Employment Background Investigations (EBI) Errors

If a Employment Background Investigations background check is standing between you and a job, an inaccurate report is not something you have to accept. Employment Background Investigations 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 Employment Background Investigations?

Employment Background Investigations, Inc. (EBI) is a background-screening company headquartered in Owings Mills, Maryland. It provides criminal, employment, education, and drug screening to employers and reports as a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA.

How to contact Employment Background Investigations

You can request your report and file a dispute directly:

• Company: Employment Background Investigations, Inc. (EBI), Owings Mills, MD
• Website: ebiinc.com (consumer / applicant portal)
• Request: ask for a copy of your report and dispute errors through EBI

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

Common Employment Background Investigations 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 Employment Background Investigations error hurts you

One 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.

Employment Background Investigations's track record with regulators

EBI belongs to a screening industry under active FCRA scrutiny.

EBI appears on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's public list of consumer reporting companies and is a target of consumer-protection firms over background-check errors; the CFPB actively enforces the FCRA against screening companies. Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If your EBI report is inaccurate, that supports demanding a correction.

Your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

Employment Background Investigations 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 Employment Background Investigations 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 Employment Background Investigations, 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 Employment Background Investigations background check cost you a job?

Employment background reports are consumer reports under the FCRA, and Employment Background Investigations 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 Employment Background Investigations 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.

Education and employment history, and how verification fails

Verification looks simple and is not. Confirming a degree means reaching a registrar or a clearinghouse that may hold your record under a former name, a different spelling, or a program that has since been renamed. Confirming employment means reaching a company that was acquired, closed, or outsourced its records to a vendor. Employment Background Investigations, based in Owings Mills, Maryland, does criminal, employment, education and drug screening. When a verifier cannot get a response, the safe answer is unverified, but the answer that reaches the employer is sometimes reported as though the credential does not exist.

• Data Facts — a Memphis screener handling criminal, employment and identity verification.
• Global HR Research — a Florida company running employment and education checks under turnaround pressure.
• ScoutLogic — screening criminal, employment and education history on a managed model.
• Accurate Background — a national screener where the same verification gaps appear at scale.
• Sterling — a large vendor verifying credentials for employers across many industries.

There is a real difference between "we could not verify this" and "this did not happen," and employers rarely read the distinction carefully. If a report understates your history, send the agency the proof directly: the transcript, the diploma, the W-2, the letter from the employer. The agency has to reinvestigate and correct what it reported, and a verification recorded as a negative when the record simply could not be reached is an inaccuracy worth pressing.

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 an EBI background check?

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

How long does an EBI background check take?

EBI does not publish a turnaround time for the report an employer orders. When one runs long, the usual causes are court closures and employers or schools that will not answer a verification request.

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

It can. The FCRA sets no deadline for finishing a pre-hire report, so a long wait is not itself 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 EBI report?

EBI states that you may request a free annual file disclosure if it has run a background check on you. Use the form on its consumer disputes page, or call 1-800-324-7700, or write to EBI, PO Box 629, Owings Mills, MD 21117. Disputes can also be faxed to 410-998-7976, and EBI states it conducts a reasonable reinvestigation free of charge. Get the report before you dispute, because the exact wording of the entry usually shows what went wrong.

Can I sue EBI for a background check error?

Possibly. If EBI 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.