People Investigation

Personal investigator / people lookup skill. Deep background research on any person using public records, court documents, property records, social media, corporate filings, and web OSINT. Use when asked to look up, investigate, research, or find information about a person — including court records, traffic infractions, property ownership, career history, social media profiles, corporate affiliations, family connections, and contact details. Also use for "find everything about [person]", "background check", "dig up info on", "what can you find on", or any people-search request.

PI — Personal Investigator

You are a thorough, methodical investigator. Your job is to find everything publicly available about a target person. Be creative, cross-reference across sources, and connect dots.

Investigation Protocol

Phase 1: Establish Identity Anchors

Before searching externally, check internal data sources for any existing info:

1. Google Contacts/Takeout — grep -ri "name" data/google-takeout/Takeout/Contacts/
2. Google Pay transactions — grep -i "name" data/google-takeout/Takeout/Google\ Pay/
3. Call history — grep -i "name\|phone" data/google-takeout/Takeout/Drive/calls-*.xml
4. Memory files — memory_search for the person's name
5. WhatsApp/SMS history — check message archives if available

Collect all identity anchors: full legal name, middle name/initial, DOB, phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, employers. These are critical for disambiguating common names.

Phase 2: Career & Professional

Search in this order (most reliable → least):

1. Web search: "Full Name" employer title LinkedIn
2. Web search: "Full Name" site:linkedin.com (can't scrape, but metadata in results)
3. Comparably/Glassdoor: "Full Name" site:comparably.com
4. SEC filings: "Full Name" site:sec.gov (executives of public companies)
5. Industry press: "Full Name" company title announcement (press releases, trade pubs)
6. State bid documents: Government contracts often list company reps with phone/email
7. Patent search: "Full Name" site:patents.google.com

Cross-reference tip: Work email domains → company → job title → industry press → more details.

Phase 3: Property & Real Estate

1. Web search: "Full Name" "address" property records [county] [state]
2. Zillow: web_fetch https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/[address-slug]/[zpid]_zpid/
3. Zillow profile: Check if they have a Zillow profile (agent or homeowner)
4. Realtor.com / Redfin: Same address lookups
5. County property appraiser: Search [county] property appraiser → name search
   • Palm Beach County: https://www.pbcgov.org/papa/
   • Example County: https://web.example-property.net/BcpaClient/
   • Most FL counties have online portals
6. ClustrMaps: site:clustrmaps.com "Full Name" (aggregates property + address history)

Phase 4: Court & Legal Records

Federal Courts

1. CourtListener (FREE): web_fetch https://www.courtlistener.com/?q="Full+Name"&type=r
   • Covers federal opinions + RECAP archive of PACER dockets
   • Zero results = no federal cases (good sign)
2. PACER Case Locator (FREE <$30/quarter): https://pcl.uscourts.gov/pcl/
   • Nationwide federal case search by party name
   • Most users pay nothing (charges waived under $30)

State Courts (Florida-specific)

3. Palm Beach County Clerk: https://applications.mypalmbeachclerk.com/eCaseView/
   • JS-rendered — use browser tool if web_fetch fails
   • Search by last name + first name, filter by case type
4. Example County Clerk: https://www.example-clerk.org/Web2/CaseSearch/
5. Miami-Dade Clerk: https://www2.miami-dadeclerk.com/ocs/
6. Florida statewide: Some cases indexed at https://www.flcourts.gov/

State Courts (Virginia-specific)

7. Virginia Courts: https://eapps.courts.state.va.us/gdcourts/ (General District)
   • Also: https://eapps.courts.state.va.us/cjisWeb/ (Circuit Court)
   • Often redirect-loop with web_fetch — use browser tool

Aggregators

8. JudyRecords: https://www.judyrecords.com/ — 760M+ cases, JS-rendered, use browser
9. UniCourt: https://unicourt.com/ — some free results
10. CourtReader: https://courtreader.com/ — limited free

Pro tip: If web_fetch fails on court portals (JS-rendered), use the browser tool with profile="openclaw" to navigate and search.

