Category Archives: Tracing

Tracing Specialists Add Millions Of 2009 Electoral Register Records To Their Database

Tracesmart, renowned for supplying companies with data cleansing and debtor tracing solutions, have announced that they have uploaded 2009 edited Electoral register records to their database. The records have also been integrated into their Tracesmart Corporate product suite to provide their customers with access to the most up-to-date electoral information available – making them the first supplier of online people tracing services and identity checks to do so.

The definitive annual snapshot of the UK electorate, the Electoral register has two formats – the full version which is utilised to facilitate voting and credit reference checks; and the edited Electoral register which is commercially available and employed by many companies to trace people, cleanse consumer data and verify individual’s identities in know your customer exercises.

Commenting from their Cardiff Bay headquarters, Paul Weathersby, Technical Director at Tracesmart, notes how the loading of the 2009 electoral records onto their database has been their quickest to date,

“This year the process of adding electoral data to our system has been the swiftest and most efficient in company history. We have significantly improved on our strong track record by loading the data earlier than we ever have – this has been possible through both considerable expansion of our IT team throughout 2008 and an enhancement of our data collection process.”

Edited Electoral register records are a key component in both identity checks and tracing exercises as they contain both the name and address of UK citizens – essential pieces of information if you need to identify or locate an individual. The prompt release of 2009 edited Electoral register records demonstrates one of Tracesmart’s key philosophies – that their clients should be able to access the freshest data at the earliest opportunity, as Mike Trezise, Tracesmart’s Managing Director, explains,

“Electoral records play a key role in all of our services – especially in our online tracing resource and our electronic identity verification tool. As such we acquired Electoral register 2009 records at the earliest possible time to ensure that users of our services have access to the most up-to-date information available and obtain the highly accurate results that they require.”

To maintain the accuracy of the 2009 Electoral register data they hold, Tracesmart will be refreshing the records on a monthly basis from January with Rolling Register updates – equating to some 150,000 amendments per month.

  • Tracesmart Limited – was formed in 1999 and supplies a diverse range of consumer data cleansing, identity check and tracing tools to a wide variety of industries. Their client base ranges from SME to Blue Chip, who are all recipients of bespoke solutions, built around their specific needs.
  • Uploaded Records – An initial 5 million edited 2009 Electoral register records have been uploaded. Millions of additional edited Electoral register records are due to be added on a weekly basis with full coverage envisaged by the end of January 2009.
  • Paul Weathersby – Tracesmart’s Technical Director, Weathersby is the driving force behind the development and production of Tracesmart’s suite of web-based services, and manages and directs their experienced IT team.
  • Mike Trezise – is the founder and Managing Director of Tracesmart. With over 25 years tracing and fraud analysis experience his unrivalled knowledge provides the company with a distinct competitive advantage.
  • Rolling Register – The Rolling Register is a monthly Electoral register update, it allows people whose personal circumstances have changed during the electoral year (moving home etc…) or who forgot to register in time, the opportunity to join the Electoral Roll and retain their right to vote.

Tracesmart Recently Assisted A Remarkable Trace Involving A Son From Colwyn Bay In Search Of His Long Lost Dad

Michael Taylor had never met his father, David, until they were reunited for the first time last week. The father and son met each other on Michael’s 25th birthday, making the occasion even more special. Michael initially contacted Tracesmart in response to the company’s Missing Person Campaign which has been running since March, and has helped to reunite many other families in time for Christmas.

The campaign has seen a mixture of family circumstances; all involving people looking to find relatives, many with no idea of how to perform an electoral roll search. Tracesmart has a dedicated team of researchers, each working individually on a search, providing excellent support for those hoping to find relatives. Michael had thought about searching for his father for many years, and especially since he recently became a father himself. He had never attempted a people search before and was unaware how to find relatives using the internet, but he was able to provide enough information to the researcher, who in turn found a positive match instantly through Tracesmart’s simple to use people search. Mr Dibben confirmed his details with the researcher, and was overjoyed to hear that Michael was trying to find him. The reunion was made even more extraordinary as Michael and David were found to be living in the same town, only two miles apart! Michael commented “I’m still in shock, I’ve been walking around town all these years, and my Dad may have passed by many times. We now meet up regularly and are planning to spend out first Christmas together, which is going to be fantastic.”

