Want to Run a Background Check? Try it On These Five People

Every day we associate and interact with people.  These people range from complete strangers to close friends and family.  The truth, however, is that even the people we think we know and trust may not be who they say they are.  Performing a background check is a simple and easy way to verify that those we trust in various aspects of our lives are who they claim to be and that they are not hiding anything from us.  Here is a list of the top 5 people you should be running background checks on to ensure the safety of yourself and your loved ones.

New Boyfriend or Girlfriend

Meeting someone new is always exciting and feels like a fresh start, but you want to make sure that the person you are getting a fresh start with is actually who they say they are.  There is no place where this is truer than in an online relationship.  As more and more relationships are forming online, the need for background checks is increasing.  With the rampant rise of “catfishing” on social networking sites it has become very hard to trust that someone you have met online is actually who they claim to be.  The highly publicized case of football player Manti Te’o really shed a light on the seriousness of the “catfishing” problem and how even high-profile athletes can be fooled.  Mr. Te’o could have saved himself a lot of public embarrassment and controversy had he simply done a people searchon a background check site.  While background checks are helpful and almost imperative for online relationships, they also work for traditional relationships because you just never know if the person you’re with is telling you the whole story.

Neighbors

It’s always important to know that you live in a safe neighborhood.  This is where you have a home and your family lives and sleeps every night.  It is much easier to sleep at night knowing that you live in a safe neighborhood and that your family is safe.  Background check websites make it easy to check your neighborhood and surrounding area for any registered sex offenders.  You may think you know who your neighbors are, but these are the people living next to you and your family and wouldn’t you want to be sure they are safe.

Coaches

Coaches are frequently interacting with your children and it’s often when you are not around.  Recent sex scandals involving sports coaches or mentors and young children have brought national attention to the issue of child predators in coaching roles.  Most notably, the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State University showed how truly dangerous a sex offender can be if they get into a position of power.  Since Sandusky, there have been multiple cases involving coaches exploiting their positions to victimize children.  This is a real threat and running a simple background check on a coach or leader of your child’s group can go a long way to providing you some peace of mind, as well as safety for your child.

Teachers

Much like with coaches, teachers are around your kids too, except they are with them almost every day.  Just like with a coach you would want to do a background check on a teacher to make sure that your child is safe in the presence of that person, but there are also other reasons to background check a teacher.  This is the person teaching your child and instilling ideas and values into them.  It never hurts to run a check on someone who has that kind of influence over your children.

Yourself

But you already know everything about yourself, right? Well unfortunately you could be very wrong. All of the information that you’ve been digging up on other people could pertain to you as well. It’s always good to know what kind of information about you is accessible to the public, and running a background check on yourself can let you know swhat you need to address. Not to mention, it is a great way to learn more about the area you’re currently living in as well. Background checks give detailed crime reports about cities and you can find out what is going on around you, or where you are planning on moving or visiting.

Background checks can be helpful in many different ways.  There are countless situations where they can be used to attain important information on the people you interact with.  However, if you don’t have the time or energy to perform background checks in every situation; make sure that you at least take a few minutes to run checks on these people and make sure that you and your loved ones are safe and protected.

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Kristen Bright

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Kristen Bright lives and blogs from her home in San Diego where she works with Instant Checkmate. When she’s not running detailed criminal records on everyone she meets, she enjoys spending time in the Gaslamp Quarter.