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International Due Diligence – Investigative Due Diligence – Hedge Fund Due Diligence

As a private investigator conducting web-based research on a daily basis, one of the biggest challenges is to separate wheat from the chaff.

Navigating between the waves of useless information on classmates.com, mylife.com and manta.com and sifting through the top search results on Google serves as a challenge when conducting investigative research on the web.

Additionally, no matter what type of investigation you are working on, there are certain sets of websites which are always good to search, regardless of what type of case you are doing.

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

In order to avoid to separate some of the wheat from the chaff, we have created our own Custom Google Search Engine to specifically search more than 75 government agency websites. This Custom Google Search Engine is designed specifically to focus on governmental agencies, financial regulatory agencies as well as the 50 attorneys general websites.

This is not a search of all the more than 1,000 government departments and agencies. This list has been curated over the years to identify potential issues relating to individuals and businesses.

We have been utilizing this custom search engine for some time, but wanted to release it to the public for other fraud investigators, analysts, researchers or interested parties to use.

Just think – a few years ago, all of these sites had to be searched individually, or you had to hire an expensive programmer to do some custom coding.

Here is the link to our Custom Google Search Engine for U.S. Government and Regulatory Agencies:

Here is a listing of the 82 websites included with this custom search engine:

Federal Regulatory Agencies

1. Federal Bureau of Investigations
2. U.S. Department of State
3. United States Department of Labor
4. United States Department of Health & Human Services
5. U.S. Department of the Interior
6. United States Department of Commerce
7. United States Department of Civil Rights Division
8. Farm Credit Administration
9. Internal Revenue Service
10. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (The FED)
11. National Credit Union Administration
12. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
13. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
14. Federal Trade Commission
15. United States Department of Justice
16. National Association of Attorney Generals
17. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
18. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
19. U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
20. National Futures Association
21. U.S. Department of Treasury
22. Main Justice
23. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
24. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
25. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
26. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
27. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
28. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
29. Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
30. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
31. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
32. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

U.S. Attorneys General

33. Alabama Attorney General
34. State of Alaska Department of Law
35. Arizona Attorney General
36. Arkansas Attorney General
37. Office of California Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General
38. Attorney General Colorado Department of Law
39. State of Connecticut Office of the Attorney General
40. Attorney General – State of Delaware
41. Florida Office of the Attorney General
42. Attorney General of Georgia
43. State of Hawaii Department of the Attorney General
44. Illinois Attorney General
45. Office of the Indiana Attorney General
46. Iowa Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General
47. Office of the Attorney General State of Idaho
48. Attorney General of Kansas
49. Office of the Attorney General of K1ntucky
50. Office of the Attorney General State of Louisiana
51. Office of the Maine Attorney General
52. Maryland Attorney General
53. Attorney General of Massachusetts
54. State of Michigan Attorney General
55. Office of Minnesota Attorney
56. Office of the Attorney General State of Mississippi
57. Missouri Attorney General
58. Montana Department of Justice – Attorney General
59. Nebraska Attorney General
60. Nevada Attorney General
61. New Hampshire Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General
62. State of New Jersey Department of Law & Public Safety Office the Attorney General
63. Office of New Mexico Attorney General
64. New York State Office of the Attorney General
65. North Carolina Department of Justice
66. North Dakota Attorney General
67. Ohio Attorney General
68. Oklahoma Office of the Attorney General
69. Oregon Department of Justice
70. Pennsylvania Attorney General
71. State of Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General
72. South Carolina Attorney General
73. South Dakota Office of the Attorney General
74. Tennessee Attorney General
75. Attorney General of Texas
76. Office of the Attorney General State of Utah
77. Attorney General of Vermont
78. Attorney General of Virginia
79. Washington State Office of the Attorney General
80. Office of the West Virginia Attorney General
81. Wisconsin Department of Justice
82. Wyoming Attorney General

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“Due diligence investigation” is a phrase that varies in meaning among different business organizations and industries.

From the perspective of a venture capitalist or a private equity investment manager, it’s about assessing the business model, conducting market research and talking to the market.

For an accountant, it may be analyzing the books and records.

From an investigator’s perspective, a due diligence investigation is utilized to assess the character, integrity and reputation of potential business partner(s) or key player(s) in a venture before the client enters into a substantial financial relationship.

