How to Do a Completely Free Background Check Online

Most of us have something to hide, no matter how big or small. We all have Facebook posts that we regret writing or embarrassing photos that we’ve been tagged in. Everything is available to see online; from your real name and online alias, age, address, vehicle offenses or bankruptcies – all it requires is a little online digging to view this “private” information.

Background checks are usually run to uncover information about others – are your new colleagues really who they say they are? Although the temptation to run a check on someone else may be strong, have you considered running a check on yourself? Do you even know what information is currently out there?

Perhaps it’s time to run a free background check online, no charge.

Do I Really Need a Background Check?

Let’s keep this simple…yes! It’s worth running a background check on yourself regularly to see what information is out there for the world to see. Imagine the scenario: you’ve been offered a second interview for a high-profile job, they have seen your resume, met you in person and like what they see. What do you think the next stage would be? Would you be surprised if we told you that a percentage of employers perform online background checks of their potential employees?

Suddenly those Facebook posts from last weekend don’t seem like a smart idea. Running a completely free background check will keep you in the loop as to what information is available to see publicly. It can be quite a shock if you have never done this before.

There are also other reasons why an online background check is not only useful but essential. Have you ever advertised for a roomie only to realize that after two months they’re not who you expected at all? Not only would you save time and energy by running a background check on them at first, but you’d also know if your new potential roommate has a criminal background.

A background check can also be useful for potential dates. Save yourself the heartache and check them out online first. If you’ve seen the Netflix show You, with a creepy stalker as the main character, you’ll be aware of how useful background checks could be!

What Is A 100% Free Background Check?

Depending on your age, you may remember a time when the internet didn’t exist and finding information was impossible. You’d have to look up names in a telephone directory and if you needed some meatier information you’d have to hire a professional to help. Thankfully things have changed and now we can find almost anything online.

An online background check will show any criminal, educational, financial and commercial records. A free background check is something that you can do yourself, but be warned…it’s pretty labor-intensive and requires a lot of time and energy. Where there’s a ton of information that can be uncovered online for free, a paid search will always bring up more information.

Are Paid Background Checks Better?

Yes and no.

Let us explain…

Generally speaking, the internet is a great place to perform a 100% free background check, and for this reason alone, many people choose to do it themselves. There are pros and cons with running a completely free online background check. Obviously the biggest pro is that it’s free but in addition it’s often easy too, as there’s only so much information you can find out for free so the methods are pretty straightforward. One of the cons is that you might be doing something illegal without realizing it if you’re not in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Not only that but your search is likely to be limited too as some bits of vital information could be tied up in public records and difficult to find.

For a small fee (usually around $20) it’s worth using a professional service like BeenVerified to do the hard work for you. These services can bring up loads of vital information that otherwise would have taken ages to obtain. They can even provide a court runner service to literally go and physically find the public records that you need, saving you time and energy.

The best idea is to do a quick initial check to see what you can uncover online. If you feel you need more information then it’s definitely worth paying for a little helping hand. Public records can be a pain to go through and pretty tricky to understand. Special reports from background check companies make the whole job painless and fast. So rather than focus on a free public record search, hand it over to a company that understands.

How To Run A 100% Free Background Check

The first thing to note with any background check is that although there will be a ton of information available for free at your fingertips, you’ll still be limited by what you are legally allowed to access. More information is available if you pay to use a service but we’ll speak more about that later.

Here are a few different ways you can check your background online:

Using Search Engines To Run A Completely Free Background Check Online- No Charge

This should be the starting point to any free background check. Google is your friend when it comes to revealing information online. If you want to do a free background check online no charge, then just type the specific name and location using quotation marks like this: “name, location”. If you don’t know the location then that’s fine, but obviously, if the name you are searching is popular, you might have to browse through hundreds or thousands of links before you find who you are looking for. Be warned: this can be annoying!

If you’re searching yourself then add “name, location” or “alias name, location” as many of us use an alias online. Google is likely to bring up all records of social media which you should be able to search through unless the settings are set to private. Using a search engine will also show you any websites that are linked to the person in question, photographs that have been posted online and sometimes the person’s address and current location.

Also, don’t just use Google. Although this is the go-to search engine for most people, it’s important to remember that different search engines reveal different results. Make sure you try these search engines too:

• Bing
• Yahoo
• AOL
• Duck Duck Go.

Other social media sites will bring up a surprising amount of personal data, regarding times, locations and connected friends:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn (if the person in question has registered with this professional network) Due to the professional nature of the website, you will likely be able to search for real names (not online aliases) and current information.

Venture Into The Deep Web

Now we know that this sounds pretty scary but the deep web isn’t to be mistaken for the dark web; it’s just basically information that wouldn’t appear in a normal search engine as it isn’t indexed, like most website data. Used by many people including private detectives who may be looking to do a free public records search, the deep web will bring up relevant information that otherwise would have been hidden from the likes of Google which only looks at ‘surface web’ information.

We use the deep web all the time to access things like private bank accounts, personal emails, medical records, legal documents and other personal information that normal search engines can’t access because there are no links for them to trawl.

To access the deep web you can use services such as Pipl to see what type of personal information is available for the public to see. This is a paid service but they do offer a free trial so you can test it out and see what info it uncovers.

Reverse Image Search

If you are running a completely free online background check on someone and need to see if a photograph is genuine or you need to identify the name of the person in a particular photo, then a really useful tool is the reverse image search. Where we would normally search Google for a specific image this works the opposite way. All you need to do is upload the original image or a screenshot of the image into Google Images or a website such as Tin Eye and they will show you the source of the image and will sometimes list the name too. Very handy.

How To Find People’s Addresses Online

If you’re looking to see what information exists online about you or someone who lives close to you, then you can use a website such as White Pages. This website (for US users only) allows you to enter a name and address and in return will give you a profile of who lives there, where they have previously lived, their age and people they’re associated with. Other information is available if you sign up to the service. It can be pretty creepy seeing this level of private information online.

Other similar sites include:

ZabaSearch

This is a little like WhitePages in that it contains a decent amount of info and you can view address history, past and present places of work, relatives and schools attended.

Family Watchdog

Another reason people run background checks is to see if there are any sex offenders in their area. Family Watchdog is a popular tool for those who have recently moved house and changed neighborhoods. It’s easy to use too; just type in your address, city-state and zip code and the site will give info on offenders nearby.

Find Financial Information

You can find a ton of information available online regarding your finances. Other companies will willingly look this information up, so doesn’t it make sense to know what the state of your credit is? Many credit reports are available for a small fee and some reports are free. If you use a tool such as Annual Credit Report you can access one free credit report every 12 months.

Find Background Information Using Public Records

One of the best ways to get a 100% free background check on someone is to access public records. This is the tool that many private investigators use and if it’s good enough for them, we think it’s definitely going to be good enough for us. Public records hold a ton of information and can be a valuable tool in gaining a full picture of your background.

Here are some excellent sources of information well worth checking out:

• The National Archives
• Social Security
• Death Index
• Local Tax Assessor’s Office
• Local State Department Of Corporation
• PACER
• County Title
• Lands Records

We particularly like:

SearchSystems

This site provides a great starting point if you’re looking for public records. It provides access to over 70,000 public record databases and you are able to search for different types of information which it will then signpost to a specific website. This is 100% free to use.

NETR Online

This website provides criminal record checks for a nominal fee and serves as a portal to county and state record databases.

If you’re looking to find your local offices to gain access to public records online, then you’ll need to search using location and name. Accessing this type of information independently means that your online background check is mostly free. The only problem with this is that you will be limited to what type of information you’ll be able to see and more importantly it also takes time…like a lot of time. For basic background check information then go ahead and see what you can find, but for a more in-depth report then it’s worth spending a few dollars and getting a little help.

Here are some of the best online background checking services currently on offer:

• BeenVerified
• Truth Finder

Companies such as these provide a professional service where they trawl the internet for you and then provide you with a comprehensive report. There are many benefits to using a service like this, but the main one is that most credible companies such as Been Verified, Truth Finder and PeopleLooker can access information that would normally be tricky to obtain or difficult to understand.

These websites usually give you access to information such as public records (and some even offer a court runner service if the information isn’t available online), police records, civil judgments, birth and death records, relatives, education and jobs, dating profiles, property ownership and traffic reports. Some can even scan the dark web to see if your information is being used for criminal activity. These websites tend to scan deeper than your average search engine and therefore can uncover a wealth of information that is otherwise hidden to novice eyes.

It’s important to use a reputable company when performing a background check. The reason for this is because there are laws and regulations in place to protect an element of people’s privacy. You have to use the services responsibly too. For example, if you are looking for information on a partner, neighbor, family member, potential sex offender (wanting to check the sex offender register), friends, online sellers, celebrities or yourself, then most services are fine to use. If, however, you are an employer or landlord, or you plan to use the information for insurance or medical reasons then this is normally a big no-no. In that case, you would have to use a specific Customer Reporting Agency or CRA.

The Bottom Line

Whether you decide to pay for an online background check or choose to pay someone to perform this task for you, depends on the depth of information required, but running a background check on yourself is pretty essential. There is an abundance of data floating around for everyone to access – isn’t it time to find out what your online data reveal?