The amateur detective

Searching the Net can be anything but elementary. But never fear: You can put some method in the madness. Here are the steps that our stealthy reporter followed and some links that could help jump-start a search of your own.

Getting tipped off
Pages that provide useful links and instruction on how to be a cybersleuth.

	The Stalker's Home Page: provides a wealth of tips and links to find and protect private information
	The Private Investigators Mall: an excellent starting point. It provides several links to PI home pages, referrals to investigators, tips on conducting searches, and a list of links
	Finding People on the Internet
	Sherlock@--The Internet Consulting Detective: a storehouse of tips and links
	The Internet Sleuth
	CNET's SEARCH.COM
	Yahoo's list of online investigators

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Just the facts
Sites that allow free searches of publicly available addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.

	Yahoo or Excite: if the person is a Net user
	Yahoo's people search
	InfoSpace
	DejaNews: a fully searchable archive of bulletin boards
	Switchboard: a popular nationwide telephone directory
	Four11 White Pages: telephone and email directory.
	Internet Address Finder

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Digging deeper
Sites that allow more specific, free searches.

	Military City Online Web Outpost: to search out people in the armed services
	Gopher links to university and other directories
	ReuNet: The Reunion Network: billed as the original missing people's network, this site helps find long-lost family and friends
	Ancestry Search: includes a free Social Security search of deceased Americans and other links
	The Missing Persons Pages: search a database of missing persons or submit a report about a missing person

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Offline intelligence
Sites that put you in touch with a human being. Keep in mind, you must generally pay for these services.

	1-800-U.S. SEARCH.
	Nationwide Investigations
	Pritchett Bureau of Investigation
	The Integrity Center

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On the record
Sites that allow searches of record databases; a combination of free and pay services

	KnowX and the The American Information Network will do court public records searches for free; you have to pay for the information if it's found, but it's fairly cheap
	Confi-chek is a brand-new site that says it will allow limited low-fee automated checks of records
	CDB Infotek is one of the most popular Web databases used by investigators but requires membership
	WESTLAW is another subscription-based service

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When all else fails
Sites that tell you where to write for information.

Where to write for vital records

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(NOTE: This is by no means a comprehensive list of all engines and services on the Net. NEWS.COM does not endorse the sites behind these links.)

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