What is a due diligence investigation?

A due diligence investigation is conducted to assess the qualifications and track records of the people involved in the deal, to identify potential inconsistencies, misrepresentations, omissions or controversies in their backgrounds.

When is a due diligence investigation performed?

These investigations are commonly performed prior to transactions such as a merger or acquisition, formation of a business partnership or strategic partnership, or a significant investment or financing arrangement.

Who requests a due diligence investigation?

Due diligence investigations are typically conducted on behalf of small and medium-size businesses, large corporations, investment banks, private equity firms or other investors. In many cases, the investigation is initiated by a legal team involved with the deal in order to protect the integrity of the information.

What is included in a due diligence investigation?

Information that is typically covered in a due diligence investigation includes the following:

  • Personal and professional history, which includes work history, board memberships and nonprofit affiliations
  • Historical news media research on the individuals and businesses with which they have been affiliated
  • Details of civil litigation and criminal case history, including on-site court research and retrieval, where applicable
  • Regulatory records, professional licenses and government compliance checks
  • Financial history, which includes personal assets, judgments, liens, bankruptcies and U.S. Tax Court cases
  • Corporate affiliations, sex offender registries, driving history records and political contribution records
  • Credit history (with consent)

In addition to the above, a due diligence investigation can include interviews with references, sources or relevant parties.

What kind of information is found in a due diligence investigation?

Some of the more common issues that are revealed in a due diligence investigation include the following:

  • Misrepresentations of employment history or falsified degree information
  • Financial troubles, including bankruptcies, tax liens and foreclosures
  • Accusations in lawsuits, such as harassment or fraud
  • Regulatory issues
  • Past criminal trouble, including drunk driving
  • History of litigiousness
  • Undisclosed corporate affiliations, government scrutiny or a trail of failed companies

Why conduct a due diligence investigation?

In today’s business world, information is power. In the end, the purpose of conducting a due diligence investigation is to gather as much intelligence and information as possible to help you make a more informed decision.

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This post originally appeared on ACFE Insights, a blog run by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

As an investigator, my job is to collect information and gather facts.

There is never enough information. The more, the better.

But in my own experience, one of the most powerful sources of information for a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) frequently gets overlooked. Everyone has access to it, and most of what is housed in it can be accessed from the comfort of your computer. Oh yeah, and the information found there is completely free.

What am I talking about? Public records.

A stack of bank records, telephone records or a hard drive of information is the kind of information that I can only dream about.

I have been a private investigator for more than 10 years. In the work that I do, I rarely have access to financial statements, internal documents, emails or employee files. No one is obligated to talk to me, release key documents or hand over their computer. Obtaining a stack of bank records, telephone records or a hard drive of information is the kind of information that I can only dream about.

I spend most my time scouring for bits of information through public records, court records, divorce filings, probate records, state criminal repositories, property records, files in assessors’ offices, news articles, blogs, regulatory filings, court clerk records, social networks, message boards, UCC filings, corporate documents and genealogy records.

I’ve been known to spend countless hours in government offices, basements of libraries and the darkest corners of courthouses.

I’ve also been known to stare at creepy message boards for days on end.

Many people take public records for granted.

What I have come to learn is that many people take public records for granted. Because they are “public,” people assume that they can’t be all that valuable. (I bet if we called them “secret records,” everyone would be clamoring for them.)

Our vast system of public records in the U.S. is one of the most unique investigative assets we have. When it comes to public records, we are hands down the most open country in the world. Just the other day, an investigator in Spain told me that you cannot verify that a doctor in Spain has a license or has not been sanctioned—incredible as that may seem. Meanwhile, anyone in the U.S. can do that, but I doubt many people have.

Most people don’t realize how public records can serve as resources to help connect the dots; develop a complete picture; fill in the blanks; and find supporting documentation, hidden clues or just plain old dirt.

As an investigator, my job is to collect information and facts.

And if part of collecting information doesn’t include using the vast resources found in public records, you are definitely missing out.

 

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I’ve been keeping pretty close tabs on Samuel “Mouli” Cohen since I received a call about him more than three years ago.

