great source of information when someone has been relatively transient in their work, or if they are employed out of a union hall. If you want to review a claim file, direct your request to the Baltimore office. They will send the file to the social security office in your city for you to review and decide what you want copies of. The first three digits of a social security number indicate the state of application. The Social Security Number SSA has continually emphasized the fact that the SSN identifies a particular record only and the Social Security Card indicates the person whose record is identified by that number. In no way can the Social Security Card identify the bearer. From 1946 to 1972 the legend "Not for Identification" was printed on the face of the card. However, many people ignored the message and the legend was eventually dropped. The social security number is the most widely used and carefully controlled number in the country, which makes it an attractive identifier. With the exception of the restrictions imposed on Federal and some State and local organizations by the Privacy Act of 1974, organizations requiring a unique identifier for purposes of controlling their records are not prohibited from using (with the consent of the holder) the SSN. SSA records are confidential and knowledge of a person's SSN does not give the user access to information in SSA files which is confidential by law. Many commercial enterprises have used the SSN in various promotional efforts. These uses are not authorized by SSA, but SSA has no authority to prohibit such activities as most are not illegal. Some of these unauthorized uses are: SSN contests; skip-tracers; sale or distribution of plastic or metal cards; pocketbook numbers (the numbers used on sample social security cards in wallets); misleading advertising, commercial enterprises charging fees for SSN services; identification of personal property. The Social Security Number (SSN) is composed of 3 parts, XXX-XX-XXXX, called the Area, Group, and Serial. For the most part, (there are exceptions), the Area is determined by where the individual APPLIED for the SSN (before 1972) or RESIDED at time of application (after 1972). The areas are assigned as follows: 000 unused 387-399 WI 528-529 UT 001-003 NH 400-407 KY 530 NV 004-007 ME 408-415 TN 531-539 WA 008-009 VT 416-424 AL 540-544 OR 010-034 MA 425-428 MS 545-573 CA 035-039 RI 429-432 AR 574 AK 040-049 CT 433-439 LA 575-576 HI 050-134 NY 440-448 OK 577-579 DC 135-158 NJ 449-467 TX 580 VI Virgin Islands 159-211 PA 468-477 MN 581-584 PR Puerto Rico 212-220 MD 478-485 IA 585 NM 221-222 DE 486-500 MO 586 PI Pacific Islands* 223-231 VA 501-502 ND 587-588 MS 232-236 WV 503-504 SD 589-595 FL 237-246 NC 505-508 NE 596-599 PR Puerto Rico 247-251 SC 509-515 KS 600-601 AZ 252-260 GA 516-517 MT 602-626 CA 261-267 FL 518-519 ID *Guam, American Samoa, 268-302 OH 520 WY Northern Mariana Islands, 303-317 IN 521-524 CO Philippine Islands 318-361 IL 525 NM 362-386 MI 526-527 AZ 627-699 unassigned, for future use 700-728 Railroad workers through 1963, then discontinued 729-899 unassigned, for future use 900-999 not valid SSNs, but were used for program purposes when state aid to the aged, blind and disabled was converted to a federal program administered by SSA. As the Areas assigned to a locality are exhausted, new areas from the pool are assigned. This is why some states have non-contiguous groups of Areas. The Group portion of the SSN has no meaning other than to determine whether or not a number has been assigned. SSA publishes a list every month of the highest group assigned for each SSN Area. The order of assignment for the Groups is: odd numbers under 10, even numbers over 9, even numbers under 9 except for 00 which is never used, and odd numbers over 10. For example, if the highest group assigned for area 999 is 72, then we know that the number 999-04-1234 is an invalid number because even Groups under 9 have not yet been assigned. The Serial portion of the SSN has no meaning. The Serial is not assigned in strictly numerical order. The Serial 0000 is never assigned. Before 1973, Social Security Cards with pre-printed numbers were issued to each local SSA office. The numbers were assigned by the local office. In 1973, SSN assignment was automated and outstanding stocks of pre-printed cards were destroyed. All SSNs are now assigned by computer from headquarters. There are rare cases in which the computer system can be forced to accept a manual assignment such as a person refusing a number with 666 in it. A pamphlet entitled "The Social Security Number" (Pub. No.05-10633) provides an explanation of the SSN's structure and the method of assigning and validating Social Security numbers. Tax Records If you can find out who does the individuals taxes you might be able to get copies from them with the use of creative social engineering. If you want to run a tax lien search there is a service called Infoquest. 