Background screening is more than just looking up a record in a single courthouse. Background screening today is a complex system of software integrations, data mappings, compliance filters that screen out information that cannot be reported or considered, clearinghouse integrations designed to eliminate expunged records, courthouse records, proprietary software systems. International, federal, state and county laws, regulations and enforcement activity is ever-changing. Laws that relate to crimes, misdemeanors, traffic offenses, drug testing, motor vehicle registrations, fingerprinting, privacy, consumer reporting, individual courthouse rules, landlord-tenant, employment and more significantly impact the background screening industry. What does this mean to you? You better use a screening company that understands all of these areas.
PeopleFacts has brought together a team of highly skilled and talented legal, risk management, business, compliance, financial and technology professionals at the helm. Each of them is dedicated to the constant achievement and pursuit of over-the-top service, operational excellence and compliance. They offer you sample applicant authorization and disclosure forms, adverse action letters, regulatory enforcement letters, summaries about your obligations and same-day in-system and public announcement updates about what is happening in the world of screening. Having a company-wide conference? Invite one of our in-house FCRA specialists to deliver via live webinar all they know about background screening and the FCRA. We call this our professional advantage.
An industry leader in delivering FCRA-compliant information, PeopleFacts has successfully developed and implemented two proprietary software delivery systems, its own national criminal database mapping and matching system, a comprehensive human resource information management software platform, a talent assessment platform and hundreds of application integrations. All of these are designed to serve the needs of our clients. We call this our technology advantage.
The PeopleFacts compliance and risk management teams came together in 2006 to design a comprehensive and proactive consumer inquiry and dispute process. As a result, PeopleFacts consumer relation specialists ensure that any consumer inquiry is treated like a red alert client service need. Each consumer is treated the way we would want to be treated if we just got denied a position, an apartment or a volunteer opportunity. Our specialists are taught not to simply reinvestigate when a consumer disputes something, but to go the extra mile for our consumers and track down the source of the problem and fix it the best we can or give the consumer the information they need to fix the problem for themselves. Each dispute is resolved with respect and care. We call this our risk management advantage.
PeopleFacts is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA), formerly NAPBS. This accreditation is the result of a rigorous review and onsite audit by an independent auditing firm. The accreditation provides validation of PeopleFacts’s strict adherence to critical industry standards as they relate to consumer protection, legal compliance and end user education. We call this our final seal of approval.
Our screening intelligence, professional, technology and risk management advantages, together with our seal of approval, have come together to help us deliver our screening intelligence to you in a system designed to report what you are allowed to see in a way that helps you make quality decisions every time.
Now you know, what are you going to do?
PeopleFacts encourages all clients to follow best practices when it comes to their screening practices which means screening as a part of your application process and on no less than an annual basis when it comes to your tenants, employees or volunteers. The cost of annual screening is far less than the cost of one claim.
Yes. Though criminal records are public information, credit and other Fair Credit Reporting Act information is not and therefore requires a consent form to be signed by the person on whom a background check is being run. During customer orientation, we provide a sample consent form for our customers’ use. The customer will not be asked to fax the consent form over to PeopleFacts, but consent forms will need to be kept on-site for a recommended 90 days before disposal.
Additional copies of authorizations may be required in order to satisfy specific requests. We always recommend that you store them digitally or in paper files with your original application records. Please note that the disclosure and the authorization must be together in one place with appropriate signatures and information required to conduct the background screen. In these situations, our PeopleFacts Fulfillment Team will contact you to obtain a copy of the authorization. Finally, all clients and even PeopleFacts are subject to audit by all original record sources and by government agencies entitled to do the same to ensure compliance with consumer authorization requirements.
The FCRA is designed to protect consumers by establishing guidelines for fairness, accuracy, and privacy of information in the data provided by every Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA). A CRA includes companies like PeopleFacts that provide background screening services or any kind of report that relates to the general characteristics, and CRAs are governed by the FCRA, as are the end users that use PeopleFacts services.
The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act was enacted in 1971. The FCRA created the first federal regulation of the consumer reporting industry citing “a need to ensure that consumer reporting agencies exercise their grave responsibilities with fairness, impartiality and a respect for the consumer’s right to privacy.”
Click Here to Submit Your Dispute Online
Or, Four Easy Steps to Question or Dispute Your Report
Step 1: Submit Proof of Your Personal Identity to PeopleFacts.
We take seriously our duty to protect your personal information. In order to be certain that any individual contacting us about one of our reports is who they say they are, we require everyone to first establish their identity with us. Establishing your identity is a part of our responsibility in protecting your consumer privacy for you!
Additionally, we want to help you once we have verified that you are who you say you are. To do this, we need current and valid contact information for you so that we can communicate with you easily. So, please respond to us quickly when we reach out to you and be sure to let us know the best way to reach you by telephone and the best way to communicate with you in writing (by email or US mail).
Please print legibly or type into an email or on a piece of paper all of the following information. (The address to which you should send this is provided in Step 4 below).
- Full legal name. Provide your full legal name as it appears on your birth certificate, driver’s license, passport, etc.
- Date of birth. Provide your full date of birth (in MO-DA-YR format).
- Social Security Number. Please provide your full 9-digit United States government issued number. Please see our privacy commitment to you by clicking on the link to “privacy commitment” located at the bottom of this page.
