If you’re in a situation where someone is digging into your past, such as for a housing application, a job interview, or a lease negotiation, you could be worried about the findings of a background check.
Fortunately, you may easily find out by doing a personal background check on yourself. If you’re unhappy with what your personal background check report reveals, quality personal background checks like BeenVerified also give you the option to conceal your public data.
By searching for your name, you may learn what type of information is available about you and determine if it fairly and properly describes you. You may be able to manage these checks better if you understand how they work.
What Is a Personal Background Check?
In order to find out what information about you is available on public records, personal background checks are employed.
This would include someone with a criminal history. If a prospective employer or customer does a background check on you, they might locate information about you that’s accessible online.
There are several methods you may use to find out what information about yourself is available. While the majority of personal background checks are performed by employers, anybody may request one.
If you do a personal background check on yourself to confirm your history, you may feel more safe dating or conducting business with someone.
What Will You Find If You Run a Background Check on Yourself
A thorough examination of all your identifying information in state and federal public records is part of a self-background check. By doing a public records search with only your phone number, name, or email address, you may find out more about yourself. A public records search you do on your own might turn up a lot of information on you.
It’s possible that your name, date of birth, address, degree of education, job history, relationships, past residences, criminal history, sex offenders, court history, social media profiles, and assets will come to light.
If you want all of this information, manually searching public data is definitely out of the question. It’s possible that using a reputable background check service will increase the accuracy of the data you find out about yourself.
Personal background check services may search their enormous database of federal and open records for any pertinent information using your ID data. The data is then compiled into a background check report that is shareable and accessible.
- Financial resources
- Employment background
- Educational history
- Age and birthdate
- Bankruptcies
- Aliases
- Complete name
- Professional certifications
- Using social media
- Crime history and arrest data
- Liens
- Documents from civil courts
- Photographs
- Weapons licenses
Why Should You Run a Background Check on Yourself
See What Potential Employers Could Discover About You
HR could investigate your online presence, including your social media profiles, professional networks, and other publicly available data if a firm is thinking about employing you.
Even if you aren’t actively looking for work, it doesn’t harm to be aware of the data that may be discovered by a quick Google search.
Check for Incorrect Criminal Convictions
A government organization is only as effective as its staff. So, we should prepare for the likelihood of rare errors. If you have a name in common with someone who has a criminal record, it’s conceivable that the record will be incorrectly connected to you. This kind of crime is referred to as identity theft.
“Victims of criminal identity theft may not be aware that someone has burdened them with a criminal record until they are pulled over for a moving violation, the officer runs a check on their driver’s license number, and they are arrested on the spot,” says Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer information and advocacy program established in 1992.
By contacting the proper government agency, you may be able to correct any errors on your criminal record.
Find Out if There’s Anything About You on the Dark Web
Your personal information may be sold on the dark web, claims BeenVerified, a thorough self-background check site based in the United States. The dark web is challenging to use even if you are used to it.
As a consequence, there aren’t many individuals who know how to use the dark web or search for critical information.
Your personal information, including bank account numbers and credit cards, login credentials for social media accounts, and information on your driver’s license, is in serious danger of being stolen and sold.
To stay one step ahead of scammers, it’s imperative that you enlist the aid of a trustworthy background-checking business.
Discover Fake Social Media Accounts Using Your Personal Information
Due to the prevalence of phony social media accounts, the query “How do I report a fake Facebook account?” has been added to the list of frequently asked questions.
Someone could use your publicly accessible photos and information without your knowledge or consent to create an online identity. It’s conceivable that a fake social media account has been created using your name and picture.
In spite of your best attempts, it may be challenging to identify any imitators if someone steals your identity and uses it to make a fraudulent social media profile since they may be able to block you.
Review Long-Forgotten Posts That You or Other People Made
Go back to the time you spent online and all the posts and comments you made. It’s possible that you previously shared a viewpoint in public that didn’t align with your present perspective, or that a buddy uploaded images from a crazy party that you didn’t want others to see. No matter where you are in life, you need to remember these things.
How Do You Run a Background Check on Yourself
You should do a personal background check so that you can control the information about you that’s publicly accessible. Use BeenVerified to discover information that regular search engines won’t be able to find.
A personal background check on you by BeenVerified could provide details like these:
- Civil court documents
- Arrest, criminal, and traffic records
- Registered property (vehicles, real estate, etc.)
- Education and employment
- Potential family members, friends, housemates, and ex-lovers
- A thorough report on the location history
- Photos taken in public
- Contact information
- Social media accounts
By filing a request to the relevant government institutions, you may check the veracity of the information in your public records. You may do your own web searches using any of the accessible search engines.