Tracesmart aims to raise awareness of how easy it can be to be reunited with a missing person, and hope that new visitors will log on and try for themselves. Many will be missing a family member or friend this Christmas, which, in a large number of cases can be avoided through an instant people search or address search to check the details are up to date.

“We at Tracesmart are delighted to have helped Michael, and to be involved in reuniting many other families and friends, and especially at this time of year, when Christmas celebrations will highlight the importance of finding those who are missing. We hope to assist even more visitors to find relatives this year and hopefully make this festive season extra special,” added Owen Roberts, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager.

Via EPR Network
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Missing person Blog to be launched by Gill Whitley in collaboration with Tracesmart with the aim of helping reuniting people with their loved ones

Tracesmart is to launch a new website on behalf of ‘Searching for a Memory’, a voluntary tracing service run by Gill Whitley. The organisation is sponsored by Tracesmart, the leading online people search facility, and consists of Gill and a team of three other tracers working from home; their aim is to help find relatives or friends for people who have no idea where to start.

Gill, the founder of the service, has been tracing families since 1998 and since then has helped thousands of people hoping to find relatives. The new blog style website will allow visitors to share with Gill as she posts her success stories, and post comments or questions live on the site allowing her to reply personally.

The blog has been created as part of the collaboration between Tracesmart and the ‘Searching for a Memory’ team, an alliance which began early in 2008, and has been flourishing ever since. The union was formed with the aim of becoming an exceptional team in the people search arena, mixing the experience of the research team together with Tracesmart’s extensive online people search facility. Tracesmart’s Missing Person campaign launched in February of this year, with the intention of raising the profile of its vast electoral roll search facility, resulted in countless enquiries and in some cases, the information offered by the person searching was very limited, consequently it became beneficial to refer the trace to Gill and her team.

Gill commented, “I started Searching for a Memory in recognition of my late mother-in-law, who had been estranged from my husband for 34 years. I found her 11 months before she died, and thought as a tribute to her I would continue tracing to help other people find their loved ones. Over the years I would like to think I have had a great deal of success. I have used various resources during this time, but none better than Tracesmart’s excellent online address search and people search facility.” Gill added, “The facility makes tracing so much easier compared to the earlier days and can very easily be used by anyone.”

Tracesmart’s Communications Manager, Owen Roberts, commented, “The ‘Searching for a Memory’ website has been created by our in-house technical team to help Gill, we are very pleased to be able to facilitate and help Gill and her team because of the excellent voluntary service they provide. I anticipate many people will interact with the new website, and enquire with Gill for help with any Missing Person search, with the hope people will also share their success stories or questions with each other on the blog.”

  • Gill Whitley – Gill is an experienced tracer and has successfully reunited thousands of individuals through her Searching for a Memory project. Her association with the weekly Missing and Found column is published each Saturday in the Daily Mail.
  • Owen Roberts has worked in the creative, advertising and communications industries for over 25 years and is the voice of Tracesmart. Heading up the communications team, he raises the public awareness of the company through various media driven PR campaigns.

Via EPR Network
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Tracesmart Aim To Make IOD Fraud A Thing Of The Past

Making a concerted effort to stamp out Impersonation of the Deceased (IOD) fraud, Tracesmart, leading suppliers of identity verification tools, have this week launched Existence – a new suite of services with the potential to eliminate IOD fraud.

IOD is a form of identity fraud – it is estimated by the Home Office Identity Fraud Steering Committee, that identity fraud costs the UK economy £1.7 billion annually. Whilst IOD fraud has historically been hard to tackle due to the lack of death records being made available, recent changes in legislation have allowed the UK General Register Offices (GRO) to release death registration information (DRI) to commercial bodies with the aim of preventing fraud. It is this move that has enabled Tracesmart to develop their suite of services which will tackle IOD fraud head on.

