Resume Fraud - The Case for Background Checks

If you employ staff to work for you, particularly for sensitive positions such as child minding or bookkeeping, you should conduct background checks. It is amazing the extent that some applicants go to with lies about their qualifications, skills and employment history, or even having a criminal record. The practice of ?massaging? your credentials on your resume may seem to be harmless and an accepted practice but the simple truth is that exaggeration, omission or fabrication of important details on a resume is fraud. Some untruths can be small and appear somewhat minor, but others can cripple you.

Statistics show that as many as 1 in 3 resumes are fraudulent and that 82% of all business fraud crimes committed are by the employees. You may be familiar with the case of the doctor practicing without a degree, the nanny with a criminal record for theft, or an accountant that faked their credentials. These examples are not uncommon. The case of the nanny was one real example that Home Buddies uncovered during a recent Police Check of an applicant.

Standards Australia has released a recommendation for all employers, large and small, for undertaking background checking of potential employees. The Australian Standard AS8001-2003 Fraud & Corruption Control recommends employers:

1. Verify the identity of the applicant
2. Conduct a Police Check
3. Screen referees
4. Verify formal qualifications
5. Interview previous employers

The time and cost of conducting a background check is minimal compared to the potentially devastating cost to your family or your business if you employ the wrong person for the job. Employing someone who lacks the appropriate qualifications, skills or experience, or who may have a criminal record, can heavily impact on productivity. Consider the cost of having to repeat the recruitment process, retraining, loss of capital or even court and compensation costs.-

By Kelly Honeybrook - Director - Home Buddies - Find local services for parents & homeowners. Find a Nanny, Landscaper, Handyman, Cleaner, Plumber, Electrician and more - Authorised background checking service.

The Importance of background check in hiring a Nanny

Most of the parents nowadays hire nannies in order for them to go to work. But, can they really trust a person they're going to hire to be staying home with their precious children. Background check is the best recommendation in knowing the person's history. You especially want to know if this particular person you are going to hire has criminal records like domestic violence or a sex offender. These are the most common problems that may occur with nanny applicants trying to get in and take advantage of small helpless children once they are hired. You don't want to put your children in danger. Background check will help you prevent things that may happen to you and your children and the effects that will hurt you when bad circumstances happen.

Background check is easily accessible on the internet and you can receive instant reports including, access to criminal records, the person's relatives and acquaintances and also a 30 year history past and present addresses of the person you want to search. Background check will give you the right decisions in hiring a nanny. Conducting a background check is a small price to pay, considering we are talking about your children's physiological and psychological well being or even endangering their lives.

You can never go wrong doing a background check on a person's history because one can never be sure that the nanny hired be a perfect for your children. Relying solely on your better judgment is not the wisest choice. People can deceive you in many ways. Conducting a background check will give you that peace of mind knowing you made the best choice. For more info visit: http://www.backgroundcheckunlimited.com

Becky Harrison
beckyh@backgroundcheckunlimited.com

www.Backgroundcheckunlimited.com

The Importance Of Criminal Background Checks

A criminal check is a part of the background check done for pre-employment screening. A criminal background check has become an inexpensive way of legally obtaining details about a person. The details of the person can even be provided to the companies through their websites online and the results would be produced as soon as possible depending on the extent of the background check required.

A criminal check can be done by investigating the criminal history of the person that would be recorded in the criminal record manuals of the courts. Each state would contain the details of all the individuals having a criminal background in their respective courts. A nationwide search might prove to be tougher since there is no general national database being maintained and open to the public that might provide the list of all the criminals in the country.

Since state records are only able to provide the criminal history of a person in that state, it might be difficult to rule out the option of that individual having committed some crime in some other state. The only option would be to believe that a criminal would not move too far away from their home to commit a crime.

A criminal check begins with the verification of the personal details of the individual. Authentication of the SSN might be able to provide some valuable information about the person. With the help of this information, the criminal check is made easier and might produce quicker results. However, this might sometimes be misleading since a fake SSN can be purchased on the street and, unless a check is conducted, it would be next to impossible to verify the authentication of that particular SSN.

Along with the SSN, the person's credit history and driving history can also provide some valuable information that might prove useful during a criminal background check.
 

Criminal Background Checks: A Necessity In Our Society?

http://criminal--background-check.blogspot.com

Everyday the news tells of violence in the workplace and sex offenders on the prowl. The scary thing is that you usually never know who these people might be until it's too late. How many times have you seen an interview of someone describing an accused criminal as the nicest person you could ever know? They would have never suspected this person of committing any crime until the crime had already been commited. A criminal background check could have easily put up a red flag about this person and it might have prevented a future incident.

With the popularity of internet dating, the threat of sex offenders seems to increase daily. It is estimated that the number of Americans using online dating services like myspace.com and match.com is in the tens of millions. Sex offenders now have easy access to millions of potential victims. So how do you protect yourself? You should obtain a criminal background check on anyone you meet online before ever agreeing to meet with them and never agree to be alone with them until you feel safe. When your safety is in question, don't take a chance: get a criminal background check.

Violence in the workplace also seems to be on the rise. According to USA Today, an average of one employee is killed in the workplace every week in the United States. Furthermore, at least 20 workers are seriously injured in violent attacks by a current or former employee. How could these brutal attacks have been prevented? In most cases, a criminal background check could have revealed a history of violence and may have prevented many incidents from occuring. It is now more important than ever to know if someone has a criminal background or history of violence before you hire them.

The process of obtaining a criminal background check on someone used to be a hassle. It took someone with specialized knowledge and a whole lot of effort to gain access to public records of all sorts including criminal records and civil records. Now, because of the speed and convenience of the internet, obtaining a criminal background check on virtually anyone in the United States (and even Canada and the U.K.) could not be any easier. Whether someone has an unpaid parking ticket, or has been convicted of a felony, these public records are all available to anyone.

A criminal background check can and should be used in any situation where safety or trust is an issue. It is extremely difficult for anyone to know you are investigating them so you can conduct one in complete anonymity. Don't become a victim of violence when you can protect yourself in such an easy and valuable way: do a criminal background check.

What Is Background Check?

What are background checks?

From a simple criminal record check to a full blown due diligence investigation the contents and type of check can vary widely. Most checks consist of at least the following elements:

Criminal record search
Employment verification
Education verification
Driving record
Credit check

The above elements will most likely be seen in your typical employment screening process. In a due diligence investigation many many elements could be added from multi-jurisdictional civil searches to interviews with friends, family and neighbors, whereas the average consumer may just be interested in one or two of these elements.

Later we will discuss certain types of checks such as pre-employment screening or hiring a nanny for your children.

Why conduct them?

There are as many reasons to conduct background checks as there are types of checks. Some companies conduct checks on potential employees to determine whether or not the employee has a criminal record.

This is especially important if the employee is going to be handling money or working closely with customers.

Imagine hiring a person who has a history of violence and then putting them in a customer service position.

You could be looking at a negligent hiring suit and subjecting your company to a great deal of liability.

What about other types of checks? Many companies run a credit check on potential employees.
How does this relate to a persons ability to work? In some instances it does not relate but may give a good indication if the person is reliable and can be counted on.

In other cases it directly relates to the position the person applied for. For instance you may not want to hire a tax consultant who is in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. It is just common sense.

Most companies take something as subjective as a credit report on a case by case basis.

There are a plethora of other reasons to conduct a background check on someone. Your creepy neighbor, a new nanny for the kids, your kids little league coach.

You may be going into business with someone and want to know what type of dealings they have had in the past. These are all very compelling reasons.

You will be able to do thorough and complete online investigations on yourself and almost anyone.
False! While it is true that you can check out some people online you are never ever going to get a "thorough" investigation in this manner.

Used by hundreds of law enforcement agencies!: I have been involved in law enforcement a long time and I do not know one single agency or officer that uses this software.

Again, the software is just basically a bunch of links that anyone with half a brain and a good search engine can find.
Clyde Barry Website - http://www.unlimited-backgroundcheck.com

Criminal Background Checks

As an employer, it is understandable that you want to know as much as possible about a prospective employee. A combination of employment application, personal references and background investigations can give you a sense of peace when entrusting an individual with responsibilities within your company.

As an employer, it is understandable that you want to know as much as possible about a prospective employee. A combination of employment application, personal references and background investigations can give you a sense of peace when entrusting an individual with responsibilities within your company.

It is also important that employers not rely solely upon the employment application alone. It is estimated that up to 30% of all applications contain some type of falsifications or fabrications. Many methods exist to inquire about the background of a candidate.

One of the most utilized types of background checks is the criminal background investigation. All businesses handle some type of sensitive information of some degree. Retail businesses want to be sure prospective employees are clean from theft charges to reduce the instance of employee theft. Businesses or non-profits dealing with children and/or seniors are legally obligated to know the backgrounds of their employees. We have all heard the horror stories of an abusive childcare worker with a criminal background in which the employer was unaware. It is vital for the safety and security of both the business and those served that employers perform a thorough investigation of each employee.

Employers should be careful to limit the information that they need based on the responsibilities of the specific job function. For example, when hiring an employee that will handle cash transactions, employers will need to know if the candidate has had any prior convictions regarding theft. It is also mandatory that the types of background investigations to be performed are clearly outlined in any pre-employment literature. With the increasing concern about privacy, it is in the employers best interest to be upfront and honest about any inquiry of this nature.

The implementation of criminal background checks can greatly reduce the financial loss of a company by weeding out those who have criminal convictions. Another instance where criminal background checks can be useful is when an employee will be dealing with the public sector. In order to limit the likelihood of negligence lawsuits, employers should consider criminal background checks as a standard pre-employment screening tool.

When calling upon a private investigation firm, an employer might not be sure of what information they really need. However, some of the most common concerns are about criminal conviction. In regards to criminal background checks, the Fair Credit Reporting Act prohibits employers from rejecting employment to those who have been charged but not convicted of a crime. When interviewing a private investigation firm, it is important to find out what information they gather and from what sources. Employers can be held liable of violating Federal law if they reject employment based on this type of information.

Background Checks provides detailed information about criminal, employment, online, executive, and personal background checks. For more information go to Background Checks and/or visit our affiliate site at Original Content Web.