Data Facts Background Check Errors

If a Data Facts background check is standing between you and a job, an inaccurate report is not something you have to accept. Data Facts is a consumer reporting agency under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), so you can see what it reports and force it to correct mistakes. You can learn more on our Employment Background Checks page.

What is Data Facts?

Data Facts is a background-screening company headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. It provides criminal, employment, and identity screening to employers (and also offers lending-verification services) and reports as a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA.

How to contact Data Facts

You can request your report and file a dispute directly:

• Company: Data Facts, Memphis, TN
• Website: datafacts.com (consumer / applicant portal)
• Request: ask for a copy of your report and dispute errors through Data Facts

Confirm the current dispute address on your report before mailing anything, and keep copies of what you send.

Common Data Facts errors we see

• A criminal record matched to you because you share a name or date of birth
• Expunged, sealed, or dismissed cases still showing as open or as convictions
• The same case reported more than once
• A charge reported as a conviction, or a misdemeanor reported as a felony
• Records reported beyond the FCRA's limits (generally seven years for certain older items)
• Incorrect personal information — wrong name, address, or Social Security number

How a Data Facts error hurts you

A single inaccurate entry can cost you a conditional job offer. The FCRA gives you the right to see the report and dispute it before you lose the job.

Data Facts's track record with regulators

Data Facts operates in a screening industry under steady FCRA scrutiny.

Data Facts appears on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's public list of consumer reporting companies, and background-screening companies have repeatedly faced Fair Credit Reporting Act complaints over inaccurate reports. Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If your Data Facts report is inaccurate, that supports demanding a correction.

Your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

Data Facts must follow the FCRA. It must use reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy (§1681e(b)); it must reinvestigate disputes (§1681i); public-record information reported for employment must be current and complete (§1681k); and before an employer rejects you, it must give you the report and a summary of rights (§1681b(b)(3) pre-adverse-action).

How to dispute a Data Facts background check

1. Ask the employer for the copy of the report and summary of rights they must provide.
2. Identify every inaccuracy and gather proof — court dispositions, expungement orders, ID.
3. Dispute in writing to Data Facts, enclosing copies and keeping a dated record.
4. Ask the employer to hold the decision while the dispute is investigated.
5. If it is not corrected, or the report 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 Data Facts background check cost you a job?

Employment background reports are consumer reports under the FCRA, and Data Facts has to follow strict accuracy rules. When a report is wrong and it costs you a job, you may be entitled to money damages — and our review is free.

How The Kim Law Firm helps

We are consumer-protection lawyers who handle FCRA cases nationwide. We help people whose Data Facts report is inaccurate — wrong person, expunged records, outdated or duplicated cases. We do not help people trying to hide accurate records. If your report is wrong, we pursue the correction and any damages, and you do not pay unless we win.

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

Screeners that serve employers and lenders from the same file

Some companies sell background checks to employers and verification services to lenders, drawing on overlapping data and the same internal systems. Data Facts, based in Memphis, Tennessee, does criminal, employment and identity screening and also provides lending-verification services. The dual role matters for two reasons. An error in the underlying identity data can surface in both a job application and a loan file, and the permissible purpose that allows an agency to pull and furnish a report about you is not the same in both settings.

• Blend Insights — a software subsidiary that became a consumer reporting agency serving lenders.
• Experian Verify — income and employment verification sold to mortgage lenders and screeners alike.
• Truework — verifying income and employment for lenders, landlords and screening firms.
• CCC Verify — confirming where you work, how long, and what you earn.
• Accurate Background — a national employment screener drawing on similar identity data.

Ask the agency for your full file disclosure and for the list of everyone who received a report about you in the past two years for employment purposes. That list tells you how far an error traveled. If a report went to a company you never applied to or borrowed from, the question is not only whether the information was accurate but whether there was any lawful reason to furnish it at all, and both are worth raising in the same letter.

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 Data Facts background check?

Get the report from the employer or Data Facts, identify the errors, and dispute them in writing with documents. If it is not fixed, an FCRA attorney can help.

How long does a Data Facts background check take?

Data Facts says an average employment background check typically takes between two and four business days. A check that runs past that is usually waiting on a county court, or on an employer or school that has not answered a verification request.

My Data Facts check has been sitting for weeks. Does that matter?

It can. The FCRA sets no deadline for finishing a pre-hire report, so the delay by itself is not a violation. What matters is what the employer did while you waited: if it already decided against you based on the report, it was supposed to send you a copy and a summary of your rights first, and give you a real chance to respond.

How do I get a copy of my Data Facts report?

Data Facts runs an applicant assistance page with a Dispute My Report link on it. You can also call 800-264-4110 or 901-685-7599, or email compliance@datafacts.com. Get the report in hand before you dispute, because the exact wording of the entry usually shows what went wrong.

Can I sue Data Facts for a background check error?

Possibly. If Data Facts reported inaccurate information or ignored the FCRA's adverse-action rules and you were harmed, you may have a claim.

What if the report already cost me the job?

That concrete harm is what the FCRA addresses. Keep the paperwork and contact us.

Is the case review really free?

Yes. There is no charge, 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.