Backgroundchecks.com Background Check Errors

If a report from backgroundchecks.com is standing between you and a job, two things are worth knowing. First, an inaccurate report is not something you have to accept: backgroundchecks.com is a consumer reporting agency under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), so you can see the file it keeps on you and make it correct what is wrong. Second, and far less obvious, the name printed on your report is now shared by two legal entities with two different dispute desks, and writing to the wrong one can quietly burn the clock the law gives you. Our Employment Background Checks page covers how these reports work generally; this page is about this company.

What is backgroundchecks.com?

backgroundchecks.com is an employment background-screening company and a HireRight company. HireRight's own securities filings describe it as the group's self-service channel for small and mid-sized business customers, selling pre-packaged report bundles tailored to staffing, construction and manufacturing, retail, and volunteer organizations. Its product menu runs from national, county, statewide and federal criminal searches to employment and education verification, motor vehicle records, drug testing, and bankruptcies, liens and judgments. It is not one of the three nationwide credit bureaus; it is an employment screener, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lists it in its annual list of consumer reporting companies.

Which company actually reported on you?

This brand has carried several corporate identities, and the one that matters to you depends on when your report was run:

• e-Backgroundchecks.com, Inc. ("BGC") is the historical operating entity and still the name the CFPB uses. It was an affiliate of General Information Services, Inc. of Chapin, South Carolina.
• General Information Services merged with HireRight in 2018, bringing the Chapin consumer-relations operation inside the HireRight group.
• backgroundchecks.com LLC, a Delaware entity, appears as a HireRight subsidiary in HireRight Holdings' SEC subsidiary schedule.
• Clear Screening Technologies, LLC of Nashville, Tennessee is the entity named in the current backgroundchecks.com privacy policy. That is the former ClearChecks business, which HireRight acquired on April 11, 2025 and folded into the backgroundchecks.com name on June 1, 2025.

Stated plainly: someone disputing a 2016 report, a 2022 report and a 2026 report may be dealing with three differently named companies behind one web address. If it ever comes to naming a defendant, that name is not a technicality.

A self-service product, which is part of the problem

Because this is the self-service channel, a small employer can buy a pre-packaged report, read a raw database hit on a screen, and pull an offer without any trained screening analyst looking at the court record behind it. Larger employers often have someone who knows a database hit is a lead, not a finding. Many small employers do not, which is why moving quickly matters here.

How to contact backgroundchecks.com

There are two live consumer channels under this single brand. Check your report and adverse action letter for the entity name and address printed there, then use the channel that matches. When you are not sure, use both.

The consumer relations channel the CFPB publishes (Chapin, South Carolina)

This is the legacy e-Backgroundchecks.com desk, and the address and phone the CFPB prints in its annual list of consumer reporting companies:

• Mailing address: backgroundchecks.com, Attn: Consumer Relations Department, P.O. Box 353, Chapin, SC 29036
• Phone: (866) 265-6602
• Fax: (866) 306-9258
• Website: backgroundchecks.com

The Nashville channel (the former ClearChecks platform)

Reports run on the platform HireRight acquired in 2025 are handled from Tennessee:

• Mailing address: Clear Screening Technologies, LLC, 100 Centerview Drive, Suite 300, Nashville, TN 37214
• Phone: (800) 942-1366
• Dispute email: disputes@backgroundchecks.com (the company also publishes consumer-dispute@backgroundchecks.com)
• Copy of your report: support@backgroundchecks.com

Which address should you use?

If your paperwork names backgroundchecks.com without more, mail a written dispute by certified mail to the Chapin consumer relations P.O. box, because that is the address a federal regulator publishes for this brand, and email the same dispute to the Nashville address that day. Keep the receipt and a dated copy of everything; the Nashville address is a shared corporate headquarters, not a dedicated consumer P.O. box, which is one more reason to paper the file. Be careful with contact details found elsewhere online: several competing pages still publish an old Boulder, Colorado dispute address that conflicts with the CFPB's. If your paperwork says ClearChecks instead, read our ClearChecks background check errors page.

Common backgroundchecks.com errors we see

• A criminal record attached to you because you share a name, a date of birth, or both with someone else, which is the failure mode a federal regulator specifically found in this company's reports
• Expunged, sealed, dismissed or vacated cases still reported as live charges or convictions, because a bulk database was loaded once and never refreshed when the court sealed the case
• A misdemeanor reported as a felony, or a mere charge reported as a conviction
• One arrest surfacing through county, statewide and national database layers and appearing as several separate offenses, so a single incident reads like a pattern
• Civil suits, judgments and liens reported past the FCRA's time limits, generally seven years for the older items
• Public-record information sold to an employer without the contemporaneous notice the FCRA requires, so you never learn to check the report until the job is gone
• Wrong personal information or an outright mixed file: another person's records, addresses or Social Security number sitting in your report

