# Skip Trace | Owner Phones & Emails — Pay Only for Hits (`thermostatic/skiptrace`) Actor

Skip tracing & people search: name, address or phone in → ranked phones (type, carrier, confidence), emails, address history, relatives & associates out. Corroborated across sources. Pay only for matched records. For wholesalers, collections, process servers & investigators. Lawful B2B use only.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/thermostatic/skiptrace.md
- **Developed by:** [Irving Ernesto Quezada Ramírez](https://apify.com/thermostatic) (community)
- **Categories:**
- **Stats:** 4 total users, 3 monthly users, 97.1% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $7.00 / 1,000 person founds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Skip Trace — Owner Phones & Emails | Pay Only for Hits

Find phone numbers (ranked, with type & carrier and a 0–100 confidence
score), emails, current & past addresses, relatives and associates — by
name, address, phone number, or property owner. 7 US people-search sources,
cross-source corroboration, per-record provenance. **You are charged only
for matched records — never for misses.**

> Not for FCRA purposes (employment, credit, or tenant screening). Lawful
> B2B use only.

### Pricing

| Event | What you pay for | Free plan | Paid plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| person-found | a matched person record (≥1 phone or email) | $0.02 | $0.005 → $0.007 at volume |
| Run fee | once per run | $0.01 | $0.01 |

You are never charged for lookups that return nothing. Set a hard per-run
spending cap in the run options.

### Example output

*Sample record — structure identical to production output.*

```json
{
  "name": "Jane Sample",
  "age": 54,
  "location": "Austin, TX",
  "phones": [
    {
      "number": "(555) 010-0199",
      "line_type": "Wireless",
      "carrier": "AT&T",
      "confidence": 85,
      "confidence_reasons": ["base", "mobile", "reported 2 months ago"]
    },
    {
      "number": "(555) 010-0142",
      "line_type": "Landline",
      "carrier": "Frontier",
      "confidence": 28,
      "confidence_reasons": ["base", "landline", "reported 96 months ago"]
    }
  ],
  "emails": [{"address": "jane.sample@example.com", "status": "Current"}],
  "address_history": [
    {"address": "1200 Sample St, Austin, TX 78701",
     "county": "Travis County", "recorded": "Mar 2019 - Aug 2026"}
  ],
  "relatives": [{"name": "John Sample", "age": 57,
                 "relationship": "Spouse"}],
  "source": "fastpeoplesearch.com",
  "person_link": "https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/jane-sample_id_G000"
}
```

### Accuracy benchmark (updated monthly)

| Source | Hit rate¹ | Median phones/person | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| fastpeoplesearch | — % | — | initial n=500, 2026-09 |

¹ hit = ≥1 phone returned. Benchmark methodology in `docs/`.

### Inputs

| Input | Format |
|---|---|
| Names | `"Amalia Castillo; Dallas, TX 75228"` (one per line) |
| Addresses | `"13770 Paseo Central Ave; Horizon City TX 79928 \| Maria Harper"` |
| Phone numbers | `"(208) 794-8562 \| Alan Harper"` |
| Owner names + property addresses | paired line-by-line — built for property-lead lists |

**Options:** sources (7), cross-source corroboration, output profiles
(dialer / address\_verification / investigation / estate / raw), min phone
confidence, max-concurrency, requests-per-minute cap, US proxy exit by
default (US exits required for full data), optional premium unlocker key
for the hardest source.

### FAQ

**Is this FCRA-compliant?** No — not for employment, credit, or tenant
screening. Lawful B2B use only.

**What if a source blocks my run?** Every search fans out across all
selected sources at once — one blocked source never zeroes your run, and
skipped sources are reported in the run log. The actor also applies
stronger anti-blocking countermeasures and retries automatically; US
residential proxies maximize completeness.

**How does truepeoplesearch work when other scrapers fail on it?** Its
captcha gate rejects ordinary proxy IPs, so the actor routes it through a
premium unlocker. Add your unlocker API key (scrappey.com works, ~€1 per
1,000 requests, billed by the provider) and it behaves like any other
source — full records, same format.

