Lien search with a shortage of equipment

Business has cycles, and sometimes there may be a shortage of equipment and growing lead times from manufacturers. Scammers and thieves know this too and up their game accordingly.

Ground Clearance sees upticks in search requests that end up being stolen equipment or just a scam of equipment being sold fraudulently. What can you do?

Verifying the name of a company at the state business division where the seller is located is a good place to start. You can learn if the company even exists. Search for the state and “business search”. Just because they have a website does not mean they are legitimate. Do an internet search, especially if the seller is an individual. Decide if you need to be asking more questions before you wire money for equipment that may or may not exist.

Requesting lien searches through Ground Clearance has another benefit. Ground Clearance works with National Equipment Register (NER, AKA IronCheck). NER data mines from the insurance industry and national crime databases. They can tell if the equipment has been reported as stolen/recovered or had an insurance claim. They have uncovered the actual owners of equipment being sold as a scam or verifying the owner when all you have is a serial number. NER does not do public UCC searches. Most equipment on the lien search requests submitted to Ground Clearance is also run through NER.

Liens filed at jurisdictions in the United States are filed by the debtor, not by the equipment serial number. UCCs are searched by the debtor/owner. By using Ground Clearance, you get both the public search and the serial number search from NER.

If your company does not have a lien search process in-house, Ground Clearance LLC can help. Our services range from retrieving UCCs, tax liens, and civil judgments nationwide in the United States and Canada, to a complete outsourcing of all your lien search activity. We will work with your staff, the owners of the equipment you are bringing into your organization, and their creditors to get payoffs, releases, and terminations.