What an Alert Is

An alert is a single public record finding — a property deed, a court filing, a business entity registration, an aircraft entry, a vessel record, or a bankruptcy case — that the sweep pipeline found, matched to your debtor's name and state, and confirmed has not been shown to you before. Every alert represents genuinely new information.

Alerts are not guesses or probabilities. They are structured records pulled directly from primary data sources: a nationwide public records network covering property records, public business registration records, civil court databases, federal asset registries, and federal bankruptcy courts. The system converts each raw record into a readable alert card with the key data points surfaced clearly.

How Alerts Are Generated

Every alert goes through the same four-stage pipeline before it appears in your dashboard:

1
Sweep — data sources are queried for your debtor
The system searches all applicable public record sources using your debtor's name and state. Individual debtors and Business debtors query different source sets. See How the Sweep Process Works for the full pipeline.
2
Match — results are scored against debtor identity
Raw results are filtered using name matching logic that handles initials, suffix differences (Jr./Sr./II), name order, and common variations. Only results that genuinely match the debtor's identity pass through.
3
Deduplicate — previously seen records are suppressed
Each match is compared against your existing alert history for that debtor. Records already surfaced in prior sweeps are not shown again. You only see what's genuinely new since the last sweep.
4
Surface — new findings become alert cards on your report
New matches are stored as categorized alert cards on the debtor's report page and, if email notifications are enabled, included in your next digest email. No new findings means no alert — the report stays quiet when there's nothing to report.

The 5 Alert Categories

Every alert belongs to one of five categories, each corresponding to a different public record source and a different type of collection intelligence:

Property
Deed recordings, title transfers, and conveyances from a nationwide public records network. Indicates real property ownership — often the most directly actionable finding.
Court Records
Civil case filings from our court records database. Shows the debtor as plaintiff (may receive settlement) or defendant (intelligence value, financial stress signal).
Business Entity
New LLC or corporation formations, status changes, and filing activity from public business registration records. New business may indicate fresh income or asset sheltering.
FAA / USCG
Aircraft registrations from federal aircraft registration records and vessel records from federal vessel documentation records. Titled personal property seizable in most states.
Bankruptcy
Federal bankruptcy filings. Chapter 7, 11, or 13 filings trigger the automatic stay — the most time-sensitive alert type.

Alert Status Lifecycle

Each alert card carries a status indicator that reflects where it sits in your review workflow. Status moves through three stages:

New— unread, needs review
Read— viewed, awaiting action
Actioned— resolved or ruled out

New alerts are highlighted prominently at the top of each category section. Once you open or view an alert, it automatically transitions to Read. When you've completed your review — verified the record, consulted your attorney, filed a motion, or determined it's not relevant — you mark it Actioned. Actioned does not delete the alert; it moves it to your resolved queue so you can focus on what still needs attention.

You can reverse an Actioned status at any time if circumstances change — for example, a case you ruled out becomes relevant again after new developments.

Tip

Work through New alerts first, then Read. Use the Actioned status liberally — it's a workload management tool, not a permanent decision. A clean report with only unresolved items in your active queue is much easier to act on than a list of hundreds of unread alerts.

"No Alerts" Doesn't Mean the System Isn't Working

A sweep that returns no alerts is a normal, expected outcome — it means the system ran, searched all sources, and found nothing new since the last sweep. This is often good news: it means your debtor has not acquired property, filed a new business, appeared in a new court case, or filed for bankruptcy.

What "no alerts" does not mean: that the debtor has no assets at all, or that the system failed. The sweep status on your debtor's report page shows the last scan time and confirms monitoring is active. If you believe a record exists that should have been found, see Why Didn't My Sweep Find Anything?

Where to Find Your Alerts

All alerts for a debtor live on that debtor's report page. To get there: from your dashboard, click the debtor's name or the "View Report" link. The report page is organized into category sections — Property, Court Records, Business Entity, FAA/USCG, and Bankruptcy — each with a count badge showing the total number of alerts in that category across all sweeps.

New, unread alerts appear at the top of their section. Previously reviewed alerts appear below with reduced visual weight. You can expand any section to see its full alert history.

Email Digest Notifications

If your account has email notifications enabled, TrackMyDebtor sends a digest email when new findings are detected across your monitored debtors. The digest summarizes what was found and links directly to each debtor's report page. You do not receive an email when a scan returns no new findings.

Marking an alert as Read or Actioned in the dashboard does not retroactively affect email history — past digest emails remain in your inbox as a timestamped record of when each finding was first discovered.

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