Despite estimates suggesting that upwards of 80% of all outstanding court judgments are never successfully collected, it is getting tougher for dead beats to skip out on their debts when experienced judgment collection agencies are put on the case. When companies try to collect on their own, skipping is still an option. But enlist an organization like Salt Lake City’s Judgment Collectors and it is a whole different ballgame.
So, why do specialized collection agencies succeed where creditors fail? Here is the #1reason: the digital footprint. Simply put, virtually every adult in the U.S. has a digital footprint. From internet shopping to posting on social media, we leave digital tracks everywhere we go online. But that is not all. Every business and public sector entity we interact with contributes to those digital tracks by collecting and storing data.
Judgment Collectors says that much of this data is publicly accessible by anyone who knows what to look for. Other data – data that is a bit more secure – may still be accessible through commonly utilized skip tracing strategies. Either way, there is enough information out there that most experienced collection agencies can track down debtors and their assets.
An Airplane Hangar for Sale
Judgment Collectors recently closed a case they had been working for some time without much activity. How did they do it? They continued digging through sources of digital data until they uncovered real estate records showing that the debtor owned an airplane hangar in a neighboring county. Those records also indicated that the hangar was for sale.
That is all the agency needed. Once they knew the debtor had a real asset, and that the asset was for sale, they also knew that the debtor had the financial resources to pay up. They approached the debtor with their information and convinced him to settle. It was all made possible because real estate records and the debtor’s digital footprint.
Google Your Own Name
If you need proof of your own digital footprint, just Google your name. You will not get nearly the same amount of information a judgment collector would get via skip tracing, but you will at least be able to see how easy it is for people to find information about you online. When you are done with Google, look yourself up on social media sites. You can use their built-in search engines. Just beware of the fact that you might find a lot more than you anticipated.
Rest assured that a good judgment collection agency utilizes Google, Facebook, and all the other big-name online platforms to track people down. But they also look at all sorts of public records. They dig through property records, real estate transactions, business license records, arrest records, etc.
We Owe It to the Internet
We all have a digital footprint that is easily tracked by an experienced judgment collection agency. We owe that to the internet. Because the internet is now utilized for everything from business to healthcare and government services, it is nearly impossible to do anything without adding to that footprint. The digital footprint is now an embedded part of life.
If your company or organization is looking at unpaid judgments you have been unsuccessfully working on for a long time, perhaps it’s time to turn them over to a judgment collection agency. Experienced debt collectors have the knowledge, experience, and tools to do what your staff cannot do on its own. One of those tools is the digital footprint, and it is the #1 reason it’s getting so tough for debtor’s to skip out on judgments.
