Yes absolutely free investigations are a myth but you can do some very useful background checking for very reasonable prices. In fact if you do it right then investigating someone online can cost you less than a cup of good coffee.

Nothing is ever truly free

Everything comes with a price whether it’s your money, someone else’s money or the investment of your time and effort. Doing background checks on someone is no exception. You either have to pay for someone’s services to investigate and discover the secrets in someone’s life or you have to do that work yourself. There is another way though. It may not be as thorough and accurate as hiring an expensive private investigator. Neither is it completely free but looking up someone’s details with a public records web site can not only be effective but it can also work out to be very inexpensive.

Public records web sites are a relatively new option that has been made possible by the incredible advances in Internet technology in recent years. Businesses have seen the need to make public information available to everyone and they have made it their mission to provide you with that very information. Now you can have access to it whenever you meet or do business with people or even when you are simply curious about them.

Background checks the long, hard and inexpensive way

If you know what you are doing then it is often possible to find out a lot of stuff about someone by trawling the Internet using search engines like Google and by physically visiting places where records are kept.

I must declare that I am certainly no expert when it comes to tracking down people in this way but I do know that it will involve you in an awful lot of time consuming searching, traveling and visiting places like court houses and other records offices.

Some of this will also cost you money to transport yourself about and to pay any administrative fees there might be to access the information that you are looking for. Suddenly even this method doesn’t look as inexpensive as you might think it is. In any case I would rather pay a private investigator who knows what they are doing than attempt to do this myself.

Background checks the expensive way

I was going to say that hiring a private investigator is the most expensive way to get some background information on someone but this may not be the case at all. A private eye can be very efficient at what they do. It’s their job. It could be that a good P.I. can find out more information for less money than you can by doing it yourself. Especially if you’ve never done this sort of investigative work before.

Hiring a specialist certainly isn’t going to be a cheap way of digging up secrets on someone but it is probably the most efficient way to find out the maximum amount of information. It is also likely to yield the most reliable data too. These people know what they are doing and that’s what you pay them for.

Investigating professionals generally charge by the hour and the time it takes to do a background check will depend on what information you are interested in and how much of it you want the guy to find for you.

I’m guessing that you may be able to find someone willing to do some basic routine checks for you and only charge the equivalent of perhaps an hour of their time. If you want a more in depth report then you could be paying for as long as it takes which could be a great deal of time.

Background checks the social way

Everyone uses Facebook don’t they? Make sure that you can “friend” him or her and take a look at the stuff they post. Take the time to find out who some of his Facebook friends are. See if you can find any tagged images with him in to give you an idea of the sort of things he gets up to. Mind you that is becoming a sure fire way to find some incriminating images of just about anyone because we have very little control over what other people post on the Internet. Is your own online presence squeaky clean?

The real benefit of getting interested in someone’s online social presence is to find out how they behave. For some reason most people seem to be a lot less inhibited about what they upload to the Internet than they would ever be in the offline world. Don’t they know that anything that they say on line is there forever? Privacy online seems to have been lost along the wayside somewhere.

Get to know his or her friends and try to meet up with some of their online friends out here in the real world. By interacting with their buddies you often get to see a different side of someone. A side of their personality that you would not normally see. This kind of information can potentially be worth far more to you than any background check could be.

Background checks the quick, easy and affordable way

I promised that I would give you a good cheap alternative way to do background checks and here it is. There are web sites on the Internet that strive to fill the gap that obviously exists when it comes to finding out information about people. You want something that is quick and easy to carry out and does not cost more than you can afford.

These public records web sites may not be as accurate or thorough as a good private investigator might be nor will they give you the same insight into someone’s character that you might get from socializing with their friends.

What you can do is use these public records databases to find at least something out about most people who you do a search on. Even if it’s just an address it could be useful information. Especially if the guy gave you a different one. The best part is that these web sites are quick to search and very cheap. In fact if you do it right then you can do unlimited background checks on as many people as you want and it doesn’t have to cost you more than the price of a coffee.

If you are thinking of adopting a child or you are required to disclose any criminal record you might have to get a job then you might need to make a request for your criminal history record. Of course you are more likely to want to do an FBI criminal background check to prove that you have not got a record.

You can request a copy of your identification record on the FBI web site at fbi.gov. You will find all the instructions that you need to complete the forms, make the request and get it processed.

As always there is a fee payable. You never get anything for free these days. You must include the fee with your application. At the time of writing there is a nominal fee to cover administrative costs.

Perhaps the hardest part of the application form is the fact that you need to send in a full set of your fingerprints to prove that you are who you say you are. In this instance, a drivers license and a utility bill just will not be enough.

Fingerprints have to be taken carefully so that they are clean prints and you must fill in a fresh fingerprint card too. There is a lot that can go wrong if you do this yourself so I suggest that you go down to your local law enforcement office and find an expert fingerprint technician to do it for you. This should avoid any possible problems with the process.

