BEST PRETEXTS FROM P.I.'s AROUND THE COUNTRY
This list of pretexts has recently come across the mailing list
private-eye@netcom.com
BEST PRETEXTS FROM P.I.'s AROUND THE COUNTRY
This list of pretexts has recently come across the mailing list
private-eye@netcom.com
Have a phone number but would like to obtain the physical address to
that number and you dont want to pay a broker. Heres what I do.... I call
the
phone number and advise the person answering that I am from the local
electric company and I will be shutting down the power on their street for
5-6 hours. I then ask if there is anyone on life support at their residence
or if it would be a major inconvenience... If they answer yes..(and they
Do).
I tell them that I would be able to leave their power on and to confirm
their address...they do and I have the address.
Here's one to get banking info
This is ABC Credit and you have been preapproved for a VISA card with 5%
interest and a $50.00 credit for signing up. Of course they say yes and
then
you obtain their banking info.
Here's one for a relatively untapped search: Pagers:
If all else fails, page the person and upon call back explain: This
is XYZ Paging and we're contacting you to let you know another pager
has been issued to someone with your exact phone number. To rectify
this matter we first need to know how long you've had the service? Then
proceed for name, address, and home phone number and you might as well
ask how much they pay a month for service. Can't hurt. If they balk at
giving the vital info, explain: I will need to FEDEX a form to you to
sign and return so that we may change the number of the other pager,
otherwise you will receive their calls as well as yours. Explain that
FEDEX doesn't deliver to PO Boxes either, which ensures you a physical
address.
Tell them you are calling from Sears central in Chicago, and they were
preapproved for a $500 credit card at Sears, and a $50.00 gift certificate
at their closest sears store because of a new store promotion. Before going
any further, ask the location. Immediately follow it with" What dept
would
you like the credit in, housewares, electronics, or wold you prefer a
"general" credit?
(They always pick "general". Tell them they need to see the store
manager, Mr. Bill Rowalnd (or whatever) to pick up their certificate, and
they need to bring some proof of identification.
. Next, tell them you need to go over a few things and do a complete credit
app. You can also throw in date of marriage, number of kids, places of
employment and whatever else you really want.
Upon conclusion, remind them of the manager's name and tell them the
manager will make the presentation of the certificate and the new style
credit card in person.
You can also use pagers to decode a dialed telephone number from a tape
recording by playing the recording into your headphone instead of punching
in
numbers.
Ralph, Thanks for the info. I use a pre-surveillance pretext prior to starting
various cases where a time frame can be established in order to save our
on our client's budget. Usually a female op makes a call to our subject
indicating shes conducting a survey on the radio listening habits of individuals
in the tri-state. Key questions are, what radio stations do you listen to
while driving to and from work. Morning or afternoon programs etc. A well
prepared op can have several questions at hand for responses from the subject.
Another pretext which has never failed me is the American Grocers survey,
again for a time element. Offering $25.00 in store coupons for a "few
seconds"of the subject's time, an op can determine the day of the week,
time and store the subject shops at. A simple question of which store do
you prefer to shop in your area and what day do you shop, can do wonders
for your worker's comp. cases. The op must remember to throw in a couple
questions which are not pertinent to the objective to keep a claimant off
guard. Dan
I have had success getting unlisted numbers, when I have the name and
address, by calling the subjects local newspaper subscription
department and posing as him. I tell them I have not been receiving
my paper and I'd like to verify my information. After they give me
the info I say, "that's correct, my wife leaves for work before I do,
maybe she has been taking it. I'll call you back if that's not it."
I've always hated the fact that the bell systems and many other address
listers fall far short of the mark when it comes to listing apartment
numbers in addresses for those people who reside in the mass housing
communities. So I've always used the tried and true pretext of floral delivery:
Call the apartment leasing office / management and say "This is Express
Flowers, we have a deliverer in your area trying to deliver a bouquet to
Mrs. Trytohide, but we don't have an apartment number with her address.
Could you help us?"
Also replacing flowers with FedEx sometimes helps.
It's an old one, but very tried and true.
I have had success getting unlisted numbers, when I have the name and
address, by calling the subjects local newspaper subscription
department and posing as him. I tell them I have not been receiving
my paper and I'd like to verify my information. After they give me
the info I say, "that's correct, my wife leaves for work before I do,
maybe she has been taking it. I'll call you back if that's not it."
