[Comet]

In a movie, when people are all like "I ran a background check on him"

what does it usually consist of in real life?
in movies it seems to have info like "favorite extinct animal"

how does one perform a background check?

[JerzeySux]

Criminal, commercial, finacial check ups on the person. Sex offenders etc.

You can payonline to do a check on someone with all there info.

[Comet]

cool
but where do these sites get the info from?

[JerzeySux]

Originally Posted by Comet

cool
but where do these sites get the info from?

You can google background checks and there are TONS of sites that does it.
Some cost $20 some cost $50 and some are more detailed.

Did you girlfriend scare you recently? Stalkng? j/k

[Comet]

hahahaha
I was watching "The Ugly Truth" with my gf and the chick runs a background check on her dates and knows his favorite color and I was like "uhhh... what?"
it just didn't sit right with me. I was curious how they work

Thanks for the info!

[e60_M5_2020]

In addition to what others have said, I was talking to a lawyer yesterday and he said that the databases they use (lexis, westlaw, etc) actually track a ton of information based on SSN.

For the most part, no database will track truly unique personal information (i.e., favorite color, dinosaur) unless you're being investigated, you've been investigated in the past, or have an actual agent building a clearance file.

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by Comet

cool
but where do these sites get the info from?

They use public available databases, and databases governments, companies and schools sell and most everything you have done is in some database somewhere.

Most times all you need is a name and an approximate age and possibly a street address and you can finds out lots about them. In order to do any short of finanical check you will need a SSN since there are too many people with similar names.

What these online background check companies are doing is data mining. They buy all these databases and connect names and address and assuming that is the same person and then sell this information to anyone who wants to pay.

Most of these background check well say where you lived, for how long, information about your mortgage and if you were foreclosed on or file bankruptcy and if you have tickets and ever been arrested or server time in jail. They may have information about where you went to school and such. Also they could have information about your income.

This is another way our government makes money, they are selling your personal information to anyone who wants to buy it. Other companies do the same even colleges.


I had a buddy in college who use to do this Database mining, I was amazed at the level of information he had access to how he could connect pieces of information.