Background Checks vs Background Investigations. What is the Difference?

Investigation

Posted On December 5, 2017

Most often background checks are conducted by businesses, employers, loan officers, and other professionals. However, professionals aren’t the only ones conducting background checks, significant others, families hiring babysitters/house sitters, etc. are also doing so! Whether the reasons be personal or professional, you can never be to careful with the people you allow into your life.

Protecting yourself, your business, or your family is a serious matter. For those not looking for the cheapest way to do so, a background investigation may be more suitable than a background check. What is the difference between the two, you might ask? A background check usually consists of a few online searches, often computer-generated, contain a ton of useless data that is hard to decipher, and can often include false information (for example, data on another individual with the same name). A background investigation, on the other hand, is often much more thorough, accurate, conducted by an investigator, and is limited to relevant information regarding the actual individual of interest.

The background investigation digs deeper than online searches and often includes searches of public records, court filings, property records, corporate documents, and sometimes even interviews of neighbours, employers, associates, etc. All records & data are analyzed for any discrepancies, ensuring that only relevant & unbiased data pertaining to the individual of interest is included in the final investigation report.

To put it bluntly, a background check usually only provides a very limited look into an individual’s past, providing you with a false sense of security. A background investigation is intended to provide you with an detailed and factual analysis of the individual’s past, giving you the piece of mind that you need to make a confident and well-informed decision about the subject.

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Background Checks vs Background Investigations. What is the Difference?

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