As long as we are doing " Show and Tell " Here goes my sure fire
way
of getting a address when all you have is a name and a " maybe "
city or
town......... Call the local Water Dept. right in the middle of lunch time
! Tell them you are really mad you have very low water pressure and you
want someone out to fix it right now. Give them your subject's name and
tell them the last two times they came out to fix a problem they came out
to
the wrong house, what does your records show ?? It seems that calling
the local water department people they are fairly loose with information.
Calling at the lunch hour you will get someone that could care less about
security of records ( they just want to get back to lunch ). It might
sound dumb, but it has worked for me for years !!! I hope this helps
someone out but, please don't tell the Water Departments !!!!
When you need to get LD calls and don't have a contact!
Call the phone company (Use *67 to disable your caller ID!)
Tell them you are at the airport (or just going there) with Father Flaherty
who is returning to Ireland and has been a houseguest for the past month.
The Father INSISTS on paying the LD calls he made while visiting and
considers it an insult if he doesn't. You've told him to forget it but he
says no.
You can't get to your bills because they are in your office and time is
of
the essence.
Beg and Plead, pretend the Father is there by "talking" to him!
It works!
I have had some pretty good success with this one to get not only banking
info, but also personal info:
With limited information, I call the subject's bank. Advise the bank that
Mr. Imapoor has applied for credit with your company, Felt Furniture, and
that he placed the bank as a credit reference and that you would like to
verify some information. First ask if his accounts are in "Good Standing"
(This is a banking term, which tells the bank that you know something about
"Credit"). When they answer, ask to verify some information. DON"T
ASK FOR
ACCOUNT BALANCE INFORMATION, they will know it's a scam. When doing the
verifications, purposely give wrong information, then ask what is listed
with the bank, to get get the information your looking for. SSNs, DOBs and
Address are great returns with this. Good Luck.
Joe Friday
NOT A PRETEXT BUT;
In California, like most states, statewide criminal histories are available
to law enforcement only. However, the next best thing is available to anyone
through the California Bureau of Prisons:
Anyone can call this number to determine if a subject has been incarcerated
in a state Prison from 1977 to the present: 916/445-6713. (State Prison
incarceration means a felony conviction in California.)
Do any other group members know of similar numbers in other states?
Robert Scott
Specialized Investigations (Los Angeles)
e-mail: WEINVSTG8@aol.com
If you have a Telephone Number of a subject but no address. Call the number
when the subject is unlikely to be home. When the call is answered by
someone else use the following...
"Hi, I'm a friend of XXXX, I want to send them a Christmas/Easter/Birthday/
Good Luck card but I seem to have rubbed their address off my
computer/electronic notebook or lost it (say what's applicable)."
"Fortunately, I had written the telephone number down in an additional
place. May I have the address please, they'll kill me if they don't receive
something from me."
9 times out of 10 you'll get what you want. Jot down the details, repeating
it to confirm. If asked who you are, say a name which is quite common. It
works better if the conversation is male to female or female to male. A
little telephone flirtation always works too.
Winston Hayles - International Private Investigator & Licenced Debt
Collector
36 b, Kings Gardens, South Hampstead, London, ENGLAND NW6 4PX
Have a phone number but would like to obtain the physical address to
that number and you dont want to pay a broker. Heres what I do.... I call
the
phone number and advise the person answering that I am from the local
electric company and I will be shutting down the power on their street for
5-6 hours. I then ask if there is anyone on life support at their residence
or if it would be a major inconvenience... If they answer yes..(and they
Do).
I tell them that I would be able to leave their power on and to confirm
their
address...they do and I have the address.
Here's one to get banking info
This is ABC Credit and you have been preapproved for a VISA card with 5%
interest and a $50.00 credit for signing up. Of course they say yes and
then
you obtain their banking info.
