MetaChat - Question.

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

24 August 2009

Question. Am I the only one who thinks that many of the Craigslist "missed connections" posts that identify someone with great specificity (full name or photo) are actually written by skip tracers?

post by: grouse at: 10:07 | 26 comments

Question: What's a skip tracer?

posted by msali 24 August | 10:16

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skiptrace

Interesting, I never thought of this.

posted by plep 24 August | 10:17

Ohhh, that never occurred to me. Good thinking, grouse!

posted by deborah 24 August | 10:22

Skip Tracer .... sounds like the character's name in a really bad detective novel lol

posted by rollick 24 August | 10:27

Note to Self: grouse knows too much

posted by Atom Eyes 24 August | 10:34

Note to Self #2: think up new name for book's protagonist

posted by Atom Eyes 24 August | 10:36

Note to Self #3: purchase Moleskine planner

posted by Atom Eyes 24 August | 10:41

grouse, can I have your cell number so I can apply your keen intellect to more of my everyday situations? I'd never have thought of this.

(Not to imply that I go around replying to craiglist missed connections posts or anything.)

posted by chrismear 24 August | 10:45

Not any more.

posted by lysdexic 24 August | 10:46

Fucking pricks. Those assholes keep trying to harass me because my roommate in college has pretty much just not paid her student loans. At all. Or even talked to them about it.

I finally sent them a certified letter telling them to go fuck themselves. That seemed to stop it.

posted by sperose 24 August | 10:48

It's probably true, but it's sooooo saaaaaaad. Have skip tracers no respect for romance?

posted by JanetLand 24 August | 11:03

I have thought that, but I did not know the term "skip tracer" before, and it is pure poetry.

posted by rainbaby 24 August | 11:13

I always get a kick out of those. What are the odds that the person they're looking for will actually read the ad and identify his/herself in it?

posted by Melismata 24 August | 11:13

Melismata, I always assume that someone who knows the person might see it and alert them. "Hey, this could be you ... you ride the Red Line ..."

I looked at a bunch of these from Chicago and didn't find any that looked, uh, skip-tracery. They were either too general, or involved a specific time and place, which if a skip tracer knew he'd be halfway home.

Really there are too many tracks these days. It's damned hard to disappear from debts.

posted by dhartung 24 August | 11:25

I have never looked at the missed connections, and any lingering curiousity has been erased. If this skip-trace thingie is going on, I find it deeply stalkerly creepy.

posted by msali 24 August | 11:53

Interesting. I hadn't thought about that.

posted by jason's_planet 24 August | 12:27

I call them bounty hunters.

posted by Specklet 24 August | 12:33

I've, er, "skiptraced" people twice, once because a client wanted to hire someone for a job and the other time because another client wants to contact a potential purchaser they knew from years ago. I also regularly Google-search prospective purchasers and tenants for clients so that we know that they're financially qualified.

My job is weird sometimes.

posted by TrishaLynn 24 August | 12:51

It never occurred to me, but I can see your point.

posted by reenum 24 August | 13:39

How does Google searching someone show that they're financially qualified?

posted by chrismear 24 August | 13:56

Oh, it's occurred to me many times. The ones that really trip my bs-ometer are like this one.

posted by Stewriffic 24 August | 14:03

@chrismear: Some people email us using their work addresses because they're searching from work and want to be contacted while they're sitting at their desk. I look up the websites and then start looking around for the client's name in the list of management or board of directors, then do Google searches with that person's name and the company name, etc.

If they pop up in the social pages, I check to see how old the pages are, if they're still philanthropically active, if there's any other kinds of news or society gossip stories about them, etc.

posted by TrishaLynn 24 August | 14:12

Man, Blade Runners used to be cool.

posted by The Whelk 24 August | 14:49

This idea is intriguing.

posted by theora55 24 August | 20:50

Two of my really good friends found each other over missed connections, on the Red Line, interestingly enough! Some cities are probably better than others for this, with Chicago among the best.

He was doing a little sociological research involving asking people if they would wear paper hats. She smiled and said yes. He posted the MC (I think) and she found it.

They're getting married next year.

posted by SpiffyRob 25 August | 03:31

Ah, makes sense, TrishaLynn. I thought you were talking about Ordinary Joes, not the kind of people who'd end up in the social pages!

posted by chrismear 25 August | 10:13

← Rant #625 about online dating. || Bathroom art... →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN