Once you embark on a criminal records check on someone, you might start to get curious. You may see a lot of names, and wonder how there are so many in the world that have records. With the vast amount of them, you might even wonder how high the error rate might be. If you think about those who have problems because of their past, you have to think about the ones who have problems from someone else’s past.
If you have ever looked at your credit record, you see most of your spending habits. You may have good credit, or bad credit, but at least you know it is your own credit. However, with the rising instances of identity theft, many are dealing with bad credit that was not of their own creation. Sometimes, there is nothing they can do about it, and they have to pay off those debts to clear their own credit. It doesn’t seem fair, but it does happen.
Some companies who issue credit reports recommend you check your credit often to be sure this is not happening to you. This might seem like a ploy to get more of your money, but it is actually not a bad idea. Not only could you have a problem with someone stealing your identity, you may have someone else’s bad mark on your credit and it could be hurting you. This often happens when people have the same name and live in the same state.
If this can happen with something as simple as a credit report, you can imagine it could also happen with criminal records. When it comes to credit reports, they should have your social security number, and that is how they match a debt to a report or person. That doesn’t mean they don’t get it wrong though, and the same can be said for criminal records.
You might be surprised to find that there are others with your same name, living in your state, and they may even have a birth date near yours. That is one problematic thing about popular names. When a name is given to many children at the same time thanks to naming trends, many end up with the same names around the same date of birth. This leads to mix-ups happening in all aspects of life, and that could extend to your name being linked to criminal activity.
Imagine being called into your boss’ office to see your boss with a perplexed look on his or her face. They ask you to sit down, and then ask you to explain why you never mentioned that you had been convicted of a felony. If you have been a long time employee, they may accept it is a mistake as long as you can get it cleared up, but newer employees might be let go without notice. Lying about a felony on a job application often leads to immediate dismissal. You may not have done anything, but if it’s on a criminal records check, you may not have a chance to explain or fix it before you are out of a job.
Even worse, you may be doing a long and diligent job search, only to find that no one is calling you back. Not all employers do criminal record checks, but many today are doing so. If there is a mistake on your report, and some crime comes up linked with your name and birth date, you may find your phone strangely silent. You have a good education, plenty of experience, and excellent references, and the silence is baffling.
If you have a mistake on your criminal records check, and you don’t know it, you may have a long hard search ahead of you while looking for work. You may never know why you aren’t getting any callbacks. Many check this history after an interview, and that can be even more perplexing, especially if you are good at job interviews.
Some have figured out that this has been happening to them because they have followed up on interviews only to be told they did not get the job. Some people like to ask why, so that they may work on whatever the problem was in an effort to be a better job applicant. They are often stunned when they hear their criminal records report came back with a number of crimes attached to their name. Ouch. Some states require employers to tell an applicant that something came up, and that might happen to you as well.
Robert N. Lewis is an informational writer on various forms of background checks. Find more information on Criminal Record searches by visiting http://www.criminalcheckreviews.com
Tags: criminal, criminal checks, criminal records, criminal records online