Can you get an FBI criminal background check on someone else?

You can not get a criminal background check done on someone else through the FBI. The application must be done in person and if you are trying to get one done for someone else then you would need to get a full, yes all 10, set of fingerprints. You need to be pretty determined just to get your own rap sheet, it would be close to impossible to get one for someone else without their knowledge.

Free criminal background checks

Nothing is ever absolutely free I know and you are not going to get as complete and accurate criminal background check on yourself as you will direct from the FBI itself. But you can look up criminal and arrest records, arrest warrants and a lot more information by doing your searches using public records, online. You can do it really quickly too.

It can be a very affordable alternative and it can potentially provide you with a lot of diverse information that you might not get from the FBI. This could be bankruptcies, civil judgements, email addresses, property records and other interesting stuff. In addition you can do criminal background checks on anyone you want using public records, not just yourself.

Have you tried to get an absolutely free background check done on someone but could’t find a totally cost free public records source? Yes I’ve tried and failed too. There are plenty of web sites that offer background checks and some of them even claim to be free. When it comes down to it though, you find that you have to pay something to get any useful information about people. I settled for a solution that provides great value for money and this is how you can do it too.

Most of the web sites that offer background checks on people ask you to pay for every search that you perform. The way that they typically work is that you pay a fee to register on the site. The fee that you pay can then be used towards the records searches that the site offers. The amount that you paid determines how many searches that you can do and when it’s all gone you have to pay more.

The problem with using pay-as-you-go search public records web sites

Once you discover how powerful a public records database web site can be you will be in danger of getting hooked on doing background checks on people. It’s fun looking up information on people and once you start it’s difficult to stop. I found this when I looked up my old friend. To start with I used the wrong name. I was looking for Phil when his name was Philip but the searches were quick and I found him in no time. I did a background check then a criminal records check then an arrest warrant check and a prison inmate check just to be on the safe side.

I was having so much fun – I started to check out his relatives and neighbors from information found in my friends background check records. You don’t have to stop there though. Why not do checks on your friends and neighbors and your hired help and your dates of course.

When you are having fun you can do an awful lot of searches in no time at all so you want to avoid using web sites that charge you for each search that you do. Instead use a web site that allows unlimited public records searches for no extra charge and have as much fun as you want to.

How to have fun looking up background information on people

When you join a public records membership site you get to do an unlimited amount of absolutely free background checks. You can check out anyone you want, anytime you want and as often as you want. You can find your old friends, check out all your neighbors. Make sure that your hired help don’t have criminal records, make sure that your date isn’t married and much more. This is a weapon that you can’t afford to be without.

Have you ever Googled yourself just to see what comes up? Yes I bet you have. I know that I’ve searched for myself online more than once and so have most of the people that I know.

I’ve even used an inexpensive online background check website to find out even more personal stuff about myself.

Most of my friends who have looked themselves up were surprised by what they found and by just how much of it they could find. Some of them were horrified by what they found.

They were even more alarmed when they realized that anyone could find that stuff just by doing a few simple searches on the Internet.

Is your online presence affecting your job prospects?

Have you been turned down from any job applications that you’ve made recently? Were you left wondering why you didn’t get the job even though you are well qualified and a perfect match for the position? It’s possible that they are being put off by what they are finding out about you on the Internet.

Try searching for your name on Google and then do a thorough personal background check online. It doesn’t take long and it isn’t expensive so you have nothing to lose by investigating. You do have a lot to gain however.

It’s worth remembering that if your friends and prospective employers can all find this information about you then so can your dates. Has your relationship unexpectedly ended?

What can people find out about you?

Anyone searching for your name in quotation marks on Google may find all sorts of things including your Facebook and Linkedin profiles and any other social media sites that you belong to. If you’ve ever been mentioned in newspapers or other media reports then these may show up in searches too.

As you are reading this you may be thinking how important it is to make sure that your social media profiles and other stuff that you post on the net is all clean and wholesome and always shows you in a good light. If you are anything like the rest of us you are probably thinking that you wished you had thought about this a few years ago because the damage now has already been done.

There isn’t much you can do to stop other people posting embarrassing pictures of you though is there?

Your social profiles are important and you may be able to clean them up to some extent but there could be other information that is far more damaging to you out there somewhere.

Have you ever been arrested or convicted?

If you have ever been arrested, even if you were completely innocent of all accusations and never even been charged, then the news sites may have published the details and the arrest report may be found on the Internet somewhere.

Arrest reports in the media almost always show you in a bad light. News organizations are quick to splash your name and reason for arrest everywhere but they are far less interested in removing these reports or even printing updates when you get completely cleared of everything. I guess that bad news always makes them more money than good news.