Here's one for a relatively untapped search: Pagers:
If all else fails, page the person and upon call back explain: This
is XYZ Paging and we're contacting you to let you know another pager
has been issued to someone with your exact phone number. To rectify
this matter we first need to know how long you've had the service? Then
proceed for name, address, and home phone number and you might as well
ask how much they pay a month for service. Can't hurt. If they balk at
giving the vital info, explain: I will need to FEDEX a form to you to
sign and return so that we may change the number of the other pager,
otherwise you will receive their calls as well as yours. Explain that
FEDEX doesn't deliver to PO Boxes either, which ensures you a physical
address.
tell them you are calling from Sears central in Chicahgo, and they were
preapproved for a $500 credit card at Sears, and a $50.00 gift certificate
at their closest sears store because of a new store promotion. Before going
any further, ask the loaction. Immediately follow it with" What dept
would
you like the credit in, housewares, electronics, or wold you prefer a
"general" credit?
(They always pick "general". Tell them they need to see the store
manager, Mr. Bill Rowalnd (or whatever) to pick up their certificate, and
they need to bring some proof of identification.
. Next, tell them you need to go over a few things and do a complete credit
app. You can also throw in date of marriage, number of kids, places of
employment and whatever else you really want.
Upon conclusion, remind them of the manager's name and tell them the
manager will make the presentation of the certificate and the new style
credit card in person.
You can also use pagers to decode a dialed telephone number from a tape
recording by playing the recording into your headphone instead of punching
in
numbers.
Ralph, Thanks for the info. I use a pre-surveillance pretext prior to starting
various cases where a time frame can be established in order to save our
on our client's budget. Usually a female op makes a call to our subject
indicating shes conducting a survey on the radio listening habits of individuals
in the tri-state. Key questions are, what radio stations do you listen to
while driving to and from work. Morning or afternoon programs etc. A well
prepaired op can have several questions at hand for responses from the subject.
Another pretext which has nevered failed me is the American Grocers survey,
again for a time element. Offering $25.00 in store coupons for a "few
seconds"of the subject's time, an op can determine the day of the week,
time and store the subject shops at. A simple question of which store do
you prefer to shop in your area and what day do you shop, can do wonders
for your worker's comp. cases. The op must remember to throw in a couple
questions which are not pertinent to the objective to keep a claimaint off
guard. Dan
I have had success getting unlisted numbers, when I have the name and
address, by calling the subjects local newspaper subscription
department and posing as him. I tell them I have not been receiving
my paper and I'd like to verify my information. After they give me
the info I say, "that's correct, my wife leaves for work before I do,
maybe she has been taking it. I'll call you back if that's not it."
I've always hated the fact that the bell systems and many other address
listers fall far short of the mark when it comes to listing apartment
numbers in addresses for those people who reside in the mass housing
communities. So I've always used the tried and true pretext of floral delivery:
Call the apartment leasing office / management and say "This is Express
Flowers, we have a deliverer in your area trying to deliver a bouquet to
Mrs. Trytohide, but we don't have an apartment number with her address.
Could you help us?"
Also replacing flowers with FedEx sometimes helps.
It's an old one, but very tried and true.
I have had success getting unlisted numbers, when I have the name and
address, by calling the subjects local newspaper subscription
department and posing as him. I tell them I have not been receiving
my paper and I'd like to verify my information. After they give me
the info I say, "that's correct, my wife leaves for work before I do,
maybe she has been taking it. I'll call you back if that's not it."
As long as we are doing " Show and Tell " Here goes my sure fire
way
of getting a address when all you have is a name and a " maybe "
city or
town......... Call the local Water Dept. right in the middle of lunch time
! Tell them you are really mad you have very low water pressure and you
want someone out to fix it right now. Give them your subject's name and
tell them the last two times they came out to fix a problem they came out
to
the wrong house, what does your records show ?? It seems that calling
the local water department people they are fairly loose with information.
Calling at the lunch hour you will get someone that could care less about
security of records ( they just want to get back to lunch ). It might
sound dumb, but it has worked for me for years !!! I hope this helps
someone out but, please don't tell the Water Departments !!!!
When you need to get LD calls and don't have a contact!
Call the phone company (Use *67 to disable your caller ID!)
Tell them you are at the airport (or just going there) with Father Flaherty
who is returning to Ireland and has been a houseguest for the past month.
The Father INSISTS on paying the LD calls he made while visiting and
considers it an insult if he doesn't. You've told him to forget it but he
says no.
You can't get to your bills because they are in your office and time is
of
the essence.
Beg and Plead, pretend the Father is there by "talking" to him!
It works!
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