Is it a tool, or will you be fooled? That all depends on how familiar you are with searching criminal records. Read my review of this criminal records search guide if you’d like to learn more about how criminal records are maintained. The free people finder sites offer more details for a fee, but this is much more pricey than professional databases, usually returning less current records and ones that are more geographically restricted.
The free criminal records lookup site, CriminalSearches.com, is operated by the California company, Confi-chek, a commercial provider of consumer public records. You’ve probably made use of the free portion of their PeopleFinders.com site to verify alternative names, identify associates or obtain an approximate age.
The criminal records at CriminalSearches are likely a portion of the state, and California county records that Peoplefinders.com has on its site’s fee-based criminal records search. These records come from each states’ Department of Corrections, Administrative Office of the Courts and Department of Public Safety (Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas). The most number of records come from the states’ Department of Corrections because this is a statewide agency in every state. These are felony convictions only of offenders who have been in the custody of the DOC. Some state records include county court criminal filings, helpful for finding criminal records that didn’t result in a conviction, a prison sentence or were in a state that doesn’t have a statewide criminal index. California, for one.
The site is still in test mode so the same search could produce different results, but then you knew this wasn’t a comprehensive criminal records database, right?
Use the “Advanced Search” to add city, data of birth and nature of offense parameters. I did a name search, selected “sexual offenses”, assuming results would come only from the sex offender database, but found this record of a dismissed sexual offense - which would not be reportable to a registered sexual offender database. If you want to find records with the first name “Jeff” or “Jeffrey” put an asterisk after “Jeff” (Jeff*) and the search will return both. This doesn’t work with the last name field.
Also, receive a monthly email of criminal records changes on as many as 5 names.
Do you have any cautionary tales for using this site, or do you recommend it?
Why don’t people “in the know”, PI’s for example, take it upon themselves to investigate, on their own, about Identification theft. Which has been a growning problem in the U.S. and to disclose methods used by those thieves. This may not only alert the thieves themselves that someone really cares, but the public which they try to live off of.
Why are there not any readings ,mags/letters of interest/or just simle “blog” regarding this problem in the Investigative community?
Chuck, your absolutely right! I am a PI in Florida and its a haven down here with ID theft! Lots of my investigations are of the same. Lets all give more attention to this forever growing issue, not only for our clients but most of all, for ourselves!
Phil
> investigate, on their own, about Identification theft
Is there a link between index of criminal records on the open Internet and ID theft? If so, what’s your source? We all know that personal information is used for nefarious means. People with bad intentions will employ whatever will get them to their goal. Crooks break into houses and steal because stuff is there. Should we not live in houses or keep items of value because of this?
Got to agree with Tamara. I think keeping so many thing secret is the problem. SSN is a secret code to your life, so if some one know your ssn they must be you. That is an extreme example, but you know what I mean.
criminalsearches is a great site, but I would say still do your other checks on other sites. Some time it doesn’t show the guy I am looking for, and the state has a record for him a mile long. Sometimes it gives me things the state doesn’t, so it is worth using.
Correct me if I am wrong, but a lot of ID theft is not only on the international level that it effects local ppl here in the US. To date there is only one “world” agency that tracks ID theft: Interpol. The FBI is just beginning to network in order to track these ID thieves, but it is still considered a “fledgling” program. Unlike interpol the FBI has teeth and can enforce (on the local level)its findings. We need more cooperation on the international level with local governments and law enforcement to take away the safe havens for the ID criminal. But that’s just one man’s opinion.
Sheesh….publicly available information does NOT mean FREE. I’ve been in a business for
years that requires me to pull public records, and rarely have I found it to be free.You pay $60 (or $100 or whatever) for someone else to get in their car and spend their $3 a gallon gasoline and go get the files from the courthouse. OR, you are paying a portion of a
company’s fee that they have to pay to the courthouse for access to the online files.
I haven’t even used this widget, I don’t give a rat’s a$$ about the company who put it out
there. What irks me is a bunch of whiners who don’t even acknowledge what this widget is for. It’s a starting point for a paid service. Get over it.
The Dangers Of Using Free Public Records
Whenever people see the word “free”, that starts to attract their attention. It is actually the same case when it comes to public records. When given with the chance to choose between free and paid resources,there are really a lot of people that gets attracted to the former than the latter. Too add to that,
these free public records sites even back it up with aggressive advertising and campaign so they really get a good share of online users.