GObackgrounds.com

Some States Require Background Checks to be Performed by Licensed Investigators

By Patrick K. Collard – Managing Member & Corporate Investigator 1-888-GOBACK-1 ext. 83 | patrickc@GObackgrounds.com Nearly 30 states require employment background checks to be performed by a licensed investigation firm.  Is your current background check company a licensed investigations firm?  GObackgrounds.com is the division of Collard Investigations Internationale, LLC, which has been a licensed investigations firm since 1991. Doesn’t it seem like everybody and their brother is an expert at conducting background checks.  I remember back in the mid 1990’s when the credit bureau TransUnion pulled the plug on all the investigators who were getting credit reports from their (...)

Why should you resist doing your own background checks?

By Patrick K. Collard – Managing Member & Corporate Investigator 1-888-GOBACK-1 ext. 83 | patrickc@GObackgrounds.com We realize that the challenging economy has allowed companies to further examine their expenses in doing business.  Tragically some companies are attempting to do their employment background checks in-house.  Would you attempt to fix your Mercedes yourself?  In doing so, you void the warranty and may put other drivers at risk.  The same is true with your background checks. Here are the 3 big reasons not to conduct your own background checks in-house: 1) Lawsuits:  Employment law and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) (...)

Some Urge Removal of Criminal Record Boxes from Job Applications

Finding a job is hard enough in this economy, but for convicted felons, it can be nearly impossible.  As more are being paroled to save the State of Michigan money, advocates for ex-offenders say that getting rid of a check box on job applications would help more of these people get interviewed for positions. Penny Ryder, Co-Director of the American Friends Service Committee’s Criminal Justice Program, says that Battle Creek and Kalamazoo have already implemented policies forbidding vendors from excluding felons from employment… and she hopes other cities do the same.  She says hiring released convicts can have benefits.  Ryder says that former prisoners need the community’s support if they’re to get their lives restarted in the right direction, and critical to that is a decent job. She hopes such job applicants can be judged not by their criminal records, but by their qualifications. In some cases, however, these efforts have met fierce opposition from business groups. Reprinted with written permission from: The Background Investigator, Steve Brownstein

You’ve Heard of Fake Degrees. How about a Fake Job History and Fake References?

By Patrick K. Collard – Managing Member & Corporate Investigator 1-888-GOBACK-1 ext. 83 | patrickc@GObackgrounds.com I recently wrote an article about fake diplomas and fake transcripts that are ubiquitously for sale on the Internet.  Degrees from prestigious colleges like UCLA, Harvard and Stanford to name a few are readily available for a price.  They’ll even through in fake transcripts for an additional charge.  Well, in order to complete the artifice these companies will also setup a fake job employment history and fake personal references, for another additional fee of course.  All of this is done under the premise that (...)

Fake Degrees Increase in a Down Economy

By Patrick K. Collard – Managing Member & Corporate Investigator 1-888-GOBACK-1 ext. 83 | patrickc@GObackgrounds.com It happens once or twice a year at GObackgrounds.com when conducting employment background checks, we get an applicant whose education cannot be verified and upon further inspection tried to pass-off a fake diploma.  Do a search on Google for Fake Diplomas and the list will be an endless parade of diploma mills willing to take anyone’s money for degree in “life experience”. Diploma mills are nothing new, I remember a story that 60 Minutes news magazine did on the nefarious topic back in the (...)