Skip Tracer

Categories: Accounting

We don’t know about anyone else, but for us, Dog the Bounty Hunter was a life-changer of a show. Seriously, what could be better than a leathered-out, Hawaiian-living, SUV-driving, big-hair-having bounty hunter running around apprehending bad guys with his band of equally awesome family members and associates? Not much, that’s what. And while we loved watching Dog’s escapades catching folks who ditched out on court dates after securing bail, we’d love even more to turn everyone’s attention to a new hero on the scene: Ferret the Skip Tracer.

A “skip tracer” is pretty much the same thing as a bounty hunter. It’s a person who goes after people who have skipped out on their legal and financial obligations. In the financial world, where Ferret the Skip Tracer makes his living, this involves tracking down people who amassed a bunch of debt and then disappeared without paying it. Ferret might not have quite as impressive of a ‘do as Dog Chapman, but what he lacks in hair and bling he more than makes up for in solid detective work. He spends a lot of his time on the computer, following his skip’s data trail until he can pinpoint their location.

He looks at financial transaction records, social media posts, county records like real estate deeds and marriage license requests, and even the activity of the skip’s known associates, all in an effort to track them down and bring them to financial justice.

Ferret doesn’t like to brag, but he makes a pretty decent living being a skip tracer. Maybe one day, he'll even get his own TV show.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is Adverse Audit Opinion?27 Views

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Finance a la shmoop. What is an adverse audit opinion and you know deficiency

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letter. Okay people this is not good you thought you had good grades but when [Report card is thrown onto the desk]

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you got your report card your teachers had opinions adverse to yours... [Report card has bad grades in it]

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They sent your parents a deficiency letter you know the one with all those [Mom looks shocked]

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D's on it well when it's a company's audit that has similarly gone awry it's [Boss looks angry and employee looks shocked]

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the nice way to say it well then it means they didn't count the beans

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properly when they gave their financial reports to their investors or whoever

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the auditors were serving usually this implies that companies overstated how [Employee counting coffee beans]

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profitable they really were or how well they were really doing so tens of

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thousands of investors if you know the company was public when this all [Big line of people waiting to invest]

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happened paid twenty seven dollars and 32 cents a share when with the real

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numbers the stock probably should have been trading more at like you know

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fourteen dollars and 27 cents a share big difference well basically an auditor

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is saying that yours are not bread-and-butter misstatements no oops [Bean report with the numbers crossed out]

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it's more of a dude there were material ie important

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mistakes and they were pervasive like everywhere math, science, english, history

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your failure it's no mystery that's how auditors talk really

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all right well then there are massive losses to massive numbers of people who hire [Protesters on a street]

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massive numbers of lawyers who sue you.. massively.. in the world of finance an

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adverse audit opinion is a bit like running over everyone's favorite dog [Car goes over a bump]

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several times only you're the one who is likely dead meat [Guy reverses and runs the dog over again and the owner comes to fight]

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)