e get a lot of calls looking for information on companies. While it is our policy to not recommend any particular company, we can share some tips on how to dig up some of the information you are looking for. There are many resources right at your fingertips.

First, we always suggest that you search our Web site, www.greensheet.com. All past issues are posted and available for research. You get better results if you can narrow down the search. For instance, typing in "equipment resellers" probably will get you a few thousand hits. But if you narrow down the parameters a bit to "equipment resellers check imaging," you will get a handful of hits that you can more easily navigate.

Our next suggestion is to post your question on our ISO Forum, which was developed specifically to enable ISOs to share information with each other. One of our readers may be able to assist you in your search.

There are many Web sites available to find information on various companies. There's www.hoovers.com, which has some information available at no cost; for some of it, however, you must be a subscriber. If you want information about a business's credit, www.infousa.com charges a nominal fee for reports on the company, its locations and its key personnel.

If the company is public, you can pull up all of its filings at www.sec.gov. The EDGAR database is available at no cost and is easy to use. You can search by company name or by the name of an officer of the company.

Not sure who really owns a company? Try looking up its corporation status. This can be a little tricky if you don't know the state of incorporation. Always start with the state in which the company is headquartered. Delaware is a popular state for incorporations, as is Nevada. Corporations usually are regulated through the Secretary of State.

Other places that are helpful in information searches are the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau. You can check to see if a company has complaints filed. The FTC Web site is www.ftc.gov. The Better Business Bureau can be found at www.bbb.org.

Another Web site that might prove useful to you is www.virtualgumshoe.com, which has many resources for looking up corporate records, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and much more. The site is arranged in a user-friendly fashion and is easy to navigate.

Don't forget to run a general Internet search. There are hundreds of search engines available. One way to search multiple engines is to use www.dogpile.com, which will return hits from 10 different search engines.

Searching for all of this information can be somewhat time-consuming, but your persistence will pay off in the end.