The fact is, there are many situations in life where it's extremely helpful or reassuring to be able to quickly find out something about an associate's or neighbor's background.



A few of many possible scenarios to consider:

* You plan to invest your hard-earned money in a company and you want to know more about the current owner.

* Your daughter or son has a new boyfriend/girlfriend and you really do want to check the person out.

* You're thinking of dating somebody you met on the Internet and want to know more about that person.

* Some new neighbors have moved in next door and they've been acting a little outlandish (or so you think). You have kids and would really like to find out more about these people.

* You're in college and thinking of taking on a roommate, but before you accept anybody into your apartment you want to check them out.

* A local used-car dealer has a good price on a car you want. But you'd like to check out the owner of the lot and see if he's been sued or has a criminal record before buying a car from him (i.e., run a quick background check).

Today's Web makes these kinds of background checks possible - for free - and it's perfectly legal as long as you stick to a few simple guidelines, as described below.

In this article I'll discuss how you can access online public records pertaining to just about any adult U.S. citizen. As I said, it's easy, but you do need to know something about public records and where to access them.

Q & A

The easiest way to overview the subject of background checks online is with questions and answers.

Q: Are online background checks legal?

A: Yes, as long as you only access public records for your own use. That means records like bankruptcies, real estate records, tax liens, and criminal records. There are three things you should be aware of, however: First, you can't legally do a background check on someone you're thinking of hiring without his/her written permission (a signed release); second, you can't use "pretexting" in your background check (for example, calling a bank and pretending to be the account holder in order to find out how much money he/she has in the account - this is strictly illegal); third, you can't legally access someone's "non-public" information, especially medical records and credit reports, without a signed release from the subject.

Also - never even think of hiring someone else to do any of those things for you. You definitely could be held responsible. There are plenty of private investigators and others with Web sites out there that will gladly use pretexting to determine someone's place of employment or financial assets, for example. You should avoid these people like the Plague.

(If your interest is primarily in employment- or credit-related background checks, you should familiarize yourself with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.)

Q: Where do I get the basic information for the background check?

A: There are two ways to do it. You can do the work yourself for free, using government web sites that allow you to access public records (e.g., County/State real estate sites, etc), or you can hire a background-check company to do it for you. Needless to say, the latter method is easier and faster but you need to be confident that the company you hire is legitimate and will do a good job. If you want to do it all yourself, try BackgroundCheckGateway.com/statelist.html. It offers free access to public records in every State. If you want to hire an online background check company, two of the biggest are Intelius and USSearch.

Q: What information can I find out about someone?

A: First here's the bad news: You can not "Find out anything about anybody," even though a few Internet snake oil salesmen may tell you otherwise. But with that said, there is still a lot you can find out about someone through public records. For example you can --

- Verify name and address

- Determine past addresses

- Determine marital status (married/divorced/single)

- Find assets (most easily, real estate)

- Check for bankruptcies and tax liens

- Check for honorable military discharge

- Check for honorable military discharge

- Check on political contributions/affiliations

- Find out if subject has been written about in the news

- "Listen in" to subject in online discussion groups

- Determine if subject has sued anybody or been sued

- Find out if subject is a sexual offender

- Check for criminal records (in most States)

- Determine if subject has served time in a Federal prison

- Find out if subject is a pilot and/or owns a plane

- And much more, as you'll learn as you get into the subject of public records more deeply .

Q: What about questions like "How much is he worth?", "Is he a drug addict or alcoholic?", "What do people think of him?", "Does he have AIDS or other sexually-transmittable disease?", "Does he have children?"

A: As to these kinds of questions, don't forget, you can't legally access somebody's credit report or medical records. And if you're thinking about employing your subject, you have to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which among other things requires a signed release before doing a background check. You need to be clear on all that. Still, there's no law against guesstimating. As an example, you can get a pretty good notion of someone's financial worth by where he/she lives. Home values are public information. So is stock ownership when the stockholder owns more than 5% of a public company. You can not however, access his bank or brokerage account information without a signed release or court subpoena.

One very good way to find out personal information legally is to check civil lawsuits. If he's been sued or has sued somebody, the lawsuit case file (which is public information) will often tell you a lot, especially if it's a divorce filing.

Another way is to hire a private investigator. But you need a reputable P.I., and frankly a lot aren't all that reputable. Some P.I.'s are macho former military types who are not overly concerned with niceties like the Fair Credit Reporting Act, State privacy laws, etc. These guys (and, yes, ladies) can get you in serious trouble. Some are down-on-their-luck former cops or refugees from other occupations who you really don't want to get involved with either.

The basic investigative technique in the P.I. profession is simple: they follow people around. They term this "surveillance" and, frankly, it works. A good private investigator can indeed learn a lot about your subject you'd never find out from public records. Just be sure you know who you're dealing with - check the State licensing board and the BBB for starters to see if he/she is in good standing.

MAIN POINTS TO REMEMBER ABOUT BACKGROUND CHECK RESEARCH

All background checks use public records, which are maintained at County courthouses and various State/Federal agencies. You can access most but not all of these public records on the Internet. Some agencies haven't gotten their records online yet, but more and more are getting their records on the Internet as time goes by.

As a citizen of the United States, you have a right to free unrestricted access to U.S. public records.

Your use of public records is generally confidential. Except in rare cases like accessing driving records in some States, the subject isn't informed and there's no paper trail.

All you absolutely need to do public-records background checks is the Internet and a list of links to the various County/State/Federal public-records repositories. For the latter, I suggest a free site called BackgroundCheckGateway.com/statelist.html

If you're doing a background check for purposes of employment or to evaluate someone's credit, be sure to get a signed release from the person. For more information, read the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Remember, you're only entitled to access public records, not private records like medical or credit records, unless you have a signed release from the subject. However you can find a certain amount of "personal" information in some types of public records, like civil lawsuit case files.

Never get involved in "pretexting" -- e.g., calling the phone company and impersonating your subject in order to get your hands on his/her phone records, or calling any other type of business and doing this. Pretexting is illegal. (And don't hire a private investigator to do it, either. That's also illegal.)

You can conduct your background check yourself, for free, using public records Web sites, or you can pay someone to do it for you. The former is free and a bit time-consuming; the latter costs money (usually about $50 or so) and is faster. As I said, two of the better-known online background-check companies are Intelius.com and USSearch.com, but there are hundreds more out there.