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Do a Background Check, Get a Reality Check

Curious? An online background check will tell you everything you need to know.

Background checks are nothing new. Private detectives and pricey for-hire companies have been doing them for years. What is new, however, is the do-it-yourself online background check, made possible only in the 21st century thanks to Internet technology that has finally made "public records" truly public.

 Indeed, the modern background check can be performed quickly, easily and affordably using a personal computer from the privacy of one's own home. For that reason, why to do a background check has become just as important as how to do a background check. After all, because it's so easy, it's important to consider the value of doing an online background check to meet your unique needs.

 Consider, for instance, the following three types of background checks that you can do, depending on your goals:

1. You can do a personal background check in order to research a friend, neighbor, mate or other acquaintance about whom you're curious.

2. You can do an employment background check in order to screen a potential business partner or employee.

3. You can do a criminal background check in order to look explicitly for a person's criminal history.

 Background Check Tools and Techniques

If you need to do a background check, use these “how-to” strategies:

• To check a friend or family member, do a personal background check

A personal background check is a background check that you do for personal reasons—out of curiosity, for instance, or for the safety of yourself, your home or your family. Parents might do a personal background check, for example, on their child care professionals, children on their elderly parents' caretakers, newlyweds on their new spouses or homeowners on people who are working in their homes.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: To do a personal background check of your own, visit Records.com. Then, continue your personal background check by doing a blog search at Google and by combing social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, as your subject's blogs, Web sites and personal profiles can tell you things about them that a traditional background search simply can't.

• To check a potential or existing employee, do an employment background check

An employment background check is perhaps the most popular type of background check. Commonly used by employers as part of the hiring process, an employment background check is intended to help companies make good hiring decisions by avoiding candidates who are dishonest, criminal or who may pose other risks to fellow staff, customers or to the business itself.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: To learn more about doing a pre-employment background check, consult Business.gov, which includes government-sponsored information on including in your employment background check credit reports, criminal records, lie detector tests, medical records, military records, educational records and more.

• To check explicitly for a criminal history, do a criminal background check

A typical background check will tell you everything from a subject's name and phone number to his or her address history. If you're screening someone for a criminal history, however, it's best to do a criminal background check that includes court records, prison records, arrest histories and more.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: No criminal background check is complete without public court records. Obtain public court records from federal courts by searching PACER—a government-sponsored service that provides access to criminal court records from federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index—and from state courts by contacting your state's court system, which you can locate online courtesy of the National Center for State Courts.

• No matter what you check, keep your background check legal

Although background checks include public records, they're not a free pass to learn anything about anyone. In fact, there are laws and regulations that govern background checks—if you're doing an employment background check, for instance, you must first get the potential employee's written consent—and anyone who wants to do a background check should therefore familiarize themselves with the rules for doing one, and with the rules for using the results afterwards.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: Among the federal laws that may affect your background check are the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

Background Check Tips and Tactics

• Wondering what information a typical background check includes? Depending on focus, intent and permission, background checks may include basic contact information, driving records, marriage records, past employment, address history and criminal records. Generally, background checks do not include information on a subject's health, education or credit, although this information can be obtained with proper consent.

• Thanks to the Internet, doing an online background check is fast, easy and affordable. Easy, however, doesn't mean effortless. In order to do a background check, you typically must have consent, as well as some basic personal information, such as birth date and Social Security Number.

• If you're going to do a background check, choose a background check service according to credibility, not according to cost. Because the information included in a background check is so sensitive—and so important—it's typically worth paying a few extra dollars for a premium service that you know you can trust to give you complete, current and confidential results.

• In order to evaluate an online background check service for credibility, look for sites with easily accessible contact information, a clear privacy policy and, if possible, a third-party accreditation seal, such as one from the Better Business Bureau.

• Although a background check is incredibly helpful when you're researching an individual, it won't tell you everything about him or her. For that reason, it's a good idea to supplement your background check with other checks. For instance, in addition to doing an employment background check on a potential employee, also check that individual's references and—if he or she will give you permission—credit history.

• If you're applying for a new job, planning to adopt children, applying for a small business loan or going to court over a lawsuit or other dispute, it's a good idea to do a background check on yourself so that you know what "dirt" is out there for folks to dig up on you. Plus, if you preemptively do a background check on yourself, you'll have an opportunity to correct errors or perhaps even expunge some items from your record.

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