Why Search Corporate Records? WHY NOT???

We've updated all of our Corporate Records and UCC filings links!

Corporate records are a widely available, usually free, and completely underused source of information. When would they come in handy you ask? Any of the following would be a perfect example of when you should look into corporate records.

Your hiring a contractor.
Your looking into a dog walking service.
Your putting a loved one in a "retirement community"
Your partnering with another business.
Your looking to purchase something on the Internet.
Your investigating a person or company.
Your considering using a company your unfamiliar with.

The reasons are ENDLESS. The fact is, any company with a little cash can put out a commercial, a pay per click ad or other means of getting your attention. That doesn't mean they're trustworthy. Companies pop up every day and companies shut down every day. Check them out with a few simple steps.

If they don't have a physical address listed online, that's a red flag right off the bat. If they do, search corporate records in that state. See how long they've actually been around. See if they are doing business as a different name than their legal name.

Then search "DBA" (doing business as) names, "Fictitious" business names and their legal name through Google. Look for comments made by people online via blogs, newsgroups, and sites such as the the Better Business Bureau , Ripoffreports.com, Yelp, and other consumer review sites.

If the corporate records list the principals of the companies, search them through the same means but go a step further. Run their names through any criminal record and civil litigation searches available in the states they do business in.

Be proactive not reactive, it will save you a lot of misery!

Political Contributions Dont Lie!

Religion and Politics are two subjects your not supposed bring up unless you already know the answer, or you're in the mood for knock down drag out debate. Which makes us all the more curious about who falls into what category even though we pretend it doesn't matter.

Now while there's no public database (yet) to divulge the religion of those new friends and neighbors, you can still take a peek at their political allegiance to satisfy your curiosity.

We've recently updated the Virtualgumshoe links directory with the best of the best in political contributions search databases. Check out the Huffington Post FundRace for the Celebrity angle on political contributions or click over to the Federal Election Commission's database for a basic first and last name search of your friends. You can even search by zip code at OpenSecrets.org

Just don't hold it against 'em if your new friend happens to fall on the wrong side of the fence. Whichever side that might be.

Marriage Records Update

In honor of Valentines Day we have concentrated this past week on adding new links to the category Marriage and Divorce Records. This includes courts with online databases from...

• Alabama


• California


• Georgia


• Kansas


• Florida


• Louisiana


• South Carolina

Marraige and Divorce records are becoming available online slowly but surely. Some counties allow open searches on any name but many require you know the year and county of marriage. If you need to find out the approximate year someone may have been married or divorced, your best bet is start your search with property records which are more widely available. You may be able to locate the year a spouses name was added or removed from a property deed along with the county they were living in at the time.

If that doesn't help, and you're willing to spend some dough, try a good old fashion P.I. They'll trace the social security number of the person and look for people of the same last name within the address history over a 20 year period. If you don't have the SSN, a good P.I. can alway find it.