Combining in-depth mortality screening and residency verification, the service allows users to ascertain whether an individual is alive and if they reside at their given address. Paul Weathersby, Technical Director at Tracesmart, commented on the data which drives these checks.

“The mortality screening element of our Existence services draws upon the GRO’s DRI data and the residency verifier calls upon a variety of consumer datasets including historic Electoral Rolls, leading gone away files and BT OSIS amongst others. The combination of these checks allows us to confidently identify deceased individuals and gone aways.”

The Existence suite comprises three services with which clients can conduct existence checks. Existence Search is an online facility which can be used to conduct single ad-hoc checks; Existence Batch is a batch screening service where multiple persons can be verified and the third, and possibly most significant service, is Existence Alert – an early warning system that notifies users of mortalities at the earliest possible opportunity.

Tracesmart has long provided tools for conducting identity checks and has a strong history in the field of fraud prevention. The combination of this experience and access to DRI will enable the Existence services to effectively help put an end to IOD fraud. Mike Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart, has already seen a high volume of interest in the product.

“Prior to launch we approached several key clients in the pension and financial sectors to gauge market interest in the product. As we suspected, the demand is most certainly there and we already have prominent pensions administrators and large schemes utilising the system to replace certificate of existence exercises, and many in the financial sector are employing it as part of their know your customer checks. Preventing IOD fraud will save businesses considerable amounts of money and protect consumers from both fiscal and emotional harm.”

Via EPR Network
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Entrepreneurial Challenge Sparks Media Interest in Tracesmart

Tracesmart has received attention from the national press following their MD’s entry into the Bank of Scotland Corporate £35 Million Entrepreneur Challenge.

Tracesmart, renowned for providing online people tracing, anti-money-laundering and know your customer (KYC) services, has recently received major interest from the national press. Having entered the South West England and Wales regional heat of the Bank of Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur Challenge, the story of Tracesmart’s Managing Director and founder, Mike Trezise, caught the attention of the Sunday Times.

The Bank of Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur Challenge is comprised of several regional heats and receives entries from all over Great Britain. Each regional winner will receive the prize of a loan up to the value of £5 million interest free and be eligible for entry into the national final in which they could win the coveted title of “Bank of Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur of the Year”.

Of the approximate 160 regional entrants, Trezise was highly received – this standing and his company’s inimitable suite of services consequently caught the attention of the Sunday Times and resulted in an article highlighting Trezise’s success being published. Speaking from the company’s Cardiff Bay headquarters, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager, Owen Roberts, commented, “Whilst Mike did not rank quite as high as we would have liked, the resulting press coverage has been great – we have received many calls from companies interested in our services. This is an exciting time for Tracesmart as we are currently experiencing rapid growth and coverage in the national press is helping to fuel our momentum further.”

Entitled “On the right track” the article, published on the 12 October, depicted Trezise’s career up to the formation of Tracesmart in 2004, it also highlighted how the rise in interest surrounding the use of online services designed to trace people has helped the company to flourish. Discussing the current high levels of interest in people tracing Trezise commented, “I know from my own professional experience that tracing is somewhat of a niche business, yet the demand has increased exponentially since I was a tracer – the current economic climate where companies are keen to reunite individuals with unclaimed assets or trace debtors has spurned this growth.”

The Sunday Times feature also identified the wide spectrum of industries that Tracesmart currently service, a list which includes banks, universities, solicitors, accountants and estate agents amongst others; demonstrating the wide range of cross-industry applications that their portfolio of tracing, data cleansing and id verification services hold.

