Founded in , this background check site only takes a few simple steps to search for someone. It does cost a bit more than some of the other options, but its results have been known to be extremely accurate. You can start using this site by simply searching a name and location. This site includes real police records, photos, background reports, address information, and court documents. You can also search specifically for criminal records or sex offenders if needed.

Make sure to read our hands-on review of Instant Checkmate. Try Instant CheckMate for Free TruthFinder Review The design of this background check very closely resembles Instant Checkmate , but this is because they are both founded by the same people. TruthFinder was founded in , just a few years after Instant Checkmate was released.

It has a few different categories, but ultimately, it runs almost the same. TruthFinder includes all the same reports and records that Instant Checkmate does, but instead of having ways to search that involves criminal activity, it has ways to search for public records, dark web information, and relationship information. Therefore, this site would be a better option when it comes to doing a background check for dating since it has a tab specifically dedicated to it.

Make sure to read our hands-on review of Truthfinder. Try TruthFinder for Free PublicSeek Review Formerly known as SeekVerify, this background check site allows you to search over 10 million public records. All you have to do is search up a person by their name, phone number, email, or address. In addition to the four items you can search by, there are a variety of other reports that can be found on this site.

Some of these reports are social media profiles, job histories, criminal records, and financial information. One of the recommended reasons to use this site is to background check a date, but you can also use it if you want to check out a specific phone number, learn more about your neighbors, or reconnect with a friend or relative.

Try PublicSeek for Free Check People Review Check People is another background check website that makes searching for someone fast and easy.

While it is not as highly popular as some of the other options, there are still thousands of people that use it to search for records. Some things that you can search for are court records, mugshots, criminal records, and dark web scans. Try Check People for Free What is a Background Check? A background check is the process of looking up information or records of a specific person. This is not only for dating sites, but it is also a common source that employers use to ensure that their employees are not giving them false information.

There are plenty of sites out there that can give you additional information about someone that you are hesitant about or someone that you just want to know more about.

Not all background checks are exactly the same, but they typically consist of education, employment, criminal records, licenses, and credit history. It is a good idea to be safe while meeting people online, which is why background checks are an important part of online dating. The price may steer you away from taking these extra precautions, but here are some reasons why you should always do a background check for someone that you meet on an app or website.

They could just be a bot trying to scam some money out of you or someone pretending to be someone else. They will try to bond with you at first, then once they gain your trust, they will start expecting things from you. If you background check them early on though, then you can avoid problems like this altogether. Even if they are a real person, they could still be lying to you.

You could go on talking to someone for a while without even knowing that they gave you some false information along the way. Scammers are usually pretty good about figuring out how to make you fall for their tricks. A background check might seem like a bit too much just for some person online, but it is always better to be safe than sorry. Being extra cautious means that you are less likely to get scammed online and it will help you stay safe if you plan to meet someone in person.

If online dating is stressful for you, then running a background check can help to ease those fears. com, eHarmony and Sparks Networks operator of JDate and ChristianMingle will scan the histories of possible clients for sexual assault, identity theft and violence before allowing them access to their fee-based sites. As announced by California Attorney General Kamala D. MORE: Five Phrases to Take Off your Online Dating Profile Now.

The increased use of online dating sites has also brought an increase in financial scams and even physical abuse. A Match. com client sued last year, saying she was raped on a date with a repeat sex offender she had met through the site.

Most Internet dating sites do not check members for criminal history. Earlier this month, a San Antonio man, who is also a convicted murderer, was searching for singles on the online dating site Match. com until a local paper revealed his past. According to the San Antonio Express-News , because the Dallas-based website doesn't conduct background checks on members, Abraham Fortune's history remained under the radar until the paper picked up the news after reporting an unrelated story on Fortune.

Once alerted to Fortune's record, Match. com removed his profile from the site. But the incident has prompted some in the blogosphere and beyond to wonder: should background checks be mandatory for members of online dating sites? com declined to comment specifically on the Fortune case.

But Match. com General Manager Mandy Ginsberg said that though the company takes its members' security very seriously, it chooses not to conduct background checks because of inaccuracies and incomplete information in the felony and sex offender databases.

