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Background check reveals many facts that allow companies to practice
due diligence and empowers individuals to make better choices about
people in their life.
There are essentially three different ways one can check the background
of a company or individual. Depending upon situation, one or more
of these options may be used in combination for best result
Do it Yourself
Toughest of all - you must know sources of public information, possess
enough search skill and have the patience. Your search result is
further limited by accessibility of public information. Works best
for US companies or individuals as that country probably has the
best public record storage and access system. Often, this is the
first course of action, failing which you may turn to other options
listed below
Turnaround time : Few hours
Cost: Free (excluding your time and ISP charge for
Internet access)
Delegate the search
You may decide to delegate the task to an agency who does background
check for a fee. This is very useful for countries like India where
very few public records are available in Internet. Background check
here means doing lot of legwork in physically visiting the organizations,
collecting information from Registrar of Companies or similar organization
, counter-checking claims etc.
There are many agencies who have specialized in background checking
and charge a lot less than established names like Dun and Bradstreet
Turnaround Time: 7-10 days (can be shrunk to 2-3 days
by paying extra)
Cost: USD 50 - 80 per report
Use Special Software
There are special purpose software that can check public records
on your behalf. If you are doing background check quite often -
consider buying one of these. However, this option works best for
US records. Besides, quality of search result may not be to your
satisfaction all the time.
With such a software, you can search FBI files, get credit report
information, obtain criminal records on anyone, find a cell phone
numbers owner and their address, find unlisted phone numbers, check
out a prospective employee (or your boss), investigate a suspicious
person or neighbor, search driver license, marriage & divorce records
etc.
Turnaround Time: Less than hour
Cost: USD 50 - 300 (one time cost for software)
We shall discuss details of each of these sections
as also various Internet sources in future issues.
Happy Surfing
Dr. Amit K Chatterjee
Related Links:
Source: FAIDA
- Newsletter on Business Opportunties from India and Abroad
Vol: 4, Issue 07
Jun 24' 2003
Author :
Dr. Amit K. Chatterjee
(Amit worked in blue-chip Indian and MNCs for 15 years in various
capacities like Research and Information Analysis, Market Development,
MIS, R&D Information Systems etc. before starting his e-commerce
venture in 1997. The views expressed in this columns are of
his own. He may be reached at amit@infobanc.com
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