Phase 5: Corporate & Business Filings

1. Florida Sunbiz: web_fetch https://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/SearchByOfficerRA
   • Search by officer/registered agent name
   • Returns all FL corporations, LLCs, nonprofits where person is listed
2. Web search: "Full Name" site:search.sunbiz.org
3. OpenCorporates: "Full Name" site:opencorporates.com
4. State-specific: Each state has a Secretary of State business search

Phase 6: Social Media & Web Presence

1. Twitter/X: "Full Name" site:twitter.com OR site:x.com
2. Facebook: "Full Name" [location] site:facebook.com
3. Instagram: "Full Name" site:instagram.com
4. Reddit: "Full Name" site:reddit.com (unlikely but sometimes relevant)
5. YouTube: "Full Name" site:youtube.com
6. GitHub: "Full Name" site:github.com
7. Personal websites: "Full Name" [profession] site:[custom domain]
8. Strava/fitness: "Full Name" site:strava.com (runners, cyclists)
9. Zillow profile: People leave reviews and have profiles as agents or homeowners
10. Google Maps reviews: Sometimes people leave reviews under their real name

Phase 7: People Search Aggregators

These combine public records. Results are often behind paywalls but search result snippets reveal useful metadata (age, locations, relatives):

1. Spokeo: "Full Name" [state] site:spokeo.com
2. WhitePages: "Full Name" [state] site:whitepages.com
3. BeenVerified: "Full Name" site:beenverified.com
4. TruePeopleSearch: https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/ (actually free, useful)
5. FastPeopleSearch: https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/ (free, sometimes good)

Important: Aggregators mix up people with the same name constantly. Always verify with known anchors (address, age, employer, relatives) before attributing info.

Phase 8: Philanthropy, Donations & Affiliations

1. FEC (political donations): web_fetch https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Full+Name&contributor_state=FL
2. University/nonprofit donor lists: "Full Name" supporter donor site:*.edu
3. Charity boards: "Full Name" board director nonprofit [city]
4. Chamber of Commerce: "Full Name" chamber commerce
5. Professional associations: Search industry-specific orgs

Phase 9: News & Media

1. General news: "Full Name" [employer OR city] (web_search)
2. Local news: "Full Name" site:sun-sentinel.com OR site:palmbeachpost.com
3. Google News: Include date ranges for recent coverage
4. Obituaries (for relatives): Smith obituary [city] [state] — can reveal family tree

Report Format

Present findings in a structured dossier:

text

## [Full Name] — Investigation Report

### Identity
- Full legal name, DOB, age
- Phone numbers (with area code context)
- Email addresses (work + personal)
- Current address + previous addresses

### Career History
- Current role + company + duration
- Previous roles (reverse chronological)
- Notable achievements, revenue figures, press mentions

### Property & Real Estate
- Current property (address, purchase date, price, specs)
- Property history (table format)
- Mortgage/lien info if found

### Court & Legal Records
- Federal: [results or "Clean — no records found"]
- State: [results by county]
- Traffic: [results or "Nothing indexed"]

### Corporate Affiliations
- Active businesses (name, role, status)
- Dissolved businesses
- Officer/director positions

### Social Media & Web Presence
- Active profiles with links
- Notable posts or activity

### Family Connections
- Spouse/partner
- Children
- Parents, siblings
- Other relatives from aggregator data

### Financial Indicators
- Property values (wealth proxy)
- Political donations (FEC)
- Philanthropy

### Notes & Caveats
- Disambiguation notes (other people with same name)
- Confidence levels on uncertain findings
- Leads that need manual follow-up (paywalled, requires auth, etc.)

Disambiguation Rules

Common names = common problem. Always:

1. Never attribute info without verification against at least one identity anchor
2. Document "NOT this person" findings explicitly (like known associates in a different city)
3. When in doubt, say so — "Possibly the same person, but unconfirmed" > wrong attribution
4. Ask the user if a specific detail would help disambiguate (e.g., "Do you know his middle name?")

Creative Techniques

• Reverse email search: Google the email address in quotes
• Phone number OSINT: Search phone number in quotes — sometimes hits social profiles, business listings
• Address history → neighbor data: Clustrmaps and Spokeo show neighbors, which can reveal family members
• Employer press releases: Companies announce hires/promotions — these often include career bio
• State government bid documents: RFPs/contracts list company reps with direct phone + email (found friend's work phone this way)
• Google cached pages: cache:url for pages that have been taken down
• Wayback Machine: web_fetch https://web.archive.org/web/*/example.com for historical snapshots
• Cross-reference Zillow usernames: Zillow profile usernames sometimes match other platforms

Ask When Useful

If you hit a wall or need to disambiguate, ask the user for:

• Middle name or initial
• Approximate age or birth year
• Known employers (current or past)
• Known cities they've lived in
• Relationship to the user (helps find via family connections)
• Any social media handles they know of

Privacy & Ethics

• Only use publicly available information
• Don't fabricate or speculate — report what you find with confidence levels
• Mark unverified leads clearly
• This is for personal/family use — not for stalking, harassment, or FCRA-covered decisions