It’s a story that has everything — fraudulent art, private chefs, chauffeurs, celebrities, lies, intrigue, elaborate mansions and a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Beginning with his arrest in August 2010, trial and ultimate conviction, I wrote several blog posts about Cohen and received a number of phone calls from former victims, business partners and people who personally knew and met Cohen.

One of those calls was from Fosco Bianchetti who met Cohen several years ago. After his encounter with Cohen, which he described as the “weirdest dinner ever,” he too became fascinated in Cohen.

I met Bianchetti, an Italian entrepreneur, in New York last year.Among his many roles, he is the director of Twill magazine.

He asked me to write an article about Cohen, which was just published in the most recent version of Twill.

One day, this story should be a book.

But for now, you can read the condensed version in Twill magazine.

Image published with permission of Twill magazine.

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There are certain things that you see in a resume, CV or biography that immediately raise some warning signs.

Last week, while everyone was “surprised” to see that Alex Rodriguez has been accused of taking human growth hormones (again!), I was struck by the biography of the doctor who (allegedly) supplied him with the drugs:

Dr. Tony Bosch is recognized as an international educator and a world-class leader in bio-identical hormone replacement therapy … [and a] pioneer in orthomolecular medicine. [emphasis added]

The things that caught my eye were the terms recognized, world-class leader and pioneer. Who “recognized” him as an international educator? Himself?

World-class leaders or pioneers are people like Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates — not a doctor from Florida who hands out steroids like lollipops.

I wanted to get some other warning signs and red flags of a fraud or fake resume or CV so I enlisted the help of some investigators. Collectively we have looked at tens of thousands of resumes, CVs and biographies and conducted background investigations on thousands of them.

Together we came up with a list of self-promoters, name-droppers, chest-thumpers and “reformed” criminals, all of whom have some extraordinary stories that you could never verify.

Here is what we came up with to spot a resume fraud, fake CV or biography lies.

Self-Acclamations

Have you ever seen someone describe himself or herself as “the only person to …” or “recognized as a world-class leader …” or “the first person to be awarded …” or “the youngest person ever to …” or “a pioneer in …”?

That sound you hear? That is the sound of a blaring siren.

Who exactly recognized you as a “world-class leader” or a “pioneer”? Your business partner? Your family?

These are not titles that people usually bestow upon themselves. There are only so many “firsts” and “youngests” and “world-class” people in the world.

A perfect example of this is Mouli Cohen. Cohen, who is serving a thirty-year sentence for stealing more than $30 million from investors, claimed in multiple press releases that he “was awarded the first-ever ‘Millionaire Residency’ with full citizenship status by President George H. Bush.” [emphasis added]

George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush served as our 41st and 43rd President, but who exactly is George H. Bush? Unfortunately for Mr. Cohen, there is no such thing as “Millionaire Residency” status.

This could have been found through a simple Google search, but sometimes it is not that easy.

Name-Droppers

You know the type.

The ones who feel so insecure about themselves that they must resort to including names of important people — typically people with little or no relevance to the topic at hand — in conversation to impress others.

Those types.

Some even take it a step further and drop names into their biographies or resumes.

For example: “Tiger Woods event committee leader,” or “… spearheaded Mario Cuomo’s charitable planning in upstate New York.”

If it’s true, it usually means that the person was a volunteer at some function or an employee of a corporation that was hired to do something.

[Tip: Ever notice that the people who are really connected aren’t the ones shouting it from the rooftops? They don’t need to.]

People are so fascinated by celebrities that some take it a step further and just pretend to be the famous person themselves, like the fake Rockefeller.

Scant Details

Ever see someone’s biography describe the last ten years as having been spent “in the financial industry,” without listing specific jobs?

In other words, they really don’t want you to know where they worked.

They could have had problems at these companies, or they were third-tier institutions, or they jumped around from company to company, or they didn’t have much success.

Or they could have spent ten years as a janitor at a local credit union.

Or how about the job at “an international nonprofit in Shanghai” with absolutely no details on which organization it was?

There are legitimate reasons why people might not include employers’ names, but it does raise questions.

Another one of my favorites is the person who “attended” Harvard University.

Also known as, “I took a class there,” or “I attended class but never graduated,” or “I visited the school … once … a long time ago.”

The Reformed

There are others who may have gone down a wrong path but have come back “reformed,” typically after finding some form of religion.

