Whether you are a private investigator or an individual looking for more ways to find who you need, being able to find the owner of a PO BOX or PMB (Postal Mail Box) is good information to have on hand. Really think about it for a second, the reasons for why finding the owner could vary which could be investigating possible fraud, service of process, collecting debt, or even trying to seek the repossession of an automobile. The list can literally go on and on and on, especially if you a career private investigator.
Let’s begin our search
The first stop most make is with the instant search of a database with your access to credit headers. It’s very common for people with a PO Box or PMB to use that mailing address to receive their auto payments, bills, etc. and the lucky for you, this PO Box address appears on the headers of their credit report. This is one common way which the owners are located.
Another great means of finding your guy is to run a search using the Google search engine with the address of the PO Box as your search query. This could very well dig up a clue or two, or even information that could identify the person to help you in your pursuit.
Still no luck?
If the above two methods have yielded you no results then you just might be able to contact the post office using a form located on the website of the United States Postal Service. However, the USPS is only allowed to share the information if you are in the process of serving legal service in proper person. They will also ask you for a case number for their records.
Even with these efforts, you may still be out in the cold and not a step closer to finding the owner. Now one possibility is that the person who owns the PO Box has moved and no longer resides at the address listed with the USPS. Another possibility is that the PO Box owner used fake identification and fake address to obtain the box on their application.
Taking it to the next level
Now this is where things get interesting because you can attempt to pretext the owner by sending them professional quality material, cost-free offers, and perhaps even a letter from a secret admirer – basically anything that could fool the PMB owner to reveal their identity and true location. You want to ensure that you include a phone number that is attached to call capture technology that has automatic number identification. What this does is literally capture the callers information, even if they have blocked their call number, which you can then use to track the owner down.
If none of this works then you could also resort to surveillance and conduct a stake out at the PO Box to wait for the owner walk in for their mail. This can get pretty time and monetarily consuming as you can imagine because most mail box owners may not check their mail boxes every day or even on a weekly basis.
After reading through this guide it can appear like a lot of work just to find the owner of a PO Box, and it is. Many private investigators seek to outsource these tasks and buy the information needed from another investigator who already has the infrastructure set up to perform these operations on a routine basis.
Many private investigators have discovered that it is much more efficient to contract this work out to others which refer to themselves as information brokers. These sources have many different avenues to obtain the information they want through a network of contacts that they have grown over an extended period of time often over years of work.
When the work is contracted, the private investigator can therefore concentrate more time and effort into other priorities in their investigation such as case prep and client relations. As an individual acting as an investigator to trace things like ID theft or other fraud, partnering with an information broker will allow you to obtain your sought after information without having to obtain access to any special databases or require any type of investigative specialty skills.
