There are many parents who say that “they have tried everything” to locate their deadbeat parent or that the CSE agency “can’t find him” and so there is nothing that anybody can do to help them. To the person with an average understanding of how the child support system works, that may seem to be true. To someone like me who has been in the business for as long as I have and has helped as many parents as I have through this process, I know that 99% of all people can be found. This is a claim that most private investigators will make and it is one that I agree with. It doesn’t matter where they have gone or the lengths that they have taken to hide and disappear, they can be found.
That being said, the smart ones also know that that unless you have a whole lot of money and/or a whole lot of time, the more that they do to cover their tracks, the more likely that you will become battle weary and give up along the way or run out of money that you want to spend to chase your money.
If you want to be successful in finding your deadbeat there are really only two things that you need to have.
In the absence of cold hard cash (and lots of it) to lay out to a private detective, one is fortitude and the other is know-how.
Here are the four levels of disappearance I have created to give you an idea of what you are dealing with:
LEVEL ONE: Very basic. 98% of deadbeats can be found within days when they disappear under a level one. Yet, they have disappeared to the extent that it would take a private investigator (PI) several hundred dollars of your money to track him down. When they move they won’t leave a forwarding address, they change cell phone companies from the one you knew them to have, they work off of the books…
LEVEL TWO: It’s getting warmer. This is a deadbeat that means business. He has done his homework and he knows that it would cost you several thousand dollars to find him if you hire a PI and he is banking that you are not going to spend that money. Considering that not all PI’s all good PI”s and that the only thing that drives them is M-O-N-E-Y, you could go to one or two or three before you find the one that will put out for you. At this point, the deadbeat is shredding his trash, he does not have utilities and telephone bills in his name. His vehicles and home may be in someone else’s name or the name of his business.
LEVEL THREE: It’s downright HOT in here. I am not going to lie to you. If you have a deadbeat in level three, you are not going to find him by any traditional measures. In addition to hiding from you, he also keeps his information private from his bankers, his lawyers, his doctors and the IRS. At this level not even Santa Claus would be able to find him on Christmas Eve to deliver a puppy. You would have to pay a PI a considerable amount of money to find this cat. If he already owes you a considerable amount of money, you might consider it a wash. You might – or you might want to consider some of the tips, tools and points of leverage that I have learned, taught, and have used with success along the way…and none of them involve an expensive PI. You can also find many of them on this website.
LEVEL FOUR: If your deadbeat is at this level then he is on the federal Witness Security Program (which some people call the Witness protection program), or might as well be. He has burned all of his bridges, has no contact whatsoever anymore with family, and friends. He receives no magazines or newsletters, belongs to no clubs or hobby stores. He is dead to the world. This might work in your favor though. If he is dead to the world, then that means that the time is ripe for you to file a claim on the life- insurance policy that you have on him and collect your arrears that way. Dead is dead, right?
Are you currently searching for a deadbeat who has gone MIA?
If you are searching for a deadbeat or have in the past, which level were they or do you suspect that that are?
Why do you think that deadbeats go MIA?
Please comment by sharing your thoughts below.
Wishing you the best when searching for your deadbeats and your cash.
Simone Spence
Deadbeat Hunter
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