We asked our PInow.com and ServeNow.com Yahoo! Groups to submit stories about their most exciting cases from 2007. From paternity serves to infidelity investigations, you all had a busy year! Here’s a sample of what your fellow process servers and PIs were up to last year:
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According to the Federal Trade Commission, as many as 9 million Americans may have been affected by identity theft in the last year alone. Identity theft is a serious crime in which someone steals another person’s personal information or online identity. In most cases, fraudsters use the information to open accounts in the victim’s name.
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Each state has various guidelines for what constitutes arson. In general, however, arson can be separated into two categories:

• Felony arson: The knowing and willful burning of another person’s property.
• Misdemeanor arson: Reckless or negligent burning which destroys property, even though there is no overt intent to destroy.

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When the average person hears the term “executive protection” they may imagine bodyguards for CEOs and top business people. While security for executives is an important part of executive protection services - especially today, when CEOs and other company members travel overseas, sometimes to less-than-safe destinations for business trips - executive protection is not always just about personal safety.
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Web site domain names are critical to the security and branding of your business.

Although not necessary, it’s becoming more and more important in the process serving and investigation industries to have a web site. One of the major components of your online presence is your domain name (or names).

Domain names are critical components of branding your company, protecting your intellectual property and maintaining your competitive edge. If you don’t get the domain names relevant to your business your competitors will, if they have not already done so. This is a concept referred to in the Internet world as “cyber squatting”.

The team at ServeNow.com/PInow.com would like to share the following tips about choosing and registering your domains to prevent cyber squatting. read more »

Acquiring data to work a case or locate a person is critical for a process serving and investigative business. There is a lot of data that can be found in free public records databases but when it comes to getting more sensitive data you may need to turn to an established data broker.

Who are Data Providers and what kind of data do they offer?

Companies like IRBsearch, LocatePlus, Merlin, Tracers Info and many others offer research tools for private investigators, process servers, bail agents and other legal professionals. These tools query billions of records to assist in finding information on people and businesses. Common searches include assets, criminal records, court records, phone number look-ups, driving records and much more.
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Process servers are always looking for ways to increase billing. A very effective way to do this is to provide ancillary services to their existing clients. From time to time, all attorneys need skiptracing services. You can solicit a skiptracing assignment on each bad address and/or offer the service as a stand alone product. An easy way to sell this services is to charge anywhere from $75 - $150 if the subject is located and nothing if the subject is not located. And, in addition to the extra revenue, once you the subject is located you have created another piece of process to serve.

Many servers offer a “field locate” with all service of process. This means that your client automatically authorizes an attempted locate of the subject if it is determined that the given address is a bad address. A field locate provides an incentive to the server to talk to the neighbors while in the field. Typically, the charge is $25-$50 if the subject is found. If the server does not locate the subject in the field, there is still an opportunity to try to find the subject before the client is called for an authorization for a full-priced skiptrace. It is easy to sell a $150 job if you tell your client that you have already checked phone books, called directory assistance and checked with several neighbors and, there will be no charge unless the subject is found.

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Newest PInow.com Members — May 2007

The PInow.com Team would like to welcome the newest countywide members of our online Private Investigator Directory. Below you will find the basic contact information for all of the qualified private investigators who joined the PInow.com online directory of local, qualified private investigators between May 1 - 31, 2007:
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Recording conversations or listening in to telephone conversations using wiretap is strictly controlled by laws. Understanding how these laws work protects everyone’s privacy and can help prevent needless lawsuits.

Telephone bugging, telephone surveillance, wiretapping: these are just a few names for what is essentially the same thing — listening into someone else’s conversation or recording it for later use. While there are many instances of people whose telephones are illegally tapped, placing a bug on a phone must be authorized by a search warrant or court order. While there are plenty of legitimate reasons to want to listen to someone’s telephone conversation, knowing what the laws are surrounding private conversations is important for anyone who wants to avoid messy lawsuit.

According to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, 1,773 wiretap orders were issued by courts in 2005 alone. Obviously, it is much harder to get accurate statistics on illegal telephone surveillance, although it does occur.
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Newest PInow.com Members — April 2007

The PInow.com Team would like to welcome the newest countywide members of our online Private Investigator Directory. Below you will find the basic contact information for all of the qualified private investigators who joined the PInow.com online directory of local, pre-screened private investigators between April 1 - 30, 2007:
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• Group for Private Investigators
• Group for Process Servers