Whenever something becomes interesting and popular in the world, it seems as if scam services offering that very thing start to appear as well. Unfortunately, therefore, the ability to check people’s background is often untrue as well. It is very important, therefore, for you to recognize the potential dangers out there and see which company is most likely to give you the right results.
What Is a Background Check Scam?
There are two main ways in which organizations scam people out of money by offering a background check service:
- They simply don’t deliver at all, not conducting a search anywhere beyond Google and hoping that you simply won’t notice.
- They do deliver but the quality of their results is very poor, meaning you may as well not have bothered.
So how can you avoid these, particularly since both will produce some results, which means it will look as if they actually did their job?
How to Check Businesses that Check People
One of the best ways to find out whether a service is legitimate or not is by visiting the Better Business Bureau, BBB, and simply entering the name of the company you are considering. You should be able to get an immediate feel on whether or not they are genuine that way, even before you read a single review about them. The BBB provides you with a rating that tells you how many positive and negative reviews they have had, how many complaints they have had, how many of those complaints have been resolved, and whether any legal action has been taken against them. This is a great way for you to find out just how good the reputation of a company is.
However, you should look a little bit deeper than the BBB as well. Naturally, visiting the website of the company you are considering is a good starting point. What kind of payment policies do they have in place? Do they offer a refund if they can’t find any results or if their findings are of poor quality? Where do they look for information, and particularly information that is hard to find?
One thing to remember is that there is no such in life as a free ride. If you see a company that attracts you by telling you they offer something for free, you need to be very weary. It is likely that they are basically clickbait for something far less important that you had no need for, or that they charge extortionate prices to check someone’s background.
What matters most is that you do your research. Look into what people have said before, how they feel about the company, whether they have been happy with the results, what kind of specialized services the company offers, and so on. These are all very important, not in the least because you will be sharing highly sensitive and confidential information with them, and you need to know that you can trust them to not share this with the world, and particularly not with the person’s whose background you want checking!
