By Ed Opperman

Sometimes as a PI you’ll be asked to locate and or identify the physical address for the owner of a PO BOX or Postal Mail Box (PMB).

There could be many reasons why is information is required. Fraud investigation, service of process, debt collection, auto repossession. The list is as endless as the types of cases you run across in a career.

This can often be accomplished with an instant database search if you have access to credit headers. When people have a PO Box they will often use that address for their bills or car payments etc and the PO Box will appear on there credit headers as an alternate address.

Another effective method is a simple google search of the PO box address. This could turn up some identifying information or reveal clues to pursue in your efforts.

If it’s not there you may be able to contact the PO using a form available on the USPS web site. This form requires you to disclose the reason you need the information. The USPS will only reveal the information if you are attempting to serve legal service in proper person. They even require a case number.

Sometimes these methods will still fail. It could be that the owner of the box has relocated since they opened the box and no longer live at the address they provided the USPS. It’s also possible the the PO Box owner used false ID and a false address to set up the box in the first place.

You can try to pretext the PMB owner by mailing them professional looking material, free offers, maybe even a love letter, anything to trick the owner into revealing their identity. These mailings should always include a trap line phone number with call capture. Call capture is also known as automatic number identification (ANI). This will reveal the callers identifying information even if they have caller ID blocked If the mail box owner calls you’ll get their information and can trace them that way.

In rare cases when all else has failed you can try surveillance. Stake out the box and wait for the owner to come by and pick up his mail. This could prove to be very expensive as not all mail box users check their box every day or even every week

This may sound like a lot of work for a simple PO BOX Break. Setting up trap lines , obtaining credit headers, printing up pretext post cards. Many investigators like to out source this type of work and purchase the information from an investigator that’s already set up to routinely obtain this kind of information.

Many investigators find that it’s far more cost effective to subcontract this kind of routine work out to other investigators often called information brokers. These brokers have sources for all kinds of information through a network of sources they cultivate over many years.

A busy investigator can concentrate on the main focus of their investigation, client relations and case preparation. Let the information broker handle the routine phone breaks or PO Box breaks. Save yourself time, energy and money in the long run.

About the Author: For assistance in performing a PO Box Break contact Ed Opperman Pres of Opperman Investigations Inc through his web site emailrevealer.com

Source: isnare.com

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