  • Tracesmart was formed in 2004 and supply a diverse range of consumer data cleansing, identity check and tracing tools to a wide variety of industries. Their client base ranges from SME to Blue Chip, who are all recipients of bespoke solutions, built around their specific needs.
  • The Bank of Scotland £35 Million Entrepreneur Challenge offers entrepreneurs throughout Great Britain the opportunity to be rewarded for their achievements and their businesses the chance for some much deserved exposure. The challenge aims to support driven, well established businesses that are aiming to grow and become dominant forces in their markets.
  • Michael Trezise is the founder and Managing Director of Tracesmart. With over 25 years tracing and fraud analysis experience his unrivalled knowledge provides the company with a distinct competitive advantage.
  • Owen Roberts is Tracesmart’s Communications Manager and has over 25 years in the creative and advertising industries including 7 years with the BBC. Owen recently joined Tracesmart with the view of keeping one eye on public relations whilst also overseeing business development projects.

People Search Experts Tracesmart Are Teaming Up With Alan Titchmarsh Show In A Campaign To Locate Missing Persons And Reunite Them With Loved Ones

Tracesmart is once again working with programme makers aiming to reunite missing friends and find relatives. The Alan Titchmarsh show, which is produced by Spungold TV, is appealing for people wishing to be reunited with someone in their life, and Tracesmart has been enlisted to help with the search.

The production team is eager to feature emotional or uplifting reunited stories on the show as part of their Christmas programming. The Alan Titchmarsh Show broadcasts on the ITV network in the afternoons, and is presently in its third series. The programme infuses real life stories, celebrity guests with everyday advice, and topical subject matter. The show also features a new debate everyday that is examined and discussed with guests which viewers are encouraged to participate. The Christmas shows will aim to feature some of the families that Tracesmart are able to reunite and also appeals for assistance with traces that may require the help of viewers.

Tracesmart is regularly contacted by individuals needing help to find relatives or friends, and customers are suprised that through a simple address search using our electoral rollsearch facility they find the missing person is still at the same address,” comments Louise Hewlett, the PR and Trace Co-ordinator at Tracesmart.

Previously, Tracesmart has helped with stories for the hugely successful BBC daytime programme ‘Missing Live’. The series followed the work of the police and the charity Missing People in their efforts to uncover the whereabouts of hundreds of individuals every year. The programme makers also wanted to feature family reunions that had recently taken place, and highlight the difficulties some individuals encounter as they search to find the missing person.

Owen Roberts, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager commented, “Christmas always brings heartwarming stories to our screens and Tracesmart has always helped develop these stories more than most, so we are delighted to assist The Alan Titchmarsh Show. With our powerful people search facility we are confident of being able to reunite people and bring happiness to thousands who have long lost friends or relatives.”

If you would like to be reunited with a missing person and would like to be featured on The Alan Titchmarsh Show please email louise@tracesmart.co.uk

Tracesmart Limited – Since the launch of its website in 2004 Tracesmart Limited has established itself as one of the UK’s leading providers of online people tracing tools.www.tracesmart.co.uk combines state of the art search technology with an extensive collection of consumer data, providing one of the most powerful and successful systems to trace people.

Via EPR Network
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Welcome to EPR Internet News

EPR Internet News is a new blog, part of EPR Network, that is going to be focused on and will be covering the Internet news and stories from press releases published on EPR Network.

EPR Network (EPR stands for express press release) is one of the nation’s largest press release distribution networks on Web. The EPR’s nationwide network includes 12 State based PR sites, one major PR forum and a number of industry specific PR blogs and what started as a hobby on Internet years ago turned out to be a rapidly growing business today. EPR Network is also known as one of the most trusted (human optimized, published, edited and monitored, spam/scam/low quality PR content free) PR sites on the web with more than 10,000 company and individual press releases distributed per month. EPR Network is putting your press releases on top of all major search engines’ results and is reaching thousands of individuals, companies, PR specialists, media professionals, bloggers and journalists every day.

EPR Network has thousands of clients around the world including global 500 corporations like Hilton Hotels, Barclays Bank, AXA Insurance, Tesco UK, eBay/Skype, Emirates, just to name a few. The network’s PR web sites are currently reaching from 150,000 to sometimes 500,000 unique visitors per month while our viral reach could possibly go to as much as 1M people per month through our presence across various social media sites. EPR Network was established in 2004 and as of May 2008 it had more than 800,000 press releases (pages) published on its network.

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