Skip tracing: Extract phones & emails from TruePeopleSearch with Zyte API
# TruePeopleSearch Scraper for Skip Tracers
Enrich any list of people with verified contact info using this workflow.
This n8n automation scrapes **TruePeopleSearch** using **Zyte's extraction API** to safely bypass bot protection and extract detailed profiles. It’s built for **data brokers, skip tracers, and real estate professionals** who need clean contact data (phone, email, address) from names alone — even when the main profile is empty.
If the original profile lacks a phone number, the workflow intelligently scrapes one of their listed relatives instead — giving you the **best possible chance of finding a valid number**.
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## What this workflow does
- Pulls lead data (first name, last name, and custom search URL) from a **Google Sheet**
- Sends the TruePeopleSearch search URL to **Zyte’s Scraping API** to retrieve search results HTML
- Parses the first matching profile link from the results (by full name > first name > last name)
- Visits that profile page and extracts:
- Full Name
- Age / Date of Birth
- Primary Phone Number
- Other Phone Numbers
- Email Addresses
- Current Address
- If no phone numbers are found:
- Detects a **relative's profile link**
- Scrapes the relative’s profile for fallback contact data
- Writes all scraped information (or empty fields) back into the **same row** in Google Sheets
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## You’ll need
- **n8n (self-hosted or cloud)**
To run and automate the workflow
- **Zyte Scraping API**
A [Zyte](https://www.zyte.com/) account + API key to access their `/extract` endpoint
_(Use HTTP Basic Auth in the HTTP Request node)_
- **Google Sheets integration**
Your own lead sheet with headers like:
- `row_number` (used to write back to the correct row)
- `First Name`
- `Last Name`
- `SearchURL` (Search by Address)
- **Basic JavaScript familiarity (optional)**
To tweak the HTML parsing logic for profile structure changes
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## Example Google Sheet
Use this Google Sheet as a template for your inputs and outputs:
👉 [TruePeopleSearch Lead Template (Google Sheet)](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CkMMdoIYNTaA8tIvAXzjw9YeqkXfYD8qfkeACosuibo/edit#gid=1416164772)
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## Disclaimer
- TruePeopleSearch may change its structure or block heavy scraping — always test at small scale first
- This workflow is built to **simulate human behavior** via Zyte’s smart rendering — scraping is still subject to site limitations
- Use ethically and within your local data usage laws
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## Categories
`Data Enrichment` · `Scraping Automation` · `Lead Generation` · `Skip Tracing`
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*Feel free to drop me an email if you need help with building a custom scraping automation for your business at* [*[email protected]*](mailto:[email protected])