If you do a more focused and comprehensive background check on yourself using a public records web site then you may find even more damaging information.

What can I do if I find damaging or incorrect information?

If you find that a web site is displaying incorrect or defamatory information about you then you can contact the site owners and ask for it to be removed or corrected. This can prove to be very difficult if they refuse your request and contacting all the sites that you want cleaned up can be a daunting task.

You should also look yourself up on public records databases to make sure that everything is up to date and accurate. Again you can contact the website owners to ask for the information to be updated.

Can I get help?

Yes there is help at hand. You can use an online service that specializes in restoring your reputation and privacy. Once you have given them all the relevant information they will do all the hard work for you. You can sit back and relax while they contact the appropriate webmasters and start reducing the volume of unwanted information that is embarrassing you.

It doesn’t happen overnight but after a while you should notice that the Internet is starting to paint a better picture of you. You can help this picture to improve by making a point of posting all your best stuff on Facebook and anywhere else that you can get your posts to show up publicly.

Is everything ok with you and your boyfriend? How much do you really know about him? Why don’t you do yourself a favor and get a confidential background check done on him before your relationship goes any further. A simple and easy to do online background check can quickly show you if there are any available public records on him. You might find criminal records or arrest warrants or worse but more likely you will find that your boyfriend is exactly what he seems to be and there are no bad things to find. This will put your mind at rest.

First steps in checking out your boyfriend

Before you rush to a private investigator or an online public records database you should do a little probing of your boyfriend by asking him some questions. Ask him about anything you can think of like where does he live, how long has he lived there, where did he live before, where does he work, how long has he worked there etc.

Be subtle in your questioning and be interested in what he has to say. It will make it easier for him to talk if he doesn’t feel as if he’s been interrogated.

Talk to his friends and family too and make mental notes of what they tell you. Look for any inconsistencies in the stories that they all tell you. If your boyfriend is being open and truthful with you then there won’t be any inconsistencies.

The traditional method – Hire a private detective

The traditional way to get a background check done on someone is to hire a private detective (PI) to dig up the information for you. This is an effective method and if you use a good PI they can be very thorough with their investigations.

Hiring a private detective can be very expensive because you are paying for the PI’s time to do the work for you. You will also have the same expense the next time you want to check someone out.

Do background checks yourself using online public records databases

If you can’t afford to employ someone to do all your background checks for you how about using online background check web sites instead. There is a huge amount of information freely available to you in public records if you know where to go and how to access it.

Once you have the information you can compare it with the story that your boyfriend told you. If it matches and your background searches didn’t find any criminal records, arrest warrants, bankruptcies or anything else that might be a problem then you are good to go.

A background check is designed to reveal information about an individual. The actual information searched for will depend to a large extent on the purpose for the check. If you are an employer recruiting people to work with children then you are going to place a very high importance on a comprehensive and accurate investigation into the persons past and present life. On the other hand, if you are simply checking out your neighbor to make sure that you can feel safe in your home then you may not need such a detailed and expensive report.

How accurate is a background check?

The amount of checking that you want to do into someone’s personal life and how complete and accurate you want the results to be all determine how much you have to pay for the investigation and how long you have to wait for the results. A full background check for employment purposes may run into hundreds of dollars but a near-instant national search of a public records database may only cost you a few bucks.

The real question is not so much “What does a background check check?” but rather what could it check and what might it reveal? Depending on how the background searches are performed the results might contain some or all of the following:

• Criminal records
• Arrest records
• Arrest Warrants
• Sex offender register
• Homeland security
• Educational checks references
• Employment checks references
• Credit checks
• Drug screening
• Past and present addresses
• Relatives
• Neighbors

If the background check is performed for employment purposes then it is likely that it will be done after a job offer has been made and could take several months to complete depending on how thorough the checks are and how uch follow up the investigators have to do.
You can do your own background checks

Most comprehensive background checks will involve some searching of national databases which are made up of publicly available records. Anyone can search these databases, including you, and it doesn’t have to be expensive.

Are public records databases ok for background searches?

Public records web sites can do a great job of finding background information for you. The problem with national databases however is that they can never be fully up to date and some information held in them may not be completely accurate. You have to be a little bit careful in how you use them. The professional investigators still use this method as part of their comprehensive search because it is cheap and quick. Any hits that they obtain from the database would be followed up to verify it’s accuracy. If the public records search indicates a criminal record out of state then the appropriate county court records will be examined to verify the record and possibly obtain more information. This part of the investigation can cost a lot of money and take a long time to complete.

Verifying background checks for your date

If you have used a public records database to check out your date and it has revealed a criminal record, would you go to the trouble and expense of verifying the information at the county records office? It might make more sense to simply ask your date about it and walk away if you don’t get a satisfactory answer. Alternatively, if you don’t want to confront him with it then simply walk away now.