r/PrivateInvestigators

Context:

I bought a property at a foreclosure auction from a verified trustee who is at the auctions every month. I bought it thinking it was the first lien, turns out it a bullshit lien that was created 1 month before the property went into foreclosure. Lawyer did some digging and it turns out that that they’ve defrauded multiple people and a a fairly reputable lawyer that they use as counsel is in on it. County saws that they’re going to prosecute them, getting the judgement is the easy part, finding the money is the hard part. I’m looking for P.I that is willing to leave no stone unturned to find the money me and a dozen other people have lost to these white collar criminals. DM me if that’s you

Does anyone have suggestions on a specific site to use? I have researched and there are sooooo many. I don't want to pay for all of them so I'm hoping for some insight on a good site or two. My uncle left our state in the mid 90's and we haven't heard from him except one time around 2002. His mother (my grandmother) is dying from cancer and she'd just like to know if he is alive. I did try Truth Finder a year ago with no luck (I paid for it). Oh the other hand, how the heck do you hire someone to try to find him? This is way harder than the movies. 🤣

Location: NYC, NY, USA

Has anyone had success lawfully locating someone through union employment or trade affiliations (e.g. IBEW) for purposes of service of process? I'm not looking to obtain confidential information, just trying to understand whether this is a realistic avenue or whether a PI would use other methods.

Title. Need an answer asap.

Location: NYC

*sigh* I'm looking for advice from anyone with experience in civil litigation, debt collection, process serving, or private investigations.

A good friend was an authorized user on my credit card. The original intent was to help him build his credit after he had difficulty securing housing/rental despite having the income to afford rent. For quite a while, he reimbursed me every month without issue. I have everything tracked in a spreadsheet and digital repayment receipts.

Over time, he fell behind on repayments. He repeatedly assured me he would catch up, and eventually signed a written repayment agreement acknowledging the debt and agreeing to a repayment schedule. He later defaulted, and the last payment I received was in October 2025.

I have:

• A signed repayment agreement
• Credit card statements
• Bank records showing his repayments
• Text messages acknowledging the debt
• A detailed accounting of the balance

My total financial loss is now approximately $57,000, including the outstanding debt, accrued credit card interest, and the payments I've continued making after he defaulted.

Earlier this year, I retained a debt collection agency to pursue litigation and paid $2,375 in litigation costs.

Over the past few months they:

• Sent a demand letter
• Attempted to locate him through skip tracing
• Attempted to verify his address for service

The demand letter was eventually returned "Return to Sender."

Today they informed me they're closing the litigation file and refunding my escrow because they were unable to locate a valid address to serve him. They specifically told me the issue isn't the merits of the case, it's that they can't commence litigation without being able to locate and serve the defendant given this is a consumer case and not a business.

Here's what I know about him:

• Full legal name
• Date of birth
• Social Security number
• Originally from the Boston area, unsure if he is still living in NYC
• Works in construction as an electrician/project manager (but I don't know where)
• Affiliated with this union group: IBEW Local 3 in NYC
• Last known mailing address was a friend's apartment in Brooklyn, but mail is now being returned
• His uncle owns two businesses in Little Italy, NYC
• He intentionally keeps almost no online presence (no LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc.)

At this point I'm considering hiring a licensed private investigator instead of another collection agency.

My questions are:

1. Is hiring a licensed PI the best next step?
2. With his full name, DOB, SSN, union affiliation, and the information above, how realistic is it to locate someone like this?
3. Are there better methods than hiring a PI?
4. Would a litigation attorney be able to do anything before he's located, or would they tell me to find him first?
5. Has anyone dealt with a defendant who intentionally disappeared? What ultimately worked?

I'm not looking for advice on whether I should pursue the debt. The debt has already been acknowledged in writing, and I intend to continue pursuing it. My challenge is simply locating him so he can be properly served and I can move forward with litigation. I'm getting married soon and I had to use my savings in order to clear the credit card debt along with taking on a balance transfer so I am keen to move this forward any way possible.

Help! If you're a licensed PI, process server, attorney, or have dealt with locating difficult-to-find defendants, I'd really appreciate your perspective. What can I do or what should I do next?

Thanks in advance!

I want to know if a PI in Ohio could help me investigate and how much would it cost (cus im not so wealthy)

Background: Me 19M and my gf 19F have been dating for around a year now and before we used to be friends. long story short shes cheated on a lot of people before i thought i would be different but I probably am not. I say probably because I don't know for sure. In January she told me she was going to grandparents house to sleep over and said that "they wanted to watch a movie alone in bed tonight like old times" then so the next day one word answers from her and calls me drunk about how i make everything about me. Ill save you the sob story. Lately shes been fired from another job and hasnt had any money to fund her overwatch addiction cus im broke too and paying for my college and whole life. She one day got really distant for the most part showed me a picture of her makeup and it looked weird and e-girly/ pedo bait. So i asked her what for and she just said to do ssomething. Later that day she tells me to hop on overwatch with her and has 3 skins that cost wayy more than 60 dollars which is what she said it would cost, and her account had -11 dollars in it. And it wouldnt be the first time shes done something like this, when we were friends she used to exploit pedophiles for money so i really have little doubts shes doing something like this again but i just need proof or i wont be able to let go. Can a PI help me?

