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Jordan Goodman is the author of Everyone's Money Book, available at 888-201-6300. This is the third edition of the book. You can also visit his Web site at www.moneyanswers.com. He talks with us on Thursday mornings.

October 2, 2002

"Background Checks The Easy Way: Online"

In the era of massive corporate fraud and deceit from Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia and others, it’s more important than ever when you are about to deal with someone else of whom you don’t know what their history is. You don’t want to get involved with someone and later find out they had a criminal record or had gone bankrupt, or lost their professional license -- or, even worse.

This can be true if you are hiring a contractor, hiring a worker, using a professional, like a lawyer, accountant or doctor, renting your apartment to a tenant, or even marrying someone.

In the past, it may have been difficult to check people out without having to go down to the county courthouse and dig through dusty old records.

Now, it is much easier to check people out quickly and cheaply through the Web. There are many Web sites that allow you to do this, but my favorite is called KnowX. Here are some of the things you can search for on this database:
  • Bankruptcies
  • Liens
  • Judgments
  • Lawsuits
  • Criminal records
  • Ownership of assets, like real estate, boats, planes
  • Personal information, like marriages, divorce, deaths, past and present addresses, and phone numbers
  • Professional licenses, like for doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants, plumbing, electricians, etc.

You can also check out businesses you are thinking of dealing with, either as a customer, vendor or employee. You can look at their Dun and Bradstreet or Experian business report, which shows their financial statements, payment history with vendors, and corporate history.

Depending on how much you want to find out about someone, each of these records might cost anywhere from $5 to $20. But it is certainly worthwhile to know who you are dealing with before they can cause you physical or financial harm.

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