B2B skip-trace · contact append · defensible
Contact Detective traces business contacts and appends the fields that went stale — direct dials, current employer, working email — and scores every hit so you know whether to dial it or bin it. We are not a people-search site. We do not sell consumer dossiers. Every row ships with a confidence grade and a source class you can put in front of counsel.
Match confidence
A phone number without a confidence grade is a coin flip with your caller-ID reputation on the line. We score identity resolution, recency, and cross-source agreement into a single 0–1 grade, then hand you the source class so you know how it was found.
Median grade on the last billed batch. Anything under 0.62 ships unbilled and flagged REVIEW.
64% graded A (≥0.85) · 23% graded B · 13% held for review.
Recency heat
Each cell is a day of the current matter cycle. Darker means more high-confidence resolutions landed that day — carrier windows and filing updates cluster mid-week, so that's when a batch is worth running.
The case board
Every list is a matter with a chain of custody. ON = resolved and delivered. DELAY = waiting on a carrier or registry window. HOLD = a suppression rule tripped and a human is looking.
Suppression policy
Suppression isn't a checkbox — it's a rebuilt list every weekend and a rule engine that runs before delivery. If a contact is on a suppression list, it never reaches your CSV, matched or not. This is what keeps a B2B trace from becoming a liability.
76% of a submitted matter ships as billable, graded rows. The rest is suppressed or held — on purpose.
Sample delivery
Five rows from a redacted B2B revival matter. Every hit carries a confidence grade and a source class. You bill on A/B rows; REVIEW rows are free and flagged.
| Subject | Field found | Source class | Conf. | Grade | Billed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ops Dir · Kestrel Mfg | Direct dial | Cross-source | 0.93 | A | Yes |
| Owner · Delta Coil | Current employer + email | Registry | 0.81 | B | Yes |
| CFO · Harborline | Direct dial | Employer link | 0.88 | A | Yes |
| Buyer · Piedmont | Mobile | Carrier ping | 0.71 | B | Yes |
| GM · Northwind | Mobile (single-source) | Single-source | 0.58 | REVIEW | No |
Inside the desk
Left: the trace desk during a mid-week carrier window. Right: the console a client opens — case board, confidence grades, and the source class on every hit. No mystery numbers, no scrolling for provenance.
Capabilities
Fill the gaps in an existing B2B list: direct dial, current title, working email, current employer.
When someone moved employers or numbers, we resolve the identity across sources and re-establish the link.
Litigation, DNC, dispute, and consumer-only registers applied before delivery. Rebuilt weekly.
Every row records source class, resolution date, and grade. Exportable for counsel, defensible in a dispute.
Current-address and employer locates for counsel who need to serve a business party, not surveil a person.
A one-click dispute path per row. Disputed contacts are suppressed account-wide within one business day.
How a matter runs
A real matter
Intake. Purpose confirmed: locating commercial judgment debtors for a licensed collections firm. Cleared.
Pre-scrub suppressed 16 rows — three on cease-contact, thirteen consumer-only. Removed before trace.
214 of 214 remaining resolved. Median confidence 0.89. Eleven held for review.
Review cleared 7, dropped 4. Chain-of-custody sheet generated per row.
Delivered. 210 billable A/B rows. Counsel had the source class they needed for the file.
Fit
Proof
"The confidence grade is the whole thing. My collectors stopped burning the dialer on dead numbers because they finally knew which rows to trust. Disputes basically disappeared."
— Managing partner, commercial collections firm"I've used the big people-search tools. This is the first one that told me 'no' to a list — and that's exactly why I trust the yeses. The probate skip match rate is unreal."
— Acquisitions lead, regional REI fundMedian standard batch delivered in 4 hours. Deep trace, same day.
Rates
Data handling
A skip-trace desk that keeps your subjects forever is a breach waiting to happen. We treat retention as a liability to minimize, not an asset to hoard.
Default: raw inputs expire at day 30. Matter clients set their own hold window.
Questions we get first
No. Contact Detective resolves business contacts for legitimate business and legal purposes. We do not assemble consumer reports and our data must not be used for any FCRA permissible purpose.
It's a 0–1 blend of identity-resolution strength, recency, and cross-source agreement. A (≥0.85) is dial-ready. B is usable with judgment. Below 0.62 ships as REVIEW and unbilled.
Your list is scrubbed against litigation, DNC, dispute, and consumer-only registers before any trace runs, and again before delivery. Suppressed rows never reach your file. Registers rebuild weekly.
There's a one-click dispute path per row. A disputed contact is suppressed account-wide within one business day and logged in your chain-of-custody record.
No. Intake includes a purpose check. If a request reads as consumer surveillance or an FCRA purpose, we decline it, note the reason, and send it back.
Ask about a sheet append, a matter review, or the name in the banner. Lawful business purposes only.