If you have ever been employed you have been through a background check of some type. You may not know it, but there are many types of background checks. The main factor is what the goal is in running a check on your previous history. For instance, if you want to lease a car, auto insurance companies will most certainly run background check on you before they will let you drive off the lot. So will life insurance companies run check on you before issuing a policy for you. Here are a few of the different types and why they would be used.

a) Criminal – Just like its title this type of background check looks for any type of criminal activity in your past. Unless your record has been sealed, petty criminal activity that occurred when you were under 18 is usually sealed after you become an adult, this information is actually public record and available for the asking. It can be accessed by checking with local and/or state governmental offices. A check with law enforcement agencies is also possible to see if a person has a past record. This background check looks for any arrests; time spent with the Department of Corrections (prisons), looks through court records for cases against the person, and will even go into the sex offender registries. It is possible to look into the online State databases for some of the information.

b) Personal – With the advent of social networking getting information on a person’s character is easier than ever before. You can tell volumes by looking at items they have posted on sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. A deeper investigation would include speaking with friends and neighbors of the person in question and possibly even their family and previous employers. When you start this type of investigation you will need to get the permission of the person in question, as this can become “intrusive.”

c) Police/Law Enforcement – If you have ever watched an episode of any police drama you have seen a re-enactment of a police background check in action. When the police are investigating a crime they conduct a combination of (a) and (b) above to try to determine a suspect pool to match to the other evidence within the case.

d) Credit – You may not think of it as such, but when you apply for a loan or credit card you are giving permission for a type of background check. This is a financial background check. Because this information is so personal, the person in question is required to sign a release form (the application) so that they can proceed. Once they have this information the lending institution begins a background investigation into not only your financial history, but your employment, where you have lived, and may check personal references. They may even hire a personal investigator to check into some of the information on your application depending on the amount of money you are requesting from them, such as in a large business loan.

e) International – Interpol conducts international background checks. The average person rarely has to deal with this type of situation, however with the world becoming smaller due to the internet knowing that this is a possible option if you are approached by someone from overseas about a business transaction is a good line of defense. This type of background check can be quite extensive and exhaustive, so you will probably want to hire someone who has experience in this type of work to do it for you, correctly.

f) FBI Database – The FBI has a national database that is accessible by visiting www.fbi.gov. You can find out about sex offenders, their most wanted list, fugitives, and other offenders. You can do a simply search or for a fee do a more extensive query using a person’s name and fingerprints.

If personal information like phone number was made available for free, most customers who wish to remain anonymous would not be happy. It would be extremely easy to phone stalk if people could anonymously get hold of such private contact information. Hence, instead of making the database available for free, they have made the database accessible through certain paid services like Intelius and USSearch, which verify the identity of people. That’s why credit card payments are made mandatory by such services on the Internet.


Other than this, as with any other websites, phone lookup services are out there to make money by trading personal information. The biggest and the most affordable website in this space is Intelius. Enter the phone number you want to lookup and get it traced to its owner for a small fee. Some other companies charge $10-$30 for this service, but due to high volume of services, Intelius charges just a fraction of that. Do the search below and see for yourself.

So it is very possible to verify the ownership of any phone number but just don’t expect to get it for free.

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.

CentralRegistry.com is a must have service in today’s high paced, high tech world. Today, technological advances makes our everyday lives simpler with a click of a button. Unfortunately, this also makes us very susceptible to online fraud because anyone with your false identity can scam you for financial information. They can apply as your caretaker or nanny. They can also steal your identity.

Many of today’s criminals and sex offenders try to hide their true identities and take on someone else’s to hide their tracts. Do the right thing. Verify their information before serious breach of privacy can occur. Stop running the risk of losing money, time or your livelihood to someone who may not be who they say they are and verify individuals quickly through an easy to use, comprehensive system at CentralRegistry.com.

How to Do Free Background Checks Online

To get started, we require only one of the following information on any individual: Name, Phone Number, Address,  or even an email address. Our background report will reveal information such as marital status, history, property records, criminal history information and more. Safeguard yourself and your family with the help of CentralRegistry.com’s background checking service. Find out if someone has been arrested or gone to jail. Look for sex offenders in your area or where your child might be going to. You can do search for criminal records, marriage records, birth records, court records, divorce records, or any other kind of public records that you may seek.

You should always make sure that your identity is not compromised because if it is, you could face a lot of financial loss. Not only that but when you try to get cheapest term life insurance quotes or cheap auto insurance quotes, you many not be able to because someone else might have ruined your credit history. As a result thereof, insurance companies may not be able to give you their cheapest insurance rates.  Let’s you you wanted to get cheap auto insurance in ny, do you think you will be able to get it? I don’t think so because all of the major auto insurance companies in NY will do background check on you and looks at your past history from your credit report to determine the auto insurance quotes they will provide to you.