Background Checks
Pre-employment screening is more important than you think.
If you’ve been reading People You’ll See In Hell for a while you may have noticed a few posts that recommended the use of online background checks. Several of you have been e-mailing us, asking why we’re pushing online background checks so hard, gently (and not-so-gently) chiding us for trying to sell you something.
Believe us when we tell you, however, that we wouldn’t put an ad up on our site unless we felt it might deliver some value to some of our readers. About 80% of the ads we present to you, our readers, are from companies that we have either done business with personally or have researched thoroughly.
The rest of the ads are for free offers, surveys, and so on that might be a fun diversion for a few minutes of your day. (We hope you try some of them out – we have someone on staff who is a dedicated, almost compulsive, contest-enterer.)
That said…
Most of us here at PYSIH.com work in law enforcement in one way or another, and we know how important it is to know exactly who you’re dealing with at all times. We also know that people whose lives are spent in one attempt after another of “getting over” on someone else aren’t the most forthcoming people in the world.
Newsflash: Criminals lie.
Yes, I know you’re amazed at that incredible revelation, but it’s true. On a daily basis, law enforcement officers work with people who lie to them about everything.
For example:
What’s your name? “John Doe” (He’s obviously an Eskimo)
How old are you? “24″ (He’s obviously in his mid-30’s)
Where do you live? “Over in the apartments over there.” (He’s pushing a shopping cart)
Are those your car stereos? “Of course they are!” (The stereos in question still have the edges of the dashboards they’ve just been ripped out of on them)
Because law enforcement officers deal with lying idiots most of the time, and because we see the damage that these people do to other, innocent people, we tend to get a little suspicious of our fellow man. We tend to be suspicious because the damages these lying individuals make can be costly. Damages may mean serious injuries and sometimes even death. Though death is something that is inevitable, losing someone in a very unnatural way can be very painful. Funeral flowers, the presence of other loved ones, or even time may be factors that may help ease the pain. But things will never be the same once a loved one is lost. Law enforcement officers have all sorts of tools to look up necessary information on people who might not be telling us the truth, and we use them often
But for the most part, innocent people do not have access to these kinds of tools, and are unaware of just how useful they can be.
This makes us uncomfortable, because it’s so easy to do a criminal background check on someone now that it’s almost ridiculous, and it can save you a ton – a ton – of heartache.
Story #1
One of the People You’ll See In Hell admins knows a young couple who hired a babysitter to watch their 3-year-old boy while they were away at a function for the husband’s company. They asked their neighbors if they knew any babysitters from the neighborhood, and a name came up of a 17-year-old girl who was “really responsible.” They contacted this girl and talked to her for a bit until they felt comfortable that she wasn’t a raging lunatic, and asked to to come over and babysit. Terms were negotiated, and everyone was happy. The day arrived, and the teenager came over right on time and everything was good.
The couple expected to be gone until about 2 in the morning. They had a good time.
So did the teenager.
As soon as the toddler was asleep, the “really responsible” teenage girl, had called two friends over and had opened the liquor cabinet. Her friends got toasted, absolutely toasted, and at about 1 in the morning, drove home. Neither one of them made it, as they crashed into another car at about 45 miles per hour and got themselves killed and the other driver severely injured.
So how would a criminal background check have helped in this instance? Well, a simple criminal background check done on the teenage babysitter would have revealed 2 MIPS (minor in possession) and 1 drunk and disorderly charge that she was on probation for. While nothing really happened to this couple, and nothing happened to the three-year-old that the babysitter was watching, I’m sure you can imagine a few scenarios of what could have happened with 2 plastered teenage girls and 1 slightly toasted babysitter. Fire, maybe? Asthma attack? Something that required a clear mind to deal with? By using a criminal background check service and seeing the problems that this girl had with alcohol in the past, the couple could have politely declined to hire her and gotten someone a tad bit more responsible.
Plus two girls might not have died that night on the streets of Omaha. That would have been nice.
Story #2
Here’s 53-year-old Robert Leslie Metz.
Robert Metz was a 7-11 convenience store manager with no prior criminal record.
Now he’s an inmate, after being charged with 14 counts of sending and receiving child pornography. After an online investigation revealed his crimes, a search of his house revealed a portable computer hard drive hidden in a nightstand drawer that contained more than 20,000 images of child pornography. Most of the images show infants engaged in sex acts with adults.
One image, according to federal documents, showed Metz abusing his own infant daughter.
Robert Metz flat out admitted to sexually abusing three female relatives over several years, while they were between six and eight years old, telling investigators that viewing child pornography takes him to a “happy place.”
He faces life in prison.
Ok, so he’s facing life in prison. How does using a criminal background check service help someone in that instance?
Well, Robert Metz, since he lives in a house without children and has no prior criminal record, might be released on bail while his case is pending in the federal court system, and while his trial is actually underway!
So, now that Mr. Metz is out looking for a job (because 7-11 has undoubtedly fired him), what’s he going to do now? He’s going to look for employment, that’s what he’s going to do.
And he’s not going to look for employment at a large company. Large companies spend thousands of dollars on their own employee background check services, and typically refuse to hire someone who is being charged with child molestation and possession of child pornography.
No, Mr. Metz is going to look for a job at a small company. A small convenience store, maybe. A locally-owned store, where lots of children walk through every day.
Will the owner of that store run an employee background check? Probably not. Should he? Absolutely.
Back in 1999, Trusted Health was ordered to pay $26.5 million dollars to the family of a murdered patient. According to the ruling in that case, “prior to the time the employee is actually hired, the employer … should have known of the employee’s unfitness.” Employers can easily be held liable if they do not perform an adequate employee background check. Courts have ruled that “an employer has a general duty to do an employee background check for employees who will have interface with the public, or who could have a foreseeable opportunity to commit a violent crime against someone in the course of their employment.”
Companies are sued for negligent hiring all the time! According to a study we came across in the November 21, 2003 edition of USA Today, employers lose approximately 80 percent of all negligent hiring suits, with the average jury awarding the plaintiff about $1.6 million!
Employers are hit for damages because of the employer’s negligence and failure to perform a reasonable search into the employee’s background prior to hiring.
So if Robert Metz walks into a convenience store tomorrow and gets a job, then happens to molest a little boy or a little girl while he’s working there (Why not? He figures he’s going to prison anyways!) then the owner of that convenience store is possibly liable.
Think this is something that’s not likely to happen?
A nationwide study revealed that 8.5% of of applicants who have authorized an employee background check to be conducted as a condition of employment have criminal histories. Criminals know that businesses – small businesses especially, don’t do much in the way of a employee background check.
- A security officer agency was found guilty for inadequately checking a guard’s references when the guard stole from their client. They were found guilty of negligent hiring because they failed to do an employee background check and the employee had a criminal record. Damages awarded? $300,000.
- An employee of a sales firm who had previously been convicted of passing bad checks forged a number of signatures on sales contracts. When he was caught, the court judged that his employer was also negligent and gave the injured party $175,000.
- An appellate court decided to award $4 million to a woman who had been raped by another employee. That employee – surprise, surprise – didn’t put his previous criminal history of sexual assault on his employment application and the employer, who was more interested in saving money than protecting employees, didn’t perform a complete employee background check.
Can most small business owners afford a judgment of $500,000 or $5,000,000 against them? Hell no! Most small business owners can’t afford a judgment of $2000 against them. The average negligent hiring award would wipe them out.
Hence, our love of private employee background checks and civilian online background check services.
Story #3
A friend of mine who worked with the Florida State Patrol for a few years told me about a guy who was meeting women with an online dating service, lying to them about his job, his age and just about everything else. Well, he did tell the truth that he was a fraternity member, but he claimed to be in a different fraternity that he was an actual member of.
Anyways.
This guy, who was a real charmer, would meet up with these women and meet them at a bar to start the night off with a few drinks. After buying them both a few drinks, he’d suggest leaving the bar and heading to a friend’s house, where there was a “party.”
Most of the women lost consciousness about 5 minutes into the drive to the “party,” because this guy, who was a body-building type, had been slipping them GHB. Now, GHB is a substance that is now illegal, but for a while lots of bodybuilders and other athletes used it to bulk up, because it elevates human growth hormone levels. It is odorless and colorless, and can make people pass out fairly quickly. For a while it was rather notorious for being a “date rape drug.”
Well, this guy had a large supply of the stuff and he liked to use it. What made this particular case even worse, this idiot would take pictures of himself and his victims while he was having his way with them. Apparently these pictures were a great hit at his frat’s parties.
Now, if these women had been using even the most basic online background check service, they might have figured out that this guy was lying to them. By using an online background check service to verify who this guy was, they might have avoided the mental anguish of realizing what had happened to them while they were helpless to do anything about it. With a simple reverse phone lookup, or find person check that looked into this guy’s real identity, these women might have avoided the shame and embarrassment of having herpes for the rest of their lives as well.
Which Background Check Service should I use?
Ok, so maybe now you can see the value of subscribing to an online background check service – at least we hope you can.
The next step is to choose a criminal background check service that’s right for you.
Most online databases purchase their data from a larger source. One of the largest sources for this kind of data is InfoUSA, which is located in Omaha, Nebraska. While their leadership may be questionable, the company’s data is widely considered the best available in the industry.
Online background check services often combine InfoUSA data with other public data that the general public doesn’t have easy access to. Criminal histories, sexual offender registration information, credit data and other sensitive material is added to these criminal background check databases to flesh out the information that customers want and need.
Most companies we’ve come across that offer online background checks require you to pay $20 a month, $40 a year, or have a charge per search.
We’re poor, here at People You’ll See In Hell. Our wives would not let us sign up with the online background check service that has a dominating web presence because it is expensive as all Hell. So we had to look for other, more economical services that still gave us the information that we wanted.
The service that People You’ll See In Hell staff chose is NetDetective.
In business since 1996, Net Detective not only provides some of the best background information possible, but it also provides a number of other services that might be interesting to you, such as:
- Telling you how to “cloak” your e-mail so your true e-mail address can’t be discovered
- Showing you how to make phone calls through a third party the number called doesn’t appear on your phone bill
- Where to find a list of speed traps throughout the USA
- An easy way to check out the ethics and business practices of businesses worldwide, including those on the Internet
- Leading you to stores where you can get security products such as recording and tracking equipment, listening devices, mini cameras, bomb detectors and more
- Showing you how to get information on untraceable asset protection (anonymous banking)
- Telling you how to locate military records from the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and World War 2
- Letting you know how to easily find out about wanted fugitives (who might be living next door)
At $29 a year, NetDetective is a bargain, especially when you compare it to the cost of other online background check services. The added value of some of the other things that NetDetective provides, like your own FBI file or your own employment history, means that their online background check service might work out well for you.
Regardless of whether or not you try the online background check services that we have recommended, we heartily recommend signing up for a criminal background check service somewhere. If you choose to go look around the internet for one on your own keep in mind a few things:
- The best criminal background check services not only allow you to access the information you need quickly, but it also makes it easy to submit information to them and access previous online background check reports you’ve done.
- As with any online retailer, when you order access to online background check databases, make sure that they will protect not only your credit card information, but also that they won’t disclose what you’re searching for on their service.
- Also, consider whether you need county, state, national or international information before consulting a criminal background check service, some services cannot offer data from all areas, although the two we have recommended do.
Thanks for reading, and stay safe.
More information on why subscribing to an online background check service is a good idea: