Darkhelm's Privacy Tips: credit check

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Run a Background Check on Yourself Part 2

If you haven't already, check out my first article on how to Run a Background Check on Yourself. Go ahead I'll wait...
If you have ever wondered what information is available about you on the web and in public records I have found the perfect article for you Top 24 People Search Sites and Email Address Directories. While my previous article shows you how to get all the medical, credit, and insurance information available on you, the People Search Sites listed will show you what you have left behind online. Hopefully by now people are starting to wise up about where and how much information they put out into cyberspace, but it has been slow going. For example just consider how many people have been fired or denied employment for the things they post on their blog or Myspace account. While you may have control of deleting items you post to your accounts there is little or no control of what other people do with the information before you have deleted it, not to mention your information is likely to still be archived by thousands of search engines long after you have taken the information down. Your best safeguard is to think about everything you post before you post it, and remember that everything that you do post is permanent.
The next best thing if you really must post something that you are afraid will come back to haunt you is to post it under a pseudonym and do not link anything in your sensitive posts back to your true identity. This includes monetizing features like google adsense or adbrite. These may be linked back to you. Even creating a separate adsense or adbrite account may not help you if these accounts are linked back to your bank and tax ID.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Run a Background Check – On Yourself

Every time you search a telephone number online you get pitched an ad to run a background check on the person you are searching for. Prices for these services can range anywhere from $4.95 to $49.95. What everyone doesn’t know is that you can get a background check on yourself…FOR FREE. Due to the F.A.C.T Act (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), the same federal law that requires the 3 major credit reporting agencies to provide a free credit report each year also covers other specialty consumer reporting agencies such as ChoicePoint. Not every type of report is subject to the F.A.C.T Act but many are, so if a company provides background/public records searches for hire then they likely have to provide you with the information that they compile about you.

Unlike a credit report, a specialty consumer report may contain a lot of additional information about you including; employment history, public records, check writing history, tenant history, and any insurance claims you’ve made. Another scary fact that many of us are not aware of is that there are databases that report your prescription drug purchases and medical history such as MedPoint, The MIB (Medical Information Bureau not Men in Black) and Intelliscript. The one reassuring point is that these reports are not easily accessible to private individuals other than the individual that the report pertains to. Many of these reports may only legally be supplied (purchased by) businesses and entities with a genuine business reason to obtain them and you must give those businesses permission to obtain the reports.

Just like a credit report these specialty consumer reports may contain errors, especially if you may have been the victim of identity theft. While there are many specialty consumer reporting agencies and listing them all here would be prohibitive I would suggest that you track down the ones you can find, at least the ones listed here and in Fact Sheet 6(b) from Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and request your copy. Not all reporting agencies get their information from the same source so there may be differences from one report to the next. One final warning before I close: There are a LOT of scammers out there claiming to provide free credit reports or credit monitoring, so check that company out before you supply them with any of your information and NEVER pay for a free credit report. Remember the only official website (required by law) to request your free annual credit report is www.annualcreditreport.com. Specialty consumer reporting agencies are not required to maintain a website to request you file but they should have a toll free number and many do have websites with their contact information. Please see the links below for more information especially the ones for The FTC and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.