Free Background Checks For Criminal Records: Tips For Doing Your Own Searches

Free background checks for criminal records will help you locate information on potential employees, business partners, romantic interests, and anyone else you want to double-check or have suspicions about. Fortunately, we have the technology these days to conduct free background checks for criminal records that will reveal any red flags that we should know about.

While Free background checks for criminal records are available on the Internet, there is some legwork involved because not all of the records are in one place. Be prepared to invest several hours if not a day or two of work to conduct these investigations on your own. With that in mind, let's look at several ways you can do a free background check for criminal records.

#1 - Utilize Google & Other Search Engines

Your first stop on the Internet is to do a Google search on the name of the person you are interested in. Beyond the preliminary Google Web search, make sure you click on Google news for any possible news articles about your subject. This part of the search might reveal stories of possible crimes or court cases.

After Google News, continue your search by clicking on Google images. Google images very often will have images of your subject that you might not otherwise find on the Google Web search section. These images can tell you a lot about a person's conduct, friends, business associates and social activities. This is not direct criminal information but will help verify any suspicions you have about the person you are targeting.

#2 - Utilize the Hidden Web

The problem with Google, Bing, Yahoo and any other major search engines when performing an online investigation is that their search algorithms are set up to show you pages that are only linked by other pages on the Internet. However, there are many pages that are not linked by other sites. Your free background check for criminal records will be more complete if you check this "hidden web" by logging onto pipl.com and entering your subject's name. You will get a tremendous amount of information on a person if they are an active Internet user.

#3 - Utilize Local Resources

Another area to look into when doing a free background check for criminal records is the local County Courthouse. The chances are good that the person you are checking out has not committed a federal crime but possibly a misdemeanor. That information is available at the county courthouse. Beyond misdemeanor records you'll also find property records, divorce proceedings and other court records to coincide with your search.

#4 - Utilize National Databases

An important thing to check when doing free background checks for criminal records is the National Sex Offender Registry, which is also available online. You should also include a stop by your state Division of Corporations website. The Division of Corporations provides information on enforcement actions including desist and refrain orders, civil actions and administrative orders.

As you can see you have many channels you can investigate when conducting your own free background checks of criminal records. While doing this research might not cost you any money, it will definitely cost you time. Plus if you are not an expert on conducting these searches than it's easy to make mistakes. With that being said you, might be better off utilizing a quality background search service to do all the investigating for you.

Read More About:

Related Articles: