People imagine a background check is one big criminal database lookup. In reality a person report is assembled from several different sources, each answering a different question.
Identity and address history
An SSN trace confirms the legal name, age, and state and year the number was issued, then returns every address linked to that person with first and last reported dates.
Court and criminal records
Authoritative court databases are searched for criminal matters as well as civil, administrative, and traffic cases. Each case is listed with its number, court, filing date, and disposition.
Watchlists and sanctions
The person is screened against watchlist and sanctions databases, with a clear statement of whether any records matched.
Phone, email, and online footprint
The report checks whether the phone number is consistent with the name given, lists linked numbers and email addresses, and reviews social profiles and public web references.
- How a report is built — the six checks, section by section
- Verify someone — see a sample report and what comes back
- Pricing — from $29.99 a report, no contracts
Sources & further reading: Email lookup · Reverse phone number lookup · The $50M fraud bug caused by one wrong identity merge