Many of you know about my run-in with an alleged scam artist. While he’s still making his way through the court system, it’s indicated that the authorities do have enough evidence to prosecute and that this man may indeed be found guilty of a number of charges.
Since this episode, I’ve been extremely careful with whom I do business. But how do you do a background check on someone who hasn’t been convicted of anything? I did the Google search on this guy and I did ask for proof of his nonprofit status (note – that stuff’s apparently easy to forge – he’s charged with falsifying those documents now). But this little website came to me through a friend on a forum. It’s called Criminal Searches, and it’s free. Just one more layer of security for those of us not wanting to stick our necks out too far with a new client.
But it’s not perfect – my former client above does not appear in any of the searches. He hasn’t been convicted of anything yet, so it won’t appear until after the fact. But if you’re doing business with someone who has a dirty past, it should turn up both charge and conviction date.
Thanks for the heads up. I will save that site to my favorites for future use. BTW, I hope they nail that guy to the wall…with a wooden spoon!
Fingers crossed that I don’t ever have to use it, but thanks for the info. You can never be too careful!
Thanks for commenting, Sal. I like your blog! I’m adding you to my ever-growing list of favorites. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this, Lori! I get a lot of clients who’ve found me via my website, and so I also get a lot of spammers and scammers thrown into the mix. Sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s genuine.
Lori, thanks for the add. If you have any random questions that come to mind, make sure you send them to me and I will try as best as I can to answer them 🙂