They love promoting how they have turned their lives around and fixed everything.

Making a blanket statement about all criminal offenders is a mistake, but a criminal past is certainly a reason to be more cautious. After all, a tiger can’t change its stripes.

Just ask another “reformed” fraudster, Barry Webne, who was convicted of embezzlement on two different occasions. Webne said, “If you put me in a position of trust again … chances are I’m going to violate that trust.”

Take the case of Barry Minkow. After being released from prison in 1995, Minkow reinvented himself by becoming a pastor and founding the Fraud Discovery Institute. He was profiled on 60 Minutes and was applauded for his work in a series of articles in The Wall Street Journal in 2008 that uncovered inflated credentials by corporate executives.

A few short years later, Minkow was charged in his role in disseminating false information about Lennar Corporation by making false and misleading statements about the company while profiting from Lennar’s falling stock with options contracts.

He’s currently serving a five-year sentence.

Designations and Awards

I was recently looking at the biography of a colleague in the investigations industry and asked him about a designation that he listed on his bio from the “World Association of Investigative Professionals” (name of the organization has been changed to protect the guilty).

Turns out he paid $50 for that certificate. It’s nothing more than that — a piece of paper. But it’s on his corporate biography, and the certificate hangs on his office wall.

Some  people are serial certificate collectors; a wall full of worthless pieces of paper so they can add it to their resume.

There are lots of these professional associations and plenty of designations that sound official, but many of them are nothing more than a piece of paper, barely worth the ink they are printed with.

Others like to claim that they were some type of “award winner” or received a “special designation” from [insert name of something legitimate here].

Or a “Good Samaritan” award from the local chamber of commerce or a recognition for pro bono work.

Go ahead. Try finding some proof of that. We will wait …

Gaps

Sometimes it’s not the things in the resume or biography that raise a red flag, but what is missing. Gaps in someone’s employment or education history or gaping holes in their personal background.

For example, for some inexplicable reason people have been known to include their master’s degree while leaving out their undergraduate degree.

Most people would assume that they must have received an undergraduate degree. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that.

Or perhaps years of job history have been left out.

Maybe the company failed or the person had a bad experience. But they also could have committed fraud.

Worse yet, they could have spent years in prison, like Nicholas Cosmo, who left out of his bio the several years that he spent in jail for a previous fraud conviction.

Or you may find that resumes and biographies of the same person don’t match.

Such profiles have different employment histories on them, so clearly they’re trying to drop certain past employers from their profiles and hoping nobody will notice.

Extraordinary Personal Stories

Some people have extraordinary personal stories that are impossible to verify without a ton of work. “After being raised on the streets by a homeless, drug-addicted mother, John went on to found …” Or “Mary survived stage-four stomach cancer, dreaming of …” Or anything else that makes the other accomplishments seem phenomenal.

Take, for example, Aleksey Vayner. In 2006 as a senior at Yale University, he submitted to various Wall Street banks an eleven-page resume and a video in which he identified himself as a multisport professional athlete, the CEO of two companies and an investment adviser.

[The “Impossible Is Nothing” video was a viral hit and became known as the resume mocked around the world. Also check out the spoof by Michael Cera, which is equally funny … but it was meant to be.]

The video depicts Vayner lifting nearly 500 pounds, serving a tennis ball at 140 miles an hour (he even claimed to have beaten tennis legend Pete Sampras), ballroom dancing with a scantily clad female and demonstrating his martial arts prowess.

On its face, he seemed like either the greatest candidate ever or a complete fraud. Numerous questions surrounded Vayner’s achievements as an investor as well as his book and charity. Despite the fact that much of it may be true, it raises big questions. (Sadly, Vayner died of an apparent overdose at the age of 29.)

Author James Frey published and promoted A Million Little Pieces, a memoir that was later determined to be a work of fiction.

Or consider the story of Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, who claimed of being saved by a remote village in Afghanistan and promising to build a school for them. Among other things that he was abducted and held for eight days by the Taliban. It was all a lie.

Both stories were so incredibly over the top that you just had to question their authenticity.

Things That Can’t Be Verified

One common theme you will find with most of the examples above is that most people like to include things that either (1) can’t be verified at all, or (2) can be verified only with an extraordinary amount of effort (and under most circumstances, people won’t go to that effort).

