Reading paths by role
UserSearch is used by very different people for very different reasons, and one linear tour would fail most of them. This page gives you three front doors. Find the one that sounds like you, then follow its numbered path from top to bottom — each step links to the page that answers it.
Everyone here shares two facts, whichever door you take: you are spending money (searches are metered in Credits), and you are handling real personal data about real people. Keep both in view as you read.
Which reader are you?
Section titled “Which reader are you?”| Search once | Run casework | Govern a team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| You are | A first-timer checking one person | An investigator running real cases | An admin who owns the account, spend and risk |
| You want | One search that works, with no surprise charge | Coverage, fast pivots, and defensible output | Control over spend, people, cases and audit |
| Start at | Your first search | Data sources and reliability | Credits and pricing |
Search once — the first-timer
Section titled “Search once — the first-timer”You found UserSearch to check one thing: whether a match, a buyer, a landlord, or a stranger is who they say they are. You have never run an OSINT search before, and your two worries are getting charged more than you expected and not knowing whether a result is real. This path gets you through one confident search and no further.
- Your first search in 5 minutes — run one free username search end to end: pick a Search type, run a Module, and see a result that isn’t “not found.”
- Choose OneScan vs a single data source — when in doubt, start with OneScan, the broad multi-source Module. This page explains why it’s the safe default and what a single data source Module does differently.
- Found, Enriched, Connections and Match Accuracy — read your results honestly. This is the most important page for you: it explains what the three counters mean and, critically, what Found and Match Accuracy do not mean. A match is not a confirmed identity.
- Results table, counters and statuses — a closer look at the populated results screen, its columns, and the per-row status flags.
- Credits and pricing reference — free vs fixed vs dynamic-cost searches, so you always know what a search costs before you click Search Now.
Run casework — the investigator
Section titled “Run casework — the investigator”You run real, often billable searches, and you already think in selectors and pivots. You don’t need “what is a breach” explained — you need this platform’s specifics: which data source sits behind which Module, how far to trust a Match Accuracy score, and how to produce something defensible. This path is reference and judgement, not a tutorial.
- Data sources and reliability — how UserSearch sources results from third-party data sources, and how to judge what each returns before you stake a conclusion on it.
- Found, Enriched, Connections and Match Accuracy and Results table, counters and statuses — the precise meaning of the counters, the enrichment and connection flags, and how much a connection or a score actually asserts.
- Vertical deep-dives — jump to the Search type you’re working:
- Resolve a real person
- Run an email search
- Check leaks and breaches for an identifier
- Assess a host with the Cyber (Shodan) modules
- Run a reverse-image or face search
- The specialist verticals: Vehicle, Chat messaging, Public forums, Wireless device, Threat intelligence, Website forensics, Court records and Product intelligence.
- Choose OneScan vs a single data source — the coverage-versus-cost trade-off, so no credit or minute goes to the wrong Module.
- Forensic Mode and chain of custody — enable it on the Case before you collect, not after. This page explains what it does and does not guarantee.
Govern a team — the admin
Section titled “Govern a team — the admin”You may rarely touch a search box. What you own is the invoice, the seat list, the cases, and the blast radius if someone shares a case to the wrong place. This path leads with control and consequence.
- Credits and pricing reference — how searches are metered, the three cost types, and how dynamic-cost searches can surprise a team budget.
- Top up your credits — the top-up flow (preset dropdown and the Custom Selection slider), and one-time versus recurring monthly purchases.
- Create, switch and organise cases — the Case Management modal your team’s work is grouped into.
- Share a case privately or publicly — the case-sharing security model: what Private versus Public visibility exposes, and why a mis-shared case is the highest-severity failure on the platform.
- Forensic Mode and chain of custody — how per-Case Forensic Mode preserves a case’s history, and how to make it the team norm rather than an individual’s choice.
Pages every path shares
Section titled “Pages every path shares”A few pages sit at the crossing points of all three roles. Read them at whatever depth your role needs — each is written to be understood by a first-timer and precise enough for a professional:
- Found, Enriched, Connections and Match Accuracy — Match Accuracy is the platform’s most dangerous number. A first-timer over-reads it, an investigator stakes a conclusion on it, an admin answers for it.
- Forensic Mode and chain of custody — a before-you-search decision for everyone, met as a concept, a workflow, or a governance control depending on who you are.
- Credits and pricing reference — cost, visible at the point of action, budgetable for casework, and governable across a team.
Verified against UserSearch v2.0.20