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12/06/2017

Who's that interrogating you? These tools can help you avoid a sting

From Poynter

Friends call it creepy. Then they ask me to look up their Tinder dates. It's probably weird, but I love to research the people I meet.

My opinion has always been that it’s a good impulse for a journalist to have. After Jaime Phillips (or whatever her name is) tried to con the Washington Post into filing her falsified story, I stand firm in that conviction. Especially after hearing that she attended journalism networking events, where we often let our guard down, to try to gain reporters’ trust. 

This isn’t something I do for nefarious purposes. I never use this information in bad faith and, as journalists, I trust you won’t, either. And I’m sure the terrific reporters and researchers at the Post have a thorough process and powerful tools to figure this stuff out. But here’s how I do my research on the cheap.

If I have a full name, I start by running it through Pipl and Spokeo, two slightly creepy people search sites (you can opt out of them, by the way). The sites will usually return an address and will occasionally also offer information about others who live or have lived at that address, as well as links to any social accounts that person has. Voila. You’re off to a good start, and just need to do some digging through what you’ve found to verify that the person is who they claim. 

If I don’t have a full name, I google the person’s first name and their job, their current town, any unique interests I know they might have or a combination of the three. 

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