One thing that has been agreed upon is that curiosity is one trait that human beings will never lose. We are inquisitive about those around us, and as much as possible, we want to know every detail about people we know. In our digital age, digging up information about people we want to get to know more of is literally right at our finger tips. With just one hover and click of the mouse, you can already have run a complete background check on someone.

Why do a public records search? Whether it's a potential employee, a date, or a live-in nanny, we want to be sure they're telling the truth. A quick search on Google reveals an abundance of "background check" services. This is not an effective method of finding a confidential and reliable service so how does one know which service to use? Our intrepid editors spent a full month testing and reviewing dozens of services to find out. To test each service, we ran background checks on people with known criminal and civil records, including bankruptcies. This allowed us to easily verify the accuracy of all results. We checked on people of different ages with diverse backgrounds, residing in all fifty states. We were surprised at what we found.

Ninety-percent of all Americans have some type of public document or record that is connected with their name. Various records you may find include property documents, court documents, marriage or divorce papers and even criminal records. This demonstrates public documents can tell a lot about a person's background. Various databases across the country log individual's public records therefore it would be difficult for a person to hide their true identity. As you can see this comprehensive tool is a great way to find out several things about the average person. Public records databases are able to locate records that took place while one is away from their hometown or on vacation in another state.

We've discovered that the vast majority of "background check" services simply don't deliver the information they promise. In almost all cases, the results sold to us were outdated, incorrect, or nothing more than data from local phone books! All of this despite widely advertised claims of current criminal and civil records. Fortunately, we were able to find a few web sites that stood out above all the rest. No matter who we checked, these background services consistently provided up-to-date criminal and civil records.