And if they're not, do we give a false sense of security to people on the site? If someone slips through the cracks… does that create more of a risk for people to not be more prudent? She said that regardless of where singles meet -- be it in a bar, at a nightclub or at the grocery store -- they should be cautious as they get to know strangers.

On Match. com, which welcomes more than 20, singles a day in the U. But other people familiar with the world of Internet dating argue that, especially on sites that charge for the service, background checks should be part of the package.

I think doing a background check… should be integrated in almost every major dating site," said Stephany Alexander, founder of the free date screening site WomanSavers. com and author of the book "Sex, Lies and the Internet.

While it's true that singles can encounter sex offenders and convicted felons anywhere and not know it, Alexander said the difference in an online environment is that people can conceal their histories behind a computer screen.

With glamour shots and embellished personal descriptions, "it's easier to hide behind a fake profile," she said. Julie Spira, cyber-dating expert and author of "The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online," said that it would be helpful for sites to at least give users the option to do a background check on other members.

Just as some sites let users pay for extra online services, she suggested that sites let users run background checks on those they encounter online, on a person-by-person basis. But while most online dating sites leave it up to individual members to suss out the suspicious strangers they meet on the Internet, executives behind one dating website say it's their business to keep their members as safe as possible.

Ruben Buell, president of True. com, said that since the company launched in , it has conducted background checks on every person that signs up for the site. Buell said True. com screens out convicted felons, including sex offenders, in every state. True also makes members confirm their marital status. If the site discovers that a married person has attempted to join, the company says it will turn them in for wire fraud.

Buell said the dating service welcomes thousands of people to the site a day, but rejects about percent. He said that's in line with national statistics that indicate that about 2 percent of the population are convicted felons.

While competitors may argue that True's imperfect service gives clients a false sense of security, Buell said the screening process is better than nothing at all.

Choosing not to do background checks because they're not totally foolproof, he said, is like a police department deciding not to pursue murderers because they won't be able to catch everyone. True's screening process doesn't catch everyone, but it catches the majority, Buell said.

The company's website also discloses to members that the background checks are not a perfect safety solution and that they should still be careful.

Mark Brooks, a consultant to online dating sites and editor of Online Personals Watch , said the issue of background checks has been a controversial one for the industry for years. A few years ago, several states considered legislation on the issue, he said, but thus far only New Jersey has an Internet dating safety law. It requires that sites provide users with safety notices and inform users if they don't conduct background checks on members.

As Internet dating sites increasingly compete with social networking sites, he said they do face more pressure to provide the security of a site like Facebook, which lets users see the company potential dates keep. But Brooks said unless dating services use them as a marketing point, like True. com, they are mostly wary of offering background checks on their sites. But in practice, users view these kinds of checks with great concern," he said.

Even the mention of background checks, he said, could make users skeptical about the kind of people they might meet on a dating site. He also said that the lag time in updating sex offender and felony databases doesn't make the manpower and financial expense of background checks worth it to most dating sites. Not only do sites monitor and remove users for various kinds of abuse, including spamming, scamming and obscene online behavior, the medium itself provides a level of security.

On sites that charge a subscription, people with malicious intentions can be traced through their credit cards. And some sites offer users ways to communicate with other members through double-blind e-mail and phone call systems that mask real contact information until they're ready to reveal it. And Brooks noted that online or off, troubling though it may be to accept, people with shady pasts may be looking for love too.

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Try Instant CheckMate for Free TruthFinder Review The design of this background check very closely resembles Instant Checkmate , but this is because they are both founded by the same people. If you background check them early on though, then you can avoid problems like this altogether. The founder of Gatsby is Joseph Penora, and he has seen and heard many of the crimes and incidents that happen from online dating. These different sites have also provided its users with guides on how to stay safe when meeting with people offline, online dating safety education, and how users could report and prevent fraud. Choosing not to do background checks because they're not totally foolproof, he said, is like a police department deciding not to pursue murderers because they won't be able to catch everyone.

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