Ripped off by contractor, how to find him?

April 2, 2008 12:08 PM

Last year we wrote a check to a contractor for half the amount of a job (he'd done work for us before). He altered the check to make it out to himself personally instead of his business, got cash from the bank and disappeared. We have the cancelled check with his driver's license number on the back. Can we trace him with that (without hiring a P.I)? We live in New York State.
posted by katestap to law & government (8 comments total)

Have you reported the theft to your bank and local police? I suspect they could help you in locating him.
posted by ericb at 12:17 PM on April 2 [1 favorite]

This sounds criminal, so go to the police, or possibly your District Attorney if they specialize in check fraud. In my opinion, your bank should not have paid out the altered check so you have a good case to get the money back from them (they may disagree).
posted by grouse at 12:44 PM on April 2

You need to report this to (1) your bank and (2) the police. Then you should (3) sue him, at least in small claims. Then you wait around until he's picked up or the court can satisfy your judgment against some of his property.
posted by lockestockbarrel at 1:44 PM on April 2

I agree with grouse and ericb; I'm not sure why you'd be tracking him down yourself, unless you have already exhausted all the possibilities through the police. If I were you I'd report it to the police and the bank and see if you can get your money back that way, since it was fradulently withdrawn. (Depending on how long ago this happened you may run into issues, your bank may refuse to help you if it's been longer than a certain period ... but you never know what'll happen until you press them.)

Unless you've already gotten that process going, knowing where he is won't do much good. (Unless you plan on collecting via the Mafia route, and I can't recommend that, no matter how much of a sleazebag he is.) And once you've given it over to the police, then it's a matter of nudging them periodically to keep it on the top of the pile.

They'll be able to go from his Drivers License number to his vehicle's plate numbers, but I don't know whether you can do that yourself. In many states you can go from a vehicle plate number to a driver's license name and number (by sending a written request and a nominal fee to the DMV), but I don't know about doing it based on a DL#. Even if you could do it (and there are some web sites that claim to be able to do it for a fee, depending on the state), it would just get you the guy's address of record. If you have his name, you can probably get that much by looking in the phone book. It's not like it will tell you where he is now.

Seems like the best chance you have of catching him would be to get the police/DA to go forward with fraud charges, while possibly pursuing civil remedies as well, and getting them to issue a warrant. That will hopefully result in him getting picked up whenever he runs in with the local gendarmes next.

Here's a FAQ you might want to read. It's aimed at merchants who receive bad checks from customers, but it has a few points that you might find relevant. You must make sure you dot every I and cross every T in order to make future charges stick and hopefully get your money back.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:59 PM on April 2

When you say "contractor" do you mean he's a guy that does construction, or do you mean that he is licensed and bonded by your state?

If the latter is correct, contact the state licensing board and try to recover against his bond.
posted by Mr_Crazyhorse at 3:15 PM on April 2

zabasearch.com

Then again, you don't need to find him until you have a judgment against him in Small Claims court. Should be pretty easy to get a default judgment. Once you do, you *do not contact him* until you have a list of assets you may be able to seize. At that point, you see if you can do that BEFORE you let him know you know where he is.

--Michael
posted by gte910h at 6:29 PM on April 2

Once you get a judgment against him, you don't need to track him down at all. Rather, you can sell your judgment to a collections agency, then it will be their responsibility to find him, and you'll have the cash.
posted by delmoi at 7:28 PM on April 2

you can sell your judgment to a collections agency, then it will be their responsibility to find him, and you'll have a small fraction of the cash.

FTFY.
posted by grouse at 10:52 PM on April 2