1-800-777-8567 for a fee. Call with a specific request. Post Office Records If you have an address for someone that is not current, always consider writing a letter to the postmaster of whatever post office branch services the zip code of the missing person. Provide them the name and the last known address and simply ask for the current address. There might be a $1 fee for this so it would be wise to call first. City Directory, Polk's, Cole's, etc. Information in these directories is contained alphabetically by name, geographically by street address, and numerically by telephone number, so if you have any of those three pieces of info, a check can be done. The Polk's directory also shows whether the person owns their home or rents, their marital status, place of employment, and a myriad of other tidbits of information. However, these books are not the be-all and end-all of the information as they are subject to public and corporate response to surveys. These directories are published on a nationwide basis so if you are looking for someone outside of your area, simply call the public library in the area you have an interest and they also can perform a crisscross check for you. You can also call a service owned by Cole's called the National Look up Library at 402-473-9717 and either give a phone number and get the name & address or give the address and get the name and phone number. This is only available to subscribers, which costs $183.00 dollars for 1991. A subscriber gets two free lookups per day and everyone after that costs $1.25. A subscriber can also mail in a request for a lookup to: National Look Up Library 901 W. Bond Street Lincoln, NE 68521-3694 A company called Cheshunoff & Company can, for a $75 fee, obtain a 5-year detailed financial analysis of any bank. 505 Barton Springs Road Austin, Texas 78704 512-472-2244 Professional Credit Checker & Nationwide SSN-locate. !Solutions! Publishing Co. 8016 Plainfield Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45236 513-891-6145 1-800-255-6643 Top Secret Manuals Consumertronics 2011 Crescent Drive P.O. Drawer 537-X Alamogordo, New Mexico 88310 505-434-0234 Federal Government Information Center is located at 1520 Market Street St. Louis, Missouri 1-800-392-7711 U.S. Dept of Agriculture has located aerial photos of every inch of the United States. 2222 West 2300 S. P.O. Box 36010 Salt Lake City, Utah 84130 801-524-5856 To obtain general information regarding registered agent, principals, and good standing status, simply call the Corporate Division of the Secretary of State and they will provide that information over the phone. Some corporate divisions are here: Arkansas Corporate Division 501-371-5151 Deleware Corporate Division 302-736-3073 Georgia Corporate Division 404-656-2817 Indiana Corporate Division 317-232-6576 Kansas Corporate Division 913-296-2236 Louisiana Corporate Division 504-925-4716 Missouri Corporate Division 314-751-4936 New York Corporate Division 518-474-6200 Texas Corporate Division 512-475-3551 Freedom Of Information The Freedom of Information Act allows the public to request information submitted to, or generated by, all executive departments, military departments, government or government controlled corporations, and regulatory agencies. Each agency, as described above, publishes in the Federal Register, descriptions of its central and field organizations and places where and how requests are to be directed. Direct a letter to the appropriate person designated in the Federal Register requesting reasonably described records be released to you pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. Be sure to follow each agency's individually published rules which state the time, place, fees, and procedures for the provisions of information. The agency should promptly respond. How to Find Information About Companies, Ed. II, 1981, suggests, "Government personnel you deal with sometimes become less helpful if you approach the subject by threatening the Freedom of Information Act action - it's best to ask for the material informally first." While this will probably enable you to find the correct person to send your request to, be prepared to spend at least half an hour on the phone talking to several people before you find the person who can help you. The book also has a brief description of what each governmental agency handles. If you want to see if someone you are trying to locate is a veteran, has a federal VA loan, or receives some sort of disability benefit, use Freedom of Information and provide the person's SSN. You will get a bill but you can ask for a fee waiver if this contributes to a public understanding of the operation of the government. You can also request an opportunity to go through the files yourself and then decide what you want copied. Insurance Records PIP carrier records (may contain statements, medical records, new doctors/ hospital names, records of disability payments, adjuster's opinions, applications for insurance coverage, other claim info, etc.) Health insurance records (may contain medical records, record of bills, new doctors/hospital names, pre-existing conditions information, info regarding other accidetns/injuries, etc.) Often you will have to go through the claims office, the underwriting dept, and the business office to get complete records as each individual dept maintains its own seperate files. Workers Compensation Some states will let you simply request records. Just submit your request including the SSN and Birthdate, to the Department of Human Resources, Division of Worker's Compensation. They will photocopy the records and send you the copies. Other states require an authorization to obtain these records. You can always call your local Private Investigator pretending you are a student doing a research paper on the methods of getting personal information about people or even trash his place to find tips on tracking down people. I hope this PHILE helps you in one way or another, if not, maybe a future PHILE by The Butler will........... Till Next Time, The Butler... _______________________________________________________________________________