Background check
typically involves accessing a variety of public
records for locating information about your subject.
Specific types of information you're searching
for (credit history, business information etc.)
may vary depending on why you're doing the investigation.
However, in all likelihood, you will be looking
for information in one or more of following sources:
- Public Records
These are set of documents maintained by the
government directly through its various arms
(e.g. court records, voter list, land records
etc.)
- Publicly Available Records
These are public records, made available to
public by private organizations (e.g. Telephone
directory, Yellow Pages, Business Directories,
Association Publications, Annual Reports etc.)
- Private Records
These are records collected or compiled by special
organizations like credit rating companies,
research organizations, newspaper offices etc.
Usually, these types of records are not freely
available to general public but can be purchased
for a fee (e.g. Dun and Bradstreet Credit Report).
How Do I Go About It ?
Its always advisable to start any background
check by focusing your investigation. First, you
must determine what you presently know about the
subject. Second, you must be clear about what
you want to know about him.
Once you are clear about what you already know
and what you want to know - decide which are the
likely sources of information for what you want
to know.
Remember, success of your search on selected
sources will depend a great deal on what you already
know - so any error on this count may jeopardize
your investigation.
A Checklist for your Investigation
Before starting any background check - one should
ask following questions:
- Why am I doing this background check ?
(Possible Answers: business background, credit
rating, reference checking, pre-employment screening,
pre-relationship check, tenant screening etc.)
- What do I already know (or think I know)
about the subject?
(e.g. Pramod Ranjan Tewary, Age around 40, deals
in scrap business somewhere in Mumbai)
- What do I want to know ?
- What geographic areas do I want to check?
- What are the limitations in terms of time,
depth of investigation, budget (if any) etc.
Once you have completed above exercise, your
preliminary work is done. Now you are clear about
what information you have or need to verify about
your subject, and what information you are looking
for.
Your next task is to identify possible sources
of information for this investigation. We shall
discuss various sources in next issue.
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