Tales From the Front by Cheryl Lavin

When Harvey, a frequent contributor to Tales from the Front, recently told me he knew stuff about me that I didn't know, I sat up.

I knew there was all kinds of information available on the Internet, I just never knew how to access it. Now, thanks to Harvey, I do. He's provided us with a Guide to Snooping via the Internet.

It's a must-read for anyone thinking of dating someone they've met online, or anywhere else for that matter ...

The first thing to do is go to Google or Bing, and type in their name and where they live now or any places they have lived. Also try nicknames.

If you know what schools they attended, check the class reunion Webpages to see what year they graduated and their degree. Some university Websites allow you to search their alumni lists online and will verify if someone graduated or just attended.

Sometimes a search of their career field will turn up information. For instance, lawyers will frequently have their bio listed at their firm's Website. Same with stock-market types. Doctors will have a bio at their hospital or clinic. At the least, they'll be listed as a doctor in the yellow pages.

Go to the Website of the county where they live or have lived to search public records for civil and criminal court cases, property deeds, marriages, divorces, bankruptcies, mortgages, home equity lines of credit, etc. Many records are available online. If not, you'll have to go to the office in person.

You can make an educated guess about their income from the cost of their home, their mortgage payments, the car they drive, the restaurants they visit and the vacations they take.

(For example, if they drive a new Mercedes Benz, you can look up the sticker price and estimate their monthly car payment and insurance premiums.

You can add that to their mortgage and home equity line of credit payments and know what their absolute minimum monthly income must be. If they take frequent vacations or have expensive hobbies, you know they have considerable disposable income.)

If they do have hobbies, enter that with their name to see if the show up on any devoted Websites.

You can check any claims they make of extraordinary accomplishments. Do they claim to be a Medal of Honor recipient, Miss American finalist, Navy SEAL, Green Beret, Army Ranger, Marine Corp sniper, Eagle Scout, martial arts master, etc.? This is so rampant that there are Websites devoted to verifying these claims, nearly all of which turn out to be total bunk.

You can usually verify if they actually belong to a famous/wealthy family. For example, if they claim to be a Rockefeller or a Hilton, you can locate the family trees online and check for their name, age and picture.

For a fee, you can have an online investigator dig deeper. They can frequently give you credit reports, specific former addresses and phone numbers, places of employment, social security number and criminal history.

It all depends on how much you want to get and what you are willing to pay.

(Thank you, Harvey! I'd like to add one thing. Any woman with a child must check out any man she's thinking of becoming involved with in the National Sex Offenders Registry. www.familywatchdog.us.)

What tricks have you learned about how to snoop using the Internet? Send your tale, along with your questions and problems to cheryllavin@aol.com. You can visit her blog at www.talesfromthefront.com. To find out more about Cheryl Lavin, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.

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