✅ Identity Verification Services
Confirm You Have the Right Person Before Taking Legal Action — Verify Names, Addresses, SSNs, Dates of Birth, and Associations to Ensure Accurate Service, Judgment Enforcement, and Investigation — 2025
📑 What This Guide Covers
🎯 Why Identity Verification Matters
Serving a lawsuit on the wrong person wastes time and money — and can get your case dismissed. Garnishing wages from the wrong employer creates legal liability for you. Running a background check on the wrong “John Smith” produces useless results. In legal proceedings, debt collection, and investigation work, confirming that you have the right person is not optional — it is the foundation everything else depends on. 🎯
Identity verification ensures that the person you are investigating, serving, suing, or collecting from is actually the individual connected to your case. This is especially critical when dealing with common names, individuals who have changed their names, subjects with limited identifying information, or situations where multiple people share similar identifying details. ✅
Our professional identity verification services cross-reference multiple data points — name, date of birth, Social Security Number, address history, and associated individuals — to confirm identity with a high degree of certainty before you invest in legal action, service of process, or enforcement. Results in 24 hours or less. 🔍
🚨 The Cost of Getting It Wrong
📌 Serving the wrong person means starting over — wasted process server fees, wasted time, and potential dismissal if the statute of limitations runs. 📌 Filing a judgment lien against the wrong person creates liability for wrongful lien and potential damages. 📌 Garnishing the wrong person’s wages exposes you to wrongful garnishment claims. 📌 Reporting inaccurate information violates the FCRA and creates legal exposure. Every enforcement action must target the correct individual — identity verification is the safeguard that prevents costly mistakes.
🔍 What We Verify
| Data Point | What We Confirm | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| 📛 Full Legal Name | Current legal name, former names, maiden names, aliases, AKAs, and name variations used across records | Ensures correct identification in court filings, service of process, and judgment enforcement — especially after name changes |
| 📅 Date of Birth | Confirmed DOB cross-referenced against multiple data sources to distinguish between individuals with the same name | The primary differentiator for common names — two “Michael Johnson” records with different DOBs are two different people |
| 🔢 SSN Verification | Confirms the SSN is associated with the named individual, checks for deceased status, and identifies other names linked to the same SSN | The most definitive identifier — connects all records regardless of name changes, moves, or aliases |
| 🏠 Address History | Complete address timeline showing all known addresses, dates of residency, and current confirmed address | Establishes geographic continuity and confirms current location for service and enforcement |
| 📱 Phone Numbers | Current and historical phone numbers associated with the subject, including carrier and connection status | Enables direct contact and provides additional cross-referencing data points |
| 👥 Associated Individuals | Family members, household members, roommates, and business associates linked to the subject through shared addresses, records, or financial connections | Confirms identity through known relationships — “Is this the John Smith who was married to Jane Doe and lived at 123 Main Street?” |
| 💼 Employment Verification | Current and recent employers confirmed through payroll records, professional licenses, and business filings | Essential for wage garnishment — confirms the right employer before filing enforcement paperwork |
👥 Who Needs Identity Verification Services
Attorneys and Law Firms
Confirm defendant identity before filing suit, verify service addresses, ensure the correct person is named in complaints and judgments. Law firms rely on identity verification to avoid malpractice exposure from serving or suing the wrong person.
Process Servers
Confirm the person at the door is the correct subject before handing over legal documents. Process servers need identity verification when subjects deny their identity, multiple people share a residence, or the address has changed hands.
Debt Collectors
Federal law — the FDCPA and FCRA — requires debt collectors to communicate with and collect from the correct individual. Identity verification prevents wrongful collection attempts that create legal liability and regulatory exposure.
Private Investigators
Confirm subject identity before initiating surveillance, conducting interviews, or preparing reports. A PI who surveys the wrong person wastes the client’s money and produces useless evidence.
Landlords and Property Managers
Verify tenant identity during the application process and when locating former tenants for collections. Confirm the applicant’s name, SSN, and employment are real and belong to the same person.
Small Business Owners
Verify the identity of customers before extending credit, confirm debtor identity before filing suit for unpaid invoices, and validate business contacts in pre-litigation investigation.
📊 The Verification Process
Provide What You Know
Submit the identifying information you have about the subject — full name, date of birth, SSN, last known address, phone number, employer, or any combination of these. The more data points you provide, the faster and more definitive the verification.
Multi-Source Cross-Referencing
We cross-reference your information against hundreds of data sources — credit bureau headers, public records, utility connections, property records, voter registrations, professional licenses, and proprietary databases. Each data source that confirms a match increases verification confidence.
Identity Confirmation or Disambiguation
If the data confirms a single, unique individual — identity verified. If multiple potential matches exist (common with shared names), we provide disambiguating details for each candidate: different DOBs, different address histories, different associated individuals — allowing you to identify the correct subject.
Complete Profile Delivery
You receive a comprehensive identity profile: confirmed name(s), DOB, SSN validation, current address, phone numbers, employer, address history, and associated individuals. This profile serves as the verified foundation for service of process, judgment enforcement, or further investigation. Results in 24 hours or less.