Verifying your information could need some time, and not everyone has the knowledge to identify security gaps. With BeenVerified, you can resolve each of these problems fast and without difficulty.
By entering your first and last name, location, and state online, paying, and obtaining a report, you can take control of your life.
Court Records (County, State, and Federal)
It’s possible that anything from your history may make it difficult for you to get employment. By the use of an online criminal personal background check service, you may see whether you have any arrests or convictions for crimes on your record.
Your past arrests and convictions may be revealed in a report from the courts where your charges were lodged. To verify this information, you should get in touch with the local, state, and federal courts.
To get the documentation you want, you may have to go in person to a county court. County court documents may be requested, but you must do it in person. The majority of county courts demand in-person inquiries for documents.
Employers are not permitted to examine the details of an arrest that took place more than seven years ago and did not result in a conviction under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). If an older conviction appears on your personal background check report, you have the opportunity to contest that information.
Driving Records
Each state has distinct regulations on when and how a driver’s history should be kept on file. If you’ve ever had a driver’s license in a state, you may see your driving history by going to the DMV website in that state.
You may have to pay a fee in certain states to get records. Every prospective employer may not check your driving history. They are often necessary for positions that involve a lot of driving, such as nannies, bus or truck drivers, etc.
>> Run a Personal Background Check With BeenVerified >>
Credit Report
If you want to demonstrate to potential employers that you can be trusted with money, they should first look at your credit history, not just your credit score. Even little mistakes on your credit report might have a big impact.
It’s a good idea to routinely check your credit report. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction (FACT) Act allows you to get a free credit report from each of the three main credit reporting organizations once every 12 months. At AnnualCreditReport.com, you can get a free copy of your credit report every year.
The following may be discovered by looking at your credit report
- Debt to income ratio
- Your current debt load
- The regularity with which a credit report request was made
- Any account that has been referred to collections
Keep in mind that a free credit report does not contain your credit score. It must be ordered separately. If you follow the FTC’s guidelines, any errors you uncover on your credit report may be corrected.
Education Report
Employers or other groups may seek official copies of a candidate’s diploma and/or transcripts or use a third-party institution like the National Student Clearing House to confirm the candidate’s degree of education.
If you anticipate having your transcripts requested, obtain copies of them. Make sure they are error-free since a potential employer or other organizations could ask for them.
Students may get a copy of their transcripts and have any errors repaired thanks to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (National Student Clearinghouse, 2018).
>> Run a Personal Background Check With BeenVerified >>
Online Footprint
A 2013 research found that 77% of businesses use social media to hire new employees. It’s wise to assume that any application for a job, school, or volunteer position will include an examination of your social media profiles.
Check out a search engine and see what information about your name and location comes up (make sure you disable all personalization settings in your browser first).
Ensure that your social media account’s privacy settings are correct (there are several pointers available online if you are unfamiliar with how to do this). If you don’t want the whole world to view your pictures and communications, keep them private. Create or remove any stuff that seems amateurish.
So, How Do You Run a Self Background Check On Yourself?
Prior to submitting an application for a rental home, a course of study, or a new job, it’s essential to check your criminal history, credit report, and online footprint so that you may contest any mistakes. One of the greatest methods to maintain track of your own records is to do frequent background checks.
>> Run a Personal Background Check With BeenVerified >>
FAQ – How to Run a Personal Background Check on Yourself
Where Does Your Personal Background Check Data Come From?
Based on an analysis of conviction source data from online criminal conviction databases, background check companies have access to a sizable database of criminal convictions.
Many sources, including municipal courts, state court administration offices, state prison agencies, and more, are included in the hundreds. We may broaden the breadth and precision of your search results by using the billions of records offered by other data providers.
How Current Is the Personal Background Check Data I Am Searching?
A personal background check service gathers information from a wide range of publicly available sources, including county courts, state administrative courts, state prison agencies, and more.
DISCLAIMER: You may not use the non-FCRA approved services mentioned in this article or the information they provide to decide about consumer credit, employment, insurance, tenant screening, or any other purpose that would require FCRA compliance. These services don’t provide consumer reports and are not consumer reporting agencies. (These terms have special meanings under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USC 1681 et seq., (“FCRA”), which are incorporated herein by reference.)
The information available on our website may not be 100% accurate, complete, or up to date, so do not use it as a substitute for your own due diligence, especially if you have concerns about a person’s criminal history. The services we mention do not make any representation or warranty about the accuracy of the information available through our website or about the character or integrity of the person about whom you inquire. For more information, please review each service’s Terms of Use.
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