It seems like the tighter money gets, the more the unscrupulous people show up to try and take it away from us. Each year there are thousands of reports of fake contractors stealing money from home owners, usually the elderly, for repairs they never start or complete.

There are a few ways to avoid being taken advantage of by these and others like them who come and offer to help us. One of the ways that we can protect ourselves is by having a background check done.

A background check can be as diverse as the individual that is being checked. It really depends on what you want to know. A simple check will look into information such as a person’s criminal record, whether or not they have ever been arrested, if they are a sex offender (this means that they have been found guilty in a court of law of an offense, not just accused and released), licensor and citizenship. Basically, you will find out if they are legally here in the United States, if they really have a license or certification to do what they are claiming they can do for you, and if they have ever done anything heinous.

If you want a more comprehensive background check, you can find out if they are using drugs, what their military record is, credit score and other financial information. This deeper probing is more cost extensive. In fact, most average people cannot afford the drug testing and so forth, but this is not necessary when you are just determining if the guy offering to re-roof your home is really who he says he is.

Background checks are also helpful because if you are going to have workers coming in and out of your home while they are “remodeling”, you want to make sure that you haven’t actually hired a crew of second-story men who are really just casing your home to see what they can steal when you are away.

Face it, when you get a business card from a general contractor and you see the contractor’s license number on it, do you really know if it is legitimate or not? Do you know if it is even enough digits? Probably, not. It may be a legitimate number, but if you have no idea who this person really is what assurance do you have that his or her word is any good?

Businesses conduct a basic background check when they hire new employees by checking into the information that they submit on their application. It would behoove most homeowners to do the same. Before you pay anyone anything, sign anything, or verbally agree to anything get their information. Have them write it all down for you, and let them know that you will be checking into it. For a nominal fee you can actually have a more extensive background check done if you are not satisfied with the information you are able to garner on your own.

With the wealth of information available on the internet, no one should have to feel like a victim any longer. Background checks are another form of self defense, against the unscrupulous scavengers. Just mentioning that you will “run” one will keep most of them at bay.