Video: Cheap, easy ways to do a background check

Larger screen

SEATTLE - How much do you really know about that roommate who just moved in? Or the new boyfriend?

The headlines in recent weeks serve as a warning that what you see isn't always what you get. But there are some inexpensive and even free ways to make sure the person you're dealing with isn't hiding a dangerous secret.

Laura Querry is on a quest for a nanny for her 20-month-old son, Jack. So far it's not an easy ride. She scours the classifieds, but still isn't sure whom to hire.

"Yeah, I mean even the perfect ones -- that makes you even more suspicious right?" she said. "Because if they're too perfect maybe it is someone looking to take advantage of you."

In Puyallup last month a pair of homeowners learned the hard way that you don't always know the whole truth about those you trust.

They rented a room to Zane Dittman who they found on Craigslist. Dittman, a convicted sex offender, ended up blowing the top floor off their house while making bombs.

Linda Montgomery has been a private investigator for 25 years.

"From Craigslist or meeting someone on the internet or hiring someone in your home -- you don't know who they are and you should check them out," she said.

The internet is full outfits that promise to run thorough background checks for about $20. But we've found those checks are often incomplete, and you can do your own checks for less money and with greater results.

First of all, when checking anybody out, try to get a birth date, middle name and any other states the person has lived in.

Get a look at the person's driver's license to double check the spelling of his or her name.

If you're hiring the person say, as a nanny, you are required by law to tell them you are running a background check.

Next, hit the computer. The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs run a free Web site that will tell you if the person has been convicted of a sex crime, with links to 41 of the 50 states.

You can check the status of a Washington driver's license for free through the Department of Licensing's Web site.

For a charge of $10 you can check Washington State Patrol records online to see if someone has been convicted of a crime -- but only in our state.

For a more comprehensive check, though, you'll have to head down to your county courthouse.

The SCOMIS system is free to the public and will show you civil, criminal and domestic violence cases against someone -- but it's only for Washington state.

There is no national database for criminal background checks.

In the meantime, Laura Querry searches Sittercity.com, a pay site that pairs parents with pre-screened care givers. But she says when she does find that perfect nanny she plans to do her own background check:

"You just don't really know," she said. "The people that look great on paper and sound great on the phone -- you really have no way of knowing."

INTERNET RESEARCH DATABASE SITES

Washington State searches

Washington State Department of Revenue’s Business Records Database

http://dor.wa.gov/content/home/brd/

Provides public information for businesses registered in Washington State. There is a total of 1,933,667 names in the database as of 02/01/2005.

Washington State Professional Licenses

https://fortress.wa.gov/dol/dolprod/profquery/

Department of Licensing site (limited to those professional and occupational licenses issued by WA DOL)

Health Professions Quality Assurance Search Engine

https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/hpqa1/Application/Credential_Search/Profile.asp

Provides easy access to information on the 260,000 health care professionals in the state. Information provided includes the health care provider’s birth date and license status, including any current restrictions or disciplinary actions. If action has been taken against a health care professional since July 1998, the Web site displays the information and allows copies of legal documents to be printed. Even partial entries will result in a listing of health care professionals to choose from. If a practitioner has more than one credential to practice in Washington, that will be shown.

Contractor, Electrician, or Plumber Database - Department of Labor & Industries

https://fortress.wa.gov/lni/bbip/

Verifies licenses and provides: license number, type, business type, address, county, phone number, status, specialty, effective dates, parent company, previous licenses held by same licensee, associated licenses, business owner information, bond information, savings information, insurance information, and summons and complaints information!

Best Nationwide and/or Worldwide Searches

Free Public Records Directories

http://www.crimetime.com

Click on “Free Searches” for links found in these categories: Reverse Look Ups, Phone Directories, State Records, Federal Records, Mail drops, Businesses, News Search, Death Records, Skip Trace, Internet, Bank Accounts, Non-Profits, Unique Searches, Aviation, and Vessels

Free Public Records Directories, continued

http://www.searchsystems.net/

Claims to be the largest directory of links to free public record databases on the Internet (over 23,647 free searchable public record databases). Find business information, corporate filings, property records, unclaimed property, professional licenses, offenders, inmates, criminal and civil court filings, and much more.

Searches in the following categories: Nationwide, U.S. Territories, Canada Nationwide and by Province, Worldwide. Search U.S. by state. Search each State by County or City.

http://www.netronline.com/public_records.htm

The Public Records Online Directory is a Portal to official state web sites, and those Tax Assessors' and Recorders' offices that have developed web sites for the retrieval of available public records over the internet. Although not every county and parish has data online, many have home pages, and where neither is available a phone number has been provided.

Court Web Site

http://www.ncsconline.org/D_KIS/info_court_web_sites.html

This page provides judicial branch links for each state, focusing on the administrative office of the courts, the court of last resort, any intermediate appellate courts, and each trial court level. To simplify finding court addresses, they have created new pages for some state trial courts to provide comprehensive contact information.

Nationwide Federal Courts

https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl?court_id=00idx

Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from Federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index.  Current charge of $0.08 per page: Must have a login ID

FAA REGISTRY - Airmen Certification Inquiry

http://162.58.35.241/aadatabase/login.asp

Provides address, medical class & date (and any special requirements such as contact lenses), how many certificates and ratings they have and when they received them.

Classmates

http://www.classmates.com

This website can be checked if you know the approximate year and where a person attended high school or college. See if they have posted a profile about what they are doing now. Rarely yields information in my experience, but worth checking just in case.

FundRace 2004

http://www.fundrace.org

This site is from the 2004 presidential election. Their “neighbor search” allows you to type in an address and bring up names of neighbors and sometimes it lists their employers.

ZabaSearch

http://www.zabasearch.com/

This is a jumping-off point for research on individuals.  There is a fee to get information beyond the initial listing which usually shows a phone number or address.

Zoom Info

http://www.zoominfo.com/

Another person search, formatted to pull up a “profile” of your subject. Be sure to scrutinize the results – the information pulled and cited for this “profile” may not be your subject.

Blog Search

www.technorati.com

Pulls only recent, publically-viewable blogs entries.  The Advanced Search window has options to search tags, URLs, and the Blog Directory.

The Wayback Machine

http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

This machine crawls the Internet making copies of webpages and then dating and saving them in their archive database. To use, type in the URL of the website you are looking for: The machine will tell you if and when it made backup copies of your requested website and then you can view those archived pages.

Genealogy

http://www.rootsweb.com

Powered by Ancestry.com, this is a free connection point for people so that they can help each other by sharing genealogical research. Most of the resources on this website are designed to facilitate such connections and information is user-supplied.