**Do I pay for empty results?** Never.

### Support

Run logs explain skipped records, blocked sources and their fixes. For
anything else, contact the actor author via the Issues page.

# Actor input Schema

## `name` (type: `array`):

Full name to search, one entry per search. Optionally append a location: 'Amalia Castillo; Dallas, TX 75228'. Default runs a real search so the daily platform auto-test produces a non-empty dataset.

## `street_citystatezip` (type: `array`):

Address to search, street and city/state/zip separated by a semicolon: '13770 Paseo Central Ave; Horizon City TX 79928'. Append ' | Full Name' to pick a specific resident.

## `phone_number` (type: `array`):

Phone number to search, e.g. '(208) 794-8562'. Append ' | Full Name' to pick a specific person.

## `owner_name` (type: `array`):

Owner name, paired index-wise with property\_address. Only the matching owner is expanded (person picker).

## `email` (type: `array`):

Reverse email search (thatsthem source). Returns people summaries tied to the address.

## `sources` (type: `array`):

Which data sources to query. Every search fans out to all selected sources in parallel, so one blocked source never zeroes a run. thatsthem adds reverse email search; radaris adds employment data. truepeoplesearch runs through a premium unlocker automatically when an unlocker key is configured (see below).

## `max_results` (type: `integer`):

How many people from each search's result list to expand into full records (phones, emails, address history, relatives).

## `max_concurrency` (type: `integer`):

Parallel requests. Lower this if the source starts serving Cloudflare challenges.

## `max_requests_per_minute` (type: `integer`):

Politeness cap protecting IP reputation during bulk runs. Lower it if a source starts blocking.

## `min_confidence` (type: `integer`):

Drop phones scoring below this 0-100 confidence before results are charged. 0 keeps everything.

## `fingerprint_preset` (type: `string`):

Browser fingerprint preset (e.g. chrome-latest, firefox-latest, safari-latest). Keep the default unless you have a reason.

## `proxy` (type: `object`):

RESIDENTIAL + US by default (required for full data on all sources; residential transfer is billed to the run's account). Custom proxyUrls also supported. Runs without a proxy will be blocked by most sources.

## `output_profile` (type: `string`):

Shape dataset rows for your use case: dialer (wholesaling cold-calling), address\_verification (process servers / collections), investigation (PI/OSINT, full provenance), estate (relatives graph), raw (full record).

## `unlocker_api_key` (type: `string`):

Optional. Lets the actor fetch the most-protected source (truepeoplesearch) through a premium browser-unlock service when its captcha gate rejects proxy IPs. Recommended: scrappey.com (~€1 per 1,000 requests, billed by the provider). For a properly masked secret, leave this empty and set the key as the actor's secret environment variable unlocker\_api\_key instead.

## `corroborate` (type: `boolean`):

Query the same person on multiple sources and merge into one record per person; phones are confidence-scored (0-100) by line type, report recency and how many sources list them, ranked best-first. Slower and costlier.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "name": [
    "Alan Harper"
  ],
  "sources": [
    "fastpeoplesearch",
    "fastbackgroundcheck",
    "thatsthem",
    "truepeoplesearch",
    "radaris",
    "searchpeoplefree",
    "familytreenow"
  ],
  "max_results": 1,
  "max_concurrency": 5,
  "max_requests_per_minute": 240,
  "min_confidence": 0,
  "fingerprint_preset": "chrome-latest",
  "proxy": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "US"
  },
  "output_profile": "raw",
  "corroborate": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One row per person with verified contact data: ranked phones (type, carrier, confidence), emails, address history, relatives and associates. Charged per record. Misses and discovery summaries land in the separate uncharged 'summaries' dataset.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("thermostatic/skiptrace").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("thermostatic/skiptrace").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call thermostatic/skiptrace --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,thermostatic/skiptrace"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/i8eh5Iq4zIeHsd8Pe/builds/ADQojPXaeflmw4cqq/openapi.json