Many resumes that cross your desk will make such claims as, “increased sales in my group from $10.3 million to $42.7 million in two years.” You may get enough information to think it’s believable. But practically no one can refute it without digging through the depths of hell.

Sometimes you will get people putting a bunch of these things together, making it all that much more difficult to verify.

For example, you may find that someone claims to be the author of a best-selling e-book, a ten-time triathlon winner, a champion speed-reader and a war veteran who shielded a newborn baby from bomb shrapnel with his body.

Take the case of our recent case study, in which the candidate had a stellar resume, including a short stint on Broadway and a degree from a top university.

He was a college football player who had contact with actors and actresses and was also a veteran, having served in a “top secret” intelligence division in the U.S. Army.

We couldn’t easily verify his contacts, his Broadway stint or his participation on the college football team, but it turned out he was lying about his military service — which gave us reason to believe he might have been lying about the rest of it as well.

Final Thought

There are, of course, many other examples of resume and biography fraud, lies or just plain old red flags. Like the resume of the person who wrote that he helped his mom do her housework for the summers when he was in between college sessions (true story).

Maybe that is a warning flag for plain stupidity.

You don’t need to be a genius to spot the warning signs yourself. It just takes some common sense to ask yourself what’s in there, what’s missing, and what can and can’t be verified.

Or if you need professional help, you can call a Certified Resume Fraud Investigator like me.

I’m kidding.

I just made that up.

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The question about how to verify military service comes up quite a bit. Although we have discussed this in previous posts, here is a guide to help walk you through the process.

There are two ways to verify military service, depending on whether the person is an active member of the military or a veteran. Given that the active military service verification is a quick and easy online service, your best bet is to start there.

Verifying Military Service of an Active Service Member

The Department of Defense Service Members Civil Relief Act (SCRA) website provides information relating to active-duty status for military members.

The site is free to the public, provided that you have some basic information regarding the individual. In order to search the site, you must provide the individual’s Social Security number or the date of birth and last name of the service member. If you do not have the Social Security number, however, you will get a response that says that you can not rely on the response because you did not supply a SSN.

Once the request has been processed, the website will provide an SCRA certificate reporting the active-duty status for the individual. The report will give the active-duty start date, the active-duty end date and the service position.

The website will only provide information on active-duty military members or members who have left active duty within the past 367 days. All other requests must be submitted to the National Personnel Records Center.

Verifying Military Service of a Veteran

There are more than 70 million former military records for veterans stored at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The records are available to the public through the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act.

The general public can access military personnel records by completing Standard Form 180. Some of the information that must be given includes the name of the veteran, the service number or Social Security number, the branch of service, the date(s) of service and the date of birth. It has been our experience that the dates of service are helpful but not necessary.

The completed form can be sent via mail or fax to the records center. Although more detailed information is available to next of kin and other authorized parties, only a limited amount of information can be released to the general public. Typically, the information released includes rank, dates of services and where the individual in question was stationed.

Response time varies, but it has been our experience that requests are typically returned within 10 business days.

Guide to Hiring a Private Investigator

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Last month, we received a call from the director of human resources at a New York-based company.

The company was ready to hire a candidate, but there was something bothering the company about the candidate.

The candidate had a stellar resume, which included a short stint on Broadway and a degree from a top university, including time on the varsity football team.

He had contact with actors and actresses, presented himself well and was the best all-around candidate whom they had interviewed. He was also a veteran, having served in a “top secret” intelligence division in the U.S. Army.

But something still bothered the company. He was either too good to be true or his story was a figment of his imagination.

The company verified his degree, and the background check that was completed (using a different company) did not come up with anything.

The company still wasn’t comfortable. When it did its own research, the company was unable to verify that he had been on Broadway, had been a member of the football team or had served in the U.S. Army. When he was asked about providing proof that he served in the military, the candidate became a little cagey and was unable to provide anything that could prove that he had served.

The company asked us to help verify the military service. The candidate said that he had served several years in intelligence in a special unit within the U.S. Army. The company wanted an independent source to verify his military background.

The request was simple enough: submit the paperwork to verify his military status. But sometimes the simplest things can get complicated.

