The repo man now hunts on social media

LAS VEGAS -- Social media is used for more than just keeping up with friends.

It's also being used to find people who have defaulted on their auto loans, as a way to track down vehicles earmarked for repossession.

Art Sookazian, vice president of special services at the Los Angeles Federal Credit Union, said he knows of skip-trace companies and investigators that specialize in finding people with delinquent accounts by scouring Facebook and other social media sites.

He said his credit union does not use social media for that purpose because it blocks access to those sites to prevent employees from being "distracted." But a lot of companies in the business of tracking down people and cars do, he said.

"Finding people in today's market is really not that tough," Sookazian said on the sidelines of a panel discussion at Auto Remarketing magazine's Used Car Week event here last month. The discussion was about the state of the auto finance industry.

"People post where the wedding is, where the reception is, and how we took a trip. You'll see a lot of interesting information on these public websites," he said. 

But even if social sleuthing is legal, some common social media practices, such as "friending" someone on Facebook to find a person's whereabouts, could be perceived as deceptive and violate the Federal Trade Commission Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, he cautioned. 

But Sookazian added: "Look, there is public information out there, and it can be used to ascertain location."