I’m very interested in learning what it takes to become a pi. I just need to find a way to learn from someone I live in the Colorado Springs area. So if anyone knows someone who is willing to teach please send me their way!

Hello. I was recently on vacation and there was a hotel we were staying at that only had one washing machine and one dryer. Me and my dad were picking up our clothes at the washing machine but we found someone had pressed pause on it so we had to unpause it and wait. Once the timer had reached 1 minute, a lady with a British accent walked in and put her clothes in the dryer as we were waiting and it said one minute. While she is technically justified in this, that isn’t the issue. The issue is my dad was visibly annoyed and she noticed so she started insulting him and she was getting aggressive so I started recording just in case she did something. On video she can be seen calling him ”A miserable old man” and threatens him with her husband, along with a bunch of other insults. Once she noticed I was recording she asked me if I was recording and to that I didn’t reply. She then sat down in front of the dryer and we left. I have screenshots of her face from the video and all the face reverse search sites I found are t doing me any good. I would really appreciate it if someone who has a subscription to one of these sites or has a good method of face search to DM me and help me out with finding her name. I won’t post the video or the photos here due to some legal reasons. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and if you can help out please send me a DM!

Some weeks ago, a friend of mine bought a second-hand iPhone without knowing the device was still locked with T-mobile, the problem is that we already tried contacting the original owner through Facebook and Instagram but she isn’t responding to any messages, I managed to found her family on social media and told them the situation and there was no luck either, any suggestions?

My wife and I are trying to figure out childcare for our two youngest since my wife needs to go back to work.

We can't afford a larger daycare center and we also don't want to deal with the constant sickness the kids will bring home so we are looking at an in-home childcare close to where we live.

They are very well recommended by people we know, and my wife has been talking with the woman who runs it. However, they are not licensed (working on getting licensed) so they are not ranked/background checked by the state. The owner has agreed to background checks for herself and her husband who is also present in the home.

I have been researching online so I am aware of places like checkr.com, enannysource.com, goodhire.com, etc., and I have been researching what you want a good background check to cover (such as a national criminal background check and not just a state).

I am trying to decide if we should go with one of these online websites or if we should go with a local PI company. I am assuming the PI company will be more expensive, but is there any difference in quality between the online services and a local service?

When I look at their websites, they both seem to cover the same thing and they both claim to be the best of course.

Does anyone have any experience or advice for this?

Hello,

I'm interested in becoming a private or surveillance investigator. How do I go about it.

I have no experience in investigation.

Would a private investigator be able to find out if and how someone died definitively?

Just as the the title says. I'm interested in doing probate genealogy but am unsure if this falls under the PI role in my state of Pennsylvania. If so, I am definitely not qualified for that based on those licensing requirements😅 Thanks in advance!

*First off, I am not talking about my PI as the person who did 'Not Render Service' *

I got into a situation where I felt like I needed to run for my life. This left money that I had paid to get a service done in the hands of the person that I was running for my life from. I contacted an attorney in my state they told me I need to contact an attorney in the state that the incident happened. Then I was told that I need to file a small claims in that state. But I don't have her address so I can't serve her. So I hired a Pi but we're both struggling to find information on her. She's like a sneaky cockroach. She also goes by so many different names. She has a police reports and a active warrant, but the address she put down was a UPS Store.

Could I get some advice, recommendations, or referrals, since the incident happened back in November 2025 and it's already June 2026 and I still can't find any information that specifically points to her other than the police report? She took a lot of money from me without rendering service.

Please anything constructive helps.❤️

The story about what happened that day is wild.

Know nothing about PIs but have a situation and curious if it's something that one could help with, and what kind of time/cost might be involved.

My sister and her ex divorced due to his infidelity. Since then he's been extremely uncooperative and argumentative about lots of things including custody/visitation of their kids. Ex does not pay child support, ostensibly because he doesn't have a regular wage job. He's also had problems with the law. Despite this, he's been seeking hearings for expanded visitation rights.

What would be helpful is information on whether the ex is earning money under the table to avoid paying child support and/or involved in illegal activities (sister suspected ex has used drugs but obviously can't prove it). Most of this would probably be in/near a small US city, several states away from her and myself. (Sister is stressed enough as it is, and has limited funds, so she probably would not look into hiring a PI herself.)

I’m reviewing Indiana private investigator licensing requirements, which state:
“A bachelor’s degree or higher in criminal justice, or a related field, as determined by the board.”

I’ve tried getting clarification from the board on what qualifies as a “related field,” but haven’t been given an answer.

Is it common for licensing boards to leave “related field” undefined like this?

What kinds of degrees are typically accepted as meeting this requirement in Indiana?

Does anyone know if it is possible to request information from California DMV on one individual?

Background: Am investigating one serial killer who I think traveled to California in 1968 under an alias, Joseph Paul Franklin, now his birth name is James Clayton Vaughn Jr, but as he traveled a lot and had many ficticious names was wondering if after all these years if a drivers license was issued under that name in either 68 or 1969 if California would have a record of it, and 2nd, would they release it to a researcher?

My family had a landline account (father owned the Cox account) and the phone number was linked to an important gmail account for 2fa codes. The last time it was active was a few years ago when we were living in NV and we currently live in OR.

From public record searches and calling the number, it seems to possibly be under someone living in KS. I'm afraid to contact them directly as they may believe it's a scam.