Why "Click-and-Go" Background Reports are a Risky Bet

If you’re looking to vet a potential business partner before a big deal, you may be tempted to pull an automated background report and call it a day. 

With the click of a mouse, subscription databases can scrape data from sources like credit headers, local governments and utilities, and compile it into a single report. 

These reports are cheap and can be a great starting point. However, they should only be used to collect information for further interrogation. 

Here’s why hiring experienced professional investigators will outperform these automated reports every time.  

The “James Smith” Problem: Curing False Positives

Automated reports often contain false positives, especially for people with common names. These reports may identify 100 criminal cases for “James Smith,” the subject you’re researching, but it’s very possible that none of the cases actually relate to the person of interest and are instead cases for other people with the same name. 

An experienced investigator will know how to sift through these records to identify which ones relate to the person you’re researching, confirm that information with the court, and obtain court filings to get further details about the circumstances surrounding the case. 

Closing Information Gaps

Automated reports are not comprehensive and often miss crucial information. 

You may be researching a woman who spent most of her life in counties not covered in the automated report. A professional investigator will know how to conduct public records research in those jurisdictions and make sure they get the best possible coverage. In some cases, that may require sending someone to the courthouse to conduct searches on-site.

Professional investigators will also know to check other information sources that the automated reports do not cover. At 221B, clients will contact us to gather intelligence on adversaries who have made threats against them or otherwise displayed concerning behavior. In these cases, we often submit public records requests to local law enforcement agencies for arrests and calls for service to a subject’s address. These requests can uncover concerning incidents that never resulted in a court case and would never appear in an automated report.

An investigator will then analyze the information and identify key connections and other data of interest to their client — analysis that is lacking in automated reports.

Serious Criminal Charges Missed

In one case, a subject’s automated report contained a single speeding ticket. However, by conducting on-site research at key courthouses and filing public records requests with local law enforcement agencies, we uncovered dozens of criminal records and other concerning incidents, including allegations that the subject beat his pregnant spouse to try to cause a miscarriage. 

In another case, the subject’s automated report showed a clean criminal record. But our research of press, courts, and social media revealed this person had multiple orders of protection filed against them, was charged with felony stalking, and had an affinity for serial killers. 

As yet another example, we pulled an automated report on a subject that reflected a single, minor misdemeanor charge. But research in federal courts, which the automated report did not cover, revealed the subject had a major felony criminal case for threatening government officials.  

Lacking the Full Picture

Ordering the documents associated with a court case or other public record can also reveal important information and leads. For example, a commercial database may identify that a person filed for bankruptcy. But it’s not until reviewing the official bankruptcy filings that you’ll find they owed large sums of money to Las Vegas casinos.  

When conducting an asset search, an automated report may identify Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings naming the subject as a debtor. But it’s not until you obtain the actual UCC Financing Statement that you’ll see the high-dollar investment property they pledged as collateral. 

While an automated report might quickly give you a stack of data, an experienced investigator can provide a more complete picture. Before committing to a business partner, make sure your due diligence is as serious as the deal itself.