How a backgroundchecks.com error hurts you

Screening reports usually arrive at the worst possible moment, after you have been offered the job and sometimes after you have given notice somewhere else. One wrong line can turn a conditional offer into a rescinded one in an afternoon, and because this product is sold to small employers as a packaged answer, there is often nobody who will read the court file with you. The damage also spreads: a wrong felony entry can block a professional license, a healthcare placement or a volunteer role, and the same record follows you from employer to employer until it is corrected at the source. That is why the dispute is worth filing even after the job is lost.

backgroundchecks.com's track record with regulators

This company is unusual in that its error profile does not require guesswork. A federal regulator made public findings about nearly every category of error described above, and those findings remain readable today.

The 2015 CFPB consent order, worth $13 million

On October 29, 2015 the CFPB entered a consent order against General Information Services, Inc. and its affiliate e-Backgroundchecks.com, Inc., Docket No. 2015-CFPB-0028. It required $10.5 million in redress to harmed consumers, which the CFPB described as roughly $1,000 to each affected consumer, plus a $2.5 million civil penalty. The conduct described included reports containing criminal records attached to the wrong consumers, dismissed and expunged records, and misdemeanors reported as felony convictions, plus the unlawful inclusion of civil suit and judgment information older than seven years. CFPB enforcement action: Source. CFPB press release: Source.

The order's forward-looking terms read like a checklist you can run against your own report. The CFPB required matching algorithms that distinguish records by middle name and account for common names and nicknames, use of dispute data to find the root causes of errors, software to reconcile discrepancies, an independent consultant, and a written audit program tested at least twice a year. So ask of your own report: were you matched on a middle name, or only on a first and last name? Is the same charge listed twice? Is a sealed case still showing? Consent order: Source.

The 2012 FTC penalty against HireRight Solutions, labeled honestly

In United States v. HireRight Solutions, Inc., No. 1:12-cv-01313, announced August 8, 2012, the FTC obtained a $2.6 million civil penalty over allegations that the company failed to use reasonable procedures to ensure accuracy, did not update criminal-record expungements, reported multiple entries for the same offense, listed convictions belonging to other people, and investigated disputes inadequately. We flag it for what it is: an action against HireRight Solutions six years before HireRight merged with General Information Services, not an action against backgroundchecks.com. It is parent-company history, and evidence that these failure modes are structural. FTC business guidance: Source. Our HireRight background check errors page covers the parent separately.

What the CFPB complaint database does and does not show

Search the CFPB's public complaint database for "backgroundchecks.com" and you find nothing, which is a data artifact rather than a compliment. The Bureau files complaints about this business under the legacy name E-Backgroundchecks.com, Inc., where 49 credit-reporting complaints appear, while the parent, HireRight Solutions, Inc., carries 431. Nothing at all is docketed under backgroundchecks.com LLC. Read those numbers carefully: employment screeners are badly under-represented in that database compared with credit bureaus, because most people who lose a job over a report never learn a consumer reporting agency was involved. A low count reflects how the database is built, not how accurate the reports are. CFPB company entry: Source.

Your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

backgroundchecks.com has to follow the FCRA. It must use reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of what it reports about you (§1681e(b)). When you dispute something, it must reinvestigate, generally within 30 days, and delete or correct anything it cannot verify (§1681i). When it sells public-record information such as criminal or court records for employment purposes, it must either notify you at the time it reports or maintain strict procedures to keep that information complete and up to date (§1681k). And before an employer rejects you based on the report, you are entitled to a copy of that report and a summary of your rights, with a genuine opportunity to respond first (§1681b(b)(3), the pre-adverse-action requirement).

How to dispute a backgroundchecks.com background check

1. Ask the employer for the report and summary of rights it must give you, and ask which entity ran the check.
2. Read the report line by line and write down every inaccuracy: wrong person, wrong dates, wrong charge level, duplicate entries, sealed or expunged cases, stale civil items.
3. Gather proof. Certified court dispositions, expungement orders and a copy of your photo identification carry far more weight than a narrative.
4. Dispute in writing to the consumer relations address on your report, by certified mail, and email the same dispute that day. Keep copies and a dated log.
5. Ask the employer in writing to hold the decision while the reinvestigation runs. If it is not corrected, or the error already cost you the job, contact an FCRA attorney.

This information is general and is not legal advice for your specific situation.

Did an inaccurate backgroundchecks.com background check cost you a job?

Employment background reports are consumer reports, and the company selling them has to follow strict accuracy rules. When a report is wrong and the mistake costs you an offer or a license, the FCRA may entitle you to money damages as well as a correction. A federal regulator already treated these exact errors as serious enough to compensate consumers directly.

Our case review is free and we handle FCRA cases nationwide. Bring the report, the adverse action letter and anything the employer sent you.

