I wasn’t sure if this should go in GQ or IMHO, but here goes. I’m probably going to need to have a background check run on someone in the US. Criminal background, marriage and work record, bankruptcies, judgments, that sort of thing. I see that some of the people-search websites such as Radaris offer different levels of checks for $20-40. I’ve never used such a service before and am suspicious of scams. Does anyone have any experience with these? Or is it just another version of a Nigerian scam letter?
bump Does anyone have any experience with these?
Perhaps I should mention that this is not for some nefarious purpose. I need to take a look at the background of someone connected to my late father’s estate before deciding whether to proceed with legal action.
Speaking as someone who has seen reports that have been generated from these websites on myself, it’s bullshit. Addresses I never lived at, related to people I don’t even know, “possible” relatives I’ve never heard of, a few addresses that I did live at thirty something years ago, a temporary employer from 1980, bogus “income” information culled from statistics in zip codes in addresses where I had and had not lived, information from other people with similar names clumped in with mine, you name it.
All they do is lump together all the public information they can find together with purchased mailing lists and sell it as a background check. You could do a much better job on your own.
Great. That’s what I suspected but wanted to know for sure. I won’t waste my time or money on them then. Thanks.
I don’t agree with LurkerInNJ entirely. I do agree that you may get a lot of bogus and useless info, but you also might get something good. I guess it depends on how valuable even obscure clues are in your task. If there is a large amount of money at risk, perhaps $20-40 isn’t that much of an expense. It’s a gamble, but it might pay off, and even if the source is public records, it could save you hours of frustrating research.
Well, there’s actually not much money at risk, although I’d rather not get into details. Just that someone has become a nuisance, and before I pursue anything with the authorities, I’d like to know a bit more about the person in question. $40 is not a hardship, but I hate being taken. These things feel like a scam, so I’m hesitant to try one. But I don’t want to get into expensive private investigators and such.
I used ZabaSearch a few times years ago and it used to be reasonably accurate. Just tried it with my name and it came back with correct previous/current addresses and phone #s. However, my age is given as 73 not 52.
Have not heard of Zabasearch. Just now looked it up and plugged in my person’s name and state and got back an accurate age and addresses that I know are valid. Again, $40 for a detailed report.
Looks like Zabasearch is connected to something called Intelius.
I’ve never used any of these services but have fiddled around enough to get to the screen that gives you minimal info then asks you to pay. Almost all are connected to Intelius. My guess is that they are the primary company and they use dozens of shell company websites to reel you in. That alone was enough to regard them as scams. From what I’ve seen, they can be useful for tracking down someone’s address and phone but I’d be wary of other information.
I used Intelius one time and they charged me 19.99 a month for 3 months before I noticed. They have a handy little box that comes pre checked for you to buy their membership so they can ‘protect’ your identity. Oops.
Oh, the ‘info’ I got from them was a phone number. Two. One was six years old. The other wasn’t correct - it was a relative of that person.
Yes, I’ve seen the “identity protection” feature. They want to charge $10 more for not selecting it. Included in the free info they’ve given me so far is the person’s age and present address, which I already know, which is how I can confirm that’s correct.
I think I’ll wait awhile before venturing further with this. Thanks, everyone.
I guess one reason I don’t find the bogus info supplied all that disturbing is I have found similar stuff on my personal credit report. Some simply doesn’t matter, or is too old to concern anyone, but the records that store that kind of stuff are related to the records the people search sites use. There is a lack of responsibility here, but I don’t think it means the sites are deliberately feeding you bad data just to get your money. I think they are just aggregators, not originators. It’s the originators who are at fault.