📋 The Common Name Problem
Common names are the single biggest source of identity confusion in legal proceedings and investigations. A search for “Michael Johnson” returns hundreds of results. “Maria Garcia” returns thousands. Without additional identifiers, you cannot determine which one is your subject — and acting on the wrong result creates serious legal and financial consequences. 📋
📌 Why free people-search sites fail. Free websites often return multiple results for common names with no reliable way to distinguish between them. They may show outdated addresses, mix records from different individuals with the same name, or combine data from unrelated people into a single profile. Relying on free sites for identity-critical legal work is a recipe for errors.
📌 How professional verification solves it. Professional identity verification uses unique identifiers — primarily SSN and date of birth — to definitively distinguish between individuals who share the same name. When you provide a name plus DOB, or a name plus SSN, the search narrows to a single individual regardless of how common the name is. Even without SSN or DOB, professional databases use address history patterns, associated individuals, and other data points to disambiguate common names.
✅ Pro Tip: Always Collect DOB and SSN When Possible
For any business or legal relationship that might require future collection or enforcement — tenant applications, credit applications, contracts, employment records — collect the person’s full legal name, date of birth, and SSN. These three data points together virtually guarantee accurate identity verification at any point in the future, regardless of name changes, relocations, or the passage of time.
⚖️ Legal Scenarios Requiring Identity Verification
Service of Process
Before serving a lawsuit, confirm the defendant’s identity and current address. Serving the wrong person voids service and wastes time. If the defendant has a common name or has changed their name, verification is essential. See our service guide.
Judgment Enforcement
Before filing wage garnishments, bank levies, or judgment liens, verify that you are targeting the correct person’s employer, bank, or property. Enforcing against the wrong person creates liability for wrongful garnishment or lien.
Probate and Estate
When locating heirs, verify that the person identified is actually the beneficiary named in the will or trust — not a different person with the same name. Distributing estate assets to the wrong person is a fiduciary disaster.
Child Support Enforcement
Verify the identity of the non-custodial parent before filing child support enforcement actions. Incorrect identification can lead to enforcement actions against an innocent person — a serious due process violation.
Background Investigation
Ensure background checks pull records for the correct individual. Criminal records, civil judgments, and liens filed under similar names may not belong to your subject — and reporting them as if they do violates the FCRA.
Pre-Litigation Investigation
Before suing a business or individual, verify that you are naming the correct defendant. Suing the wrong entity or person wastes resources and may allow the actual wrongdoer to escape liability while you pursue someone else.
🚫 Fraud Detection and Identity Red Flags
Identity verification also reveals when something is not right — potential fraud, identity theft, or deliberate misrepresentation. Watch for these red flags: 🚫
📌 SSN does not match the name. If the SSN provided by a person is linked to a different name in our databases, this suggests identity theft, fraud, or a clerical error. Further investigation is needed before proceeding.
📌 SSN belongs to a deceased individual. SSNs from the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File appearing in active use strongly indicate identity fraud. The person using this SSN is likely not who they claim to be.
📌 Multiple SSNs associated with one person. While rare, some individuals use multiple SSNs — either through identity theft, immigration irregularities, or deliberate evasion. Multiple SSNs on a single identity profile warrant careful investigation.
📌 Address history gaps or inconsistencies. A subject with no address history for a period of years (a “gap”) may have been incarcerated, living overseas, or deliberately avoiding records. Sudden appearance of a new identity with no prior history is a red flag for fabricated identity.
📌 Age inconsistencies. If the DOB provided makes the person significantly younger or older than expected (e.g., a 25-year-old with a credit history going back 30 years), identity confusion or fraud may be at play.
⚠️ Identity Theft and Its Impact on Your Case
If someone is using a stolen identity, your subject may have records under multiple names — and the records you find may belong to the identity theft victim, not your actual target. Professional identity verification untangles these situations by analyzing the complete data picture: which records cluster together logically, which SSN is genuinely associated with which person, and which records represent the victim versus the perpetrator. This level of analysis is impossible with free search tools.
🛡️ Legal Compliance
Identity verification services must comply with federal and state privacy laws: 🛡️
📌 FCRA compliance. When identity verification is used for employment screening, tenant screening, or credit decisions, the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies. The subject may have the right to dispute inaccurate information and receive notice of adverse actions taken based on the report.
📌 GLBA compliance. Financial data used in identity verification is protected by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Access requires a permissible purpose — litigation, judgment enforcement, service of process, or other legally authorized uses.
📌 DPPA compliance. Motor vehicle records used in verification are protected by the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act. Access is limited to authorized purposes including legal proceedings, service of process, and investigation.
📌 Permissible purpose required. Professional identity verification is not available for curiosity, personal grudges, or stalking. Every search must have a legitimate legal, business, or investigative purpose. Skip tracing and identity verification are legal when conducted for authorized purposes through compliant providers.
✅ Verify Before You Act — Results in 24 Hours or Less
Our professional identity verification and skip tracing services confirm that you have the right person before you invest in legal action, service of process, or judgment enforcement. Multi-source cross-referencing, SSN validation, address history confirmation, and complete identity profiles. Over 20 years of experience serving attorneys, process servers, and collection professionals nationwide.
Order Identity Verification →❓ Frequently Asked Questions
📚 Related Resources
📋 Disclaimer
This guide is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Identity verification services must be used for lawful purposes only. People Locator Skip Tracing provides professional identity verification and skip tracing services in compliance with all applicable federal and state privacy laws — we do not provide legal advice or legal representation. Information current as of 2025.