Admitted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; available to appear pro hac vice in other federal courts.

How The Kim Law Firm helps

We are consumer-protection lawyers who handle Fair Credit Reporting Act cases across the country. On backgroundchecks.com matters we start by working out which entity issued your report, because that decides where the dispute goes and who the defendant would be. From there we help you build a dispute the company cannot brush aside and pursue damages where the error caused real harm.

To be clear about who we can help: we represent people whose reports are inaccurate — wrong-person matches, expunged or sealed records still showing, outdated entries, duplicated cases, mixed files. We are not able to help people trying to keep an accurate record from being reported. If your report is wrong, you do not pay us unless we win.

Packaged report bundles, and ordering more than the job requires

Screening is often sold in pre-built bundles tailored to an industry — one package for staffing, another for construction and manufacturing, another for retail. Bundles are convenient for the buyer and indiscriminate by design. An employer clicking the retail package may pull driving records for a job with no driving, or a credit-based product for a role that has nothing to do with money, and every additional search is another opportunity to attach the wrong record to your name.

• HireRight — the parent company that describes this business as its self-service channel for smaller employers.
• ClearChecks — whose technology and design were absorbed into the same brand in April 2025.
• GoodHire — another self-service screener, now a Checkr company.
• Checkr — selling packaged screening at scale to platform and gig employers.
• Sterling — a national vendor offering comparable industry packages to larger buyers.

When you request your file, read every component, not just the criminal search. Errors hide in the sections nobody expected to be ordered: a driving record belonging to someone else, an education verification marked unconfirmed because the school was contacted under a former name, an address history that places you somewhere you have never lived. Each of those is separately disputable, and an address that is not yours is often the thread that explains the rest of the report.

Screened by a different company? We also handle HireRight background check errors, Sterling background check errors, Checkr background check errors, and First Advantage background check errors — and you can start with our overview of the major background check companies.

Frequently asked questions

How do I dispute a backgroundchecks.com background check?

Get the report, identify each inaccuracy, and dispute it in writing with supporting documents such as court dispositions or an expungement order. Send it by certified mail to the consumer relations address, email a copy to the dispute address, and keep proof of both.

My letter mentions ClearChecks but the report says backgroundchecks.com. Who do I write to?

Both names now sit under one brand. HireRight acquired ClearChecks in April 2025 and rebranded it that June, so the surviving entity is Clear Screening Technologies, LLC in Nashville, while the legacy e-Backgroundchecks.com desk remains in Chapin, South Carolina. Send your dispute to both channels and read our ClearChecks page.

backgroundchecks.com says my check is still verifying. Can a delay violate the FCRA?

Delay by itself is not automatically a violation, but it can become one. Once you dispute, the company generally has 30 days to reinvestigate, and it cannot let a report sit uncorrected while an employer waits. If a pending report is costing you the job, document the dates and get advice.

Why can I not find backgroundchecks.com in the CFPB complaint database?

Because the Bureau normalizes the company name to E-Backgroundchecks.com, Inc., so the brand name returns nothing. Employment screeners also draw far fewer complaints than credit bureaus, largely because most affected people never learn a screening company was involved.

Can I sue backgroundchecks.com for a background check error?

Possibly. If the company reported inaccurate information, failed to reinvestigate a dispute properly, or the FCRA's pre-adverse-action rules were ignored, and you were harmed, you may have a claim. Every case turns on its own facts, which is what the free review is for.

What if the mistake already cost me the job?

That lost opportunity is the concrete harm the FCRA is designed to address, and it does not mean you are too late. Keep the offer letter, the adverse action notice, the report and any emails, and contact us.

Does the 2015 CFPB order mean my case is already proven?

No. It resolved the CFPB's own claims about past conduct and decides nothing about your report. It is useful context and a useful checklist, but your claim still rises or falls on your own documents.

Is the case review really free?

Yes. There is no charge to have us look at your report and tell you whether you have an FCRA claim, and you pay nothing unless we win.

Where we practice, and what to do if you are somewhere else

The Kim Law Firm is licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and that is where we handle matters directly.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a federal statute. It applies the same way in every state, it is enforced in federal court, and the deadlines and remedies do not change when you cross a state line. So the answer to "does this apply to me in Ohio" is yes — but the answer to "can you represent me in Ohio" depends on the case and on where it would be filed.

If you are outside Pennsylvania and New Jersey, contact us anyway. Some matters can be handled from here. Some are better sent to a consumer lawyer admitted where you are, and we will tell you that plainly rather than let a deadline run while you wait. Either way you will get an answer, and the review costs nothing.

The one thing that does not wait is the clock. A claim under the Act generally must be brought within two years of the date you discover the violation, and in no event more than five years after the violation occurred. Finding out late does not extend the outside limit.