Two weeks went by, and then the National Personnel Records Center responded that the request had been forwarded to the U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Of the dozens of requests that we had sent before, it was certainly an odd response.

After weeks of trying to call the U.S. Army Human Resources Command, we had still not received a response. The command would respond to our requests by saying that it was “still being worked on.”

Understandably, the company wanted to make a decision one way or the other, and “still being worked on” was not much help.

With one last attempt to verify the military service, we were finally able to talk to a Freedom of Information and Privacy Act analyst, who gave us the news: Not only did the candidate not serve in a top-secret special unit in the U.S. Army, but he also never even finished basic training. He spent a total of four months in the U.S. Army after committing to eight years.

It’s still not known why he served only a few months or why he never fulfilled his commitment, but nevertheless, the company was able to finally make a decision and move on.

Lessons learned:

  • If you ever hear anyone tell you that he or she was in some undercover/top-secret group in the military or was a spy in the military and the records cannot be found, be skeptical … very skeptical.
  • Military service is a relatively easy thing to verify. It takes some time, but it can be done.
  • Information such as the dates of service, assignments and geographical location, duty status (discharged, honorably discharged, etc.), and military education as well as any decorations and awards can be verified.

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Admit it — you probably wanted to be a private investigator once in your life. Maybe it was Sherlock Holmes, Columbo, Sam Spade, the Ferrari-driving Thomas Magnum or the esteemed members of Scooby-Doo’s Bloodhound Gang.

In most cases, these fictional characters have spread a number of myths and misconceptions about what a private investigator does and what they can (legally) do.

Whatever your interest, you want to do your own investigating but may just want to do your own amateur sleuthing or can’t afford to hire a private investigator.

Here are some tips and tricks to get you started:

Research

There is an enormous amount of background information online about people and businesses through public records, social networks, news publications and various sources on the Web. While there may be a need to get intelligence from other sources, online is always your best place to start. It’s quick and easy, and the information is available on a moment’s notice. You can find out about where a person has lived and worked, whether they have been arrested and even what they ate for lunch.

While there are millions of places you can start, the few tools that I would recommend are an investigative database that aggregates public records (e.g., Peoplesmart), a social network aggregator (e.g., Spokeo), a comprehensive news search engine (e.g., Google News Archive) and local public record databases (i.e., local court, county clerk, etc.). Familiarize yourself with some of the major search engines (e.g., GoogleBingDuckDuckGo) and ways to conduct advanced searches.

Other Intelligence

In the age of the Internet, people assume that everything is on the Web. But that is far from the truth. Millions of documents and records have not found their way to the Internet. By some estimates, the deep web (information that is not readily available through search engines like Google) has more than 400 times the amount of information available through regular search engine inquiry.

Whether it’s public records, government documents, books (yes, they still exist), ancestral materials, interviews with related parties or good old-fashioned “boots on the ground,” sometimes it takes a little more than a few strokes on a keyboard to find what you are looking for.

Ask

I can’t tell you how many times a client has asked me “How did you get this information?” to which I replied, “I asked!” You might be amazed. People actually want to help you. Whether it’s a local or state government repository, a library, a former landlord or a neighbor, sometimes all you have to do is ask (nicely, of course).

There are limits here. I am not suggesting that you pretend you are John Doe and call the bank and ask for his bank records or ask his doctor for his most recent medical records. Doing that would be illegal and might get you thrown in jail. But you may be able to get that transcript from a divorce proceeding or a rental application from a previous landlord or a tip from a neighbor.

Persist

More likely than not, the information you are looking for is not going to be staring you in the face when you do a Google search. It may take hours and hours of research to find what you are looking for. After all, if finding the background information was easy, it would take all the fun out of it.

Most people give up, but if you want to be an amateur sleuth, giving up should not be an option.

Other Angles

If you haven’t found what you are looking for, you may need to try a different strategy. Often there are many ways to get to the same result. For example, if you have been trying to find some ancestral history through one of the major ancestry sites, try another site. Try the Ellis Island passenger search; search newspaper archives; head to your local library; review census records, old phone books and historical property records; or call distant relatives or former landlords/neighbors.

There are often many different strategies to get to the answer, but in some cases, it’s just understanding the possibilities of what can be done.

This post originally appeared on PeopleSmart.

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