Need to trace someone in South Africa?

It has become quite a popular "pastime" to trace / find / search for people all over the globe, for various reasons. The Social Media revolution lead to a much enhanced awareness of the past, and remembering people that you used to know. It is not always an easy task to get hold of your first-grade friend, or your high-school sweetheart...

In the past you just never saw or heard from old school-, army- or varsity mates again, although you maybe wanted to. Nowadays you see photographs of them all over, and you remember the good old days.

Although the social media sites are also an excellent avenue to trace people, it has its limitations, mostly due to privacy regulations. It however remains the best way to start a trace for someone, and coupled with general searches on  the various search engines, will usually go a long way in establishing some sort of contact, or at least a starting point in the right direction.

In South Africa, there are certain changes currently taking place to applicable laws and regulations concerning the storing and manipulation of personal information, privacy issues and the  publishing of personal information. This will increasingly complicate efforts to obtain personal, and more specific contact details on an individual.

When you do not have adequate information on someone in order to trace successfully, or have exhausted all possible avenues without any luck, you can make use of a Professional Tracing Firm.

Be careful when selecting such a service, and always look out for a firm who operate on a No-Success No-Fee basis. All reputable companies will work on this basis, and will subsequently also not take payment upfront.

It is amazing to what lengths some of these professional tracing agents can go in order to find someone. They are linked to most information networks and data bases available and this allows them to obtain certain information which is normally unattainable by normal members of the public. 

They can work with very little information in most cases. They are able to trace details from a name only, or work from an address, telephone number or an E Mail address. They can go on company ownership, employment or previous employment... Details on a spouse or other close family members may also proof fruitful.

It always helps to have at least three bits of information. A name or ID-number or telephone number etc… linked to two or three other bits of information goes a long way in assisting to link and/or pinpoint a specific person to new and hopefully contactable details.

A typical successful trace will include some or all of the following:

• Full names and surname
• Maiden Name
• ID-Number
• Passport number
• Marital status  /  Spouse details
• Current / previous Addresses, at work & home
• Current and/or previous listed Telephone numbers
• Mobile numbers
• Current and/or previous Fax numbers, E-Mail addresses; work & home
• Place of employment; current and/or previous; plus available contact detail
• Other Info found: News, Articles, Social media…
• Business ownership details

These professionals can obviously also verify information you already have. This may proof handy when you need to confirm details obtained and/or provided to you. You can have ID-numbers confirmed, correct name-to-id number, full names, age, nationality, marital status, employment and much more.

There is hope in most instances when you need to find someone, but when someone does not WANT to be found, it can become quite a mission... Good luck in finding the person(s) you need or dearly want to find!