How Pretexting Helped Serve Divorce Papers on a Runaway Mother
I Lawfully Pretexted
In 2004 through 2005, I was a branch manager for online legal process service 1-800-serve-em.com, a firm licensed in Florida to do private investigations in the course of serving process. This company is a middle man between your lawyer, and the process server, and it is typically needed in cases where witnesses or opposing parties are living or hiding in other states or countries. Serve-em skip-traces persons in need of legal service, then hires a local process server where that individual is thought to be located. Generally, the harder they hide, the more difficult it is to serve them with legal papers.
These papers could be lawsuits, divorces, custody filings, restraining orders, subpoenas, eviction notices, and targets range from officers of big corporations to everyday people who have gotten caught up in a legal dispute, to IRS agents.
You never know what is going to happen the next day, but one thing is certain: the most entertaining and some of the most heartbreaking serves are typically upon the most weasely people.
I saw doctors hiding from malpractice suits by enlisting in the military in order to be sent over to Iraq (where the Soldiers and Sailors Act would protect them from lawsuits by people they have maimed or killed by their negligence). The day one particular doctor finished his tour and got home was a rewarding day: he got served as soon as he stepped off base, and a little girl who was permanently disabled finally got her day in court to hold that man responsible.
The saddest serve I coordinated was a simple divorce. The problem was that the wife had run off to Colorado with her much younger boyfriend, and was hiding from process servers. The husband knew where she was, as she was using his credit cards to pay for things delivered to her ski lodge, but she wouldn't answer the door. Divorces are typically no big deal, but apparently there was a young daughter involved back home, so proper legal procedure needed to be followed to ensure a proper process to attain custody could be achieved.
There were also financial aspects. The couples credit cards were tied to their mutual bank accounts, and she was spending all their savings on her fling. The husband couldn't get her name off the accounts, or have them frozen, unless he provided an affidavit that she'd been served with divorce papers.
Our server could hear her dog barking inside, and people moving about and talking, but they just would not answer the door for anything.
Finally, I found the phone number for the house, and called her there (I'll call her Amy Smith for convenience). Serve-em has a prextext phone line that appears on caller ID as an office of a well known package delivery company. Often we will impersonate a delivery guy trying to deliver a package from a high-end jewellery or watch company (people always are looking for expensive freebies). In this case, I suspected that the mother, who had been on the lam for three months, might be missing her daughter.
Using that line to call her, she picked up the phone.
When I called, I asked, "Ma'am, are you Amy Smith, or does she live there?"
"Yes, why?"
"Well, this is Verne at A_____ Logistics, and we've been trying to deliver a package to your address, but apparently nobody has been home. Is it possible that you could give us a time to meet you there so we could get this package to you? It has to be signed for."
"Who is it from?"
"Well, it says Sally Smith (the daughter she'd abandoned to her husband), and its written in crayon, in a little kids writing."
There was a bit of a gasp on the other end, and she said, "I'll be here at 3 pm."
I had the process server put on a hat from the shipping company (he had once worked for them), and put the papers in a labelled envelope from that company. He went to the door, she opened it, and standing there was her 18 year old boyfriend as well. As the server handed her the envelope, he pulled out the divorce papers and said, "You're served."
All she could say, beyond her look of crestfallen guilt, was, "You got me."
Was that mean? Maybe, but so are moms who abandon their daughters. In this business, nobody gets pretexted who doesn't have it coming to them.
Published by Michael Lorrey
Lebanon HS, Lebanon, NH: 1986WPI: 1987USAF: 1988-1990Owner, EL Concepts, Inc.: 1991-1995IT Consultant: 1996-PresentDatamann.com: 1997-2001VT Transit: 2002-2003Serve-em.com: 2004-2005Written 6 software manual... View profile
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- pretexting is a valid investigative tactic
- people who pretexting is used against are typically deserving of the treatment
- pretexting is often necessary to complete legal process service
13 Comments
Post a CommentI didn't know what a process server did until I looked it up. Here's a good resource: http://www.processservers.com/resources/faqs#faq1
Maybe her kid was a brat, and took after her dad. In that case, it would have been better for the mom to just not answer the door. If she had just waited til the kid was 14, she might have been able to put it all in perspective.
Too many illegalities for me. Never call and impersonate an existing delivery, or any other company. Never show up at the door wearing a partial uniform or delivery envelope of that company. Never modify a caller ID to show a phony incoming call. As someone else said, the delivery company may go after the impersonators. It's like going to the door and knocking, "Pizza Hut Delivery!" (Wearing a Pizza Hut outfit, carrying a Pizza Hut Box. Same difference - WRONG!
Some people are so afraid their rights are going to be stepped on that they are willing to make it so hard "leagally" to apprehend crimnals. I am a policman and frankly to the point of quiting because the view of the public has made it very hard to do my job.
Maybe then when there is no police left to protect you, you will realize the error in your ways and you can deal with the thugs yourselves Ms.Lynn. (It is the few, that mess it up for the many.)
I don't know. I thought it was against FTC rules to impersonate a real company in your pretext,i.e., FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc. Don't get me wrong, I agree that we should be able to do pretext in order to serve papers and I really do not care about it looking like her rights are being violated. What rights? I am just a little hesitant impersonating a real entity.
I'm sorry, but pretexting with service of process and pretexting for a corporate witch hunt are two entirely separate beasts. Service of process should allow for pretexting in some instances, but the invasion of privacy that third party pretexting involves is completely different.
What an amazing story, All I can think about is how can a mother do that to her child. Even though she obviously still feels so much for the child. I know there are cases of heartless, or down on their luck mothers every day. Then there is this case of a mother who so is obviously ignororing the needs of her child. It just leaves me in amazement.
In Florida, you attempt to served in the last known location of a person in a divorce and then run an ad in the local paper's legal notices. There is no absolute need to get a signature. The court date comes and your soon to be ex-spouse doesn't show up. The divorce goes through. Pretexting is wrong. It is unethical.
I'm not exactly sure how all of these shady tactics are a good thing. Impersonating company personnel? Manipulating caller id information? I'm sure this woman would get what was coming to her regardless of these tactics. This is all fun and good until you have a criminal at your door dressed as the UPS guy and ready to rob you or worse. I don't see the humor in that. This is a dangerous game and we have a legal system which should prevent this--these tactics are really walking a fine line. That "shipping" company should be suing for people impersonating their employees and frankly, this should be a violation of this woman's rights. I'm not arguing that what she was doing was right, but in America we tend to value our freedoms--no matter what they are--and this goes beyond violation.
I'm not exactly sure how all of these shady tactics are a good thing. Impersonating company personnel? Manipulating caller id information? I'm sure this woman would get what was coming to her regardless of these tactics. This is all fun and good until you have a criminal at your door dressed as the UPS guy and ready to rob you or worse. I don't see the humor in that. This is a dangerous game and we have a legal system which should prevent this--these tactics are really walking a fine line. That "shipping" company should be suing for people impersonating their employees and frankly, this should be a violation of this woman's rights. I'm not arguing that what she was doing was right, but in America we tend to value our freedoms--no matter what they are--and this goes beyond violation.