- Current physical address. Please provide us with your residential address (this may not be a PO Box). We will need to use this to verify that you are who you say you are.
- Current mailing address (if different from physical address). We will use this information to mail information to you in the course of helping you with your question or dispute.
- Current e-mail address (if you have one that you have determined is sufficiently secure for us to correspond with you about your personal identifying information).
- Current and valid telephone number (including the best times to reach you). We want to talk to you and help you during this process. Providing us with a valid phone number and the best times to reach you to discuss your consumer inquiry, will help us to serve you even better.
- Current and valid personal identification. Please provide a COPY OF THE FRONT AND BACK SIDES OF A VALID DRIVER’S LICENSE, PASSPORT OR OTHER GOVERNMENT-ISSUED PHOTO IDENTIFICATION. This is required in order for us to verify your identity as a part of our commitment to protect your consumer privacy.
Step 2: Help Identify the PeopleFacts Report In Question.
We need your help to know which report you are questioning. We issue a PeopleFacts report when you (a consumer who is applying for something) authorize one of our clients (a company or an individual) to run a background check on you. You may authorize one of our clients to run a background check when you apply for employment, housing, a volunteer position, a license or more. So, the entity that may issue a consumer report about you will be a prospective employer, apartment complex, housing provider, church, non-profit, faith-based organization, licensing board, or other. We have run many reports on “John Smith” so knowing the date of the application and who you applied with will help us help you!
- Date of Application. Provide us the actual date the PeopleFacts consumer report about you was issued, or if you are unsure about the specific date of the application, please provide the approximate date on which you applied for something (a job, an apartment, a license, a housing lease, a volunteer position, etc.).
- Nature of Application. Provide us the nature of the application you made on the date indicated above (“I applied for…” a job, an apartment, a license, a housing lease, a volunteer position, etc.).
- Company Name. The name of the entity who asked PeopleFacts to issue a consumer report about you (“I applied for a job with ABC Company”)
- Company Address. The physical address you went to in order to apply (either street address or mailing address or website if you applied online).
Step 3: Provide a Clear Statement about what help you need from PeopleFacts.
The more information we have from you, the better and more quickly we can serve you. Please provide us the following information, so we can take care of your needs.
Nature of Your Inquiry. When you contact us, please let us know one or more of the following:
- I want a copy of my PeopleFacts Report.
- I want to ask a question about a PeopleFacts Report.
- I want to dispute information reported by PeopleFacts.
- I have a question about services PeopleFacts has provided to me.
If you are disputing a report made, please provide all additional information and documentation to support your dispute of information. Provide the specific information with any details you have that you are disputing, questioning or wanting to understand better on your PeopleFacts Report. This part is really important! We need as much information as possible in order to be able to help you. Our teams want to let you know what they can and cannot do to help get a PeopleFacts Report changed, to notify a credit bureau of information that needs to be disputed or changed or even to pursue getting a courthouse to correct information on your behalf. The more information, documents and facts you give to us, the more we can help you!
Examples of information we may need to be able to be of great service to you are:
- Court Orders. Copies of any signed, executed court orders directing that the records in question are to be expunged or sealed.
- Government-Issued Documentation. Legal papers showing a change to your name or the correction of a legal record.
- Government-filed Legal Papers. Legal documents showing a lien release from a creditor due to payment in full being received or a settlement being reached.
- Creditor Correspondence. Examples may include a letter from a creditor stating that you have paid in full a debt previously owed, a letter from a creditor stating that you do not owe a debt, a statement or invoice from a creditor showing proof of payment in full.
Please note: as a part of our commitment to you, we will be required to verify the validity of these documents with the original source that issued them.
Step 4: Send PeopleFacts the Information from Step 1-3 Above.
Please send a copy of the above information via electronic mail to:
consumerquestions@peoplefacts.com
or via US mail to the following:
PeopleFacts
Consumer Relations and Solutions
4500 S. 129th East Avenue
Suite 132
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74134
Internal Review of Dispute: PeopleFacts will review your written statement of disputed information, free of charge, within 5 business days (exclusive of weekends and holidays) of receiving the same. If we have any questions, we will contact you at the phone number and addresses you have provided. Please respond promptly if we call you.
Correction of PeopleFacts Report and Systems: If PeopleFacts determines that the disputed item(s) of information are the result of an act or omission by PeopleFacts, we will correct or delete the item(s) in the consumer report within 20 days of receiving your written statement of dispute.
Notify External Data Providers and Reinvestigation by External Data Providers: If PeopleFacts determines that the disputed item(s) of information are not the result of an act or omission by PeopleFacts, we will convey the notice of the dispute, together with all relevant information provided by the consumer, to each consumer data furnisher that provided PeopleFacts with the information that is the subject of the dispute. The data furnisher to whom we transmit the information will conduct a reinvestigation within 30 days of receiving notification of the consumer’s dispute. Upon completion, the data furnisher will provide PeopleFacts with a notice of the result of the reinvestigation.
Final Written Notice of Results of Investigation to Consumer: Upon completion of the internal investigation, PeopleFacts will convey written notice of the results to you.
Please note that if you provide PeopleFacts with additional, relevant information prior to completion of the investigation, the time period for investigation will be extended by PeopleFacts in order to ensure that we take additional steps to help you.
How to Request a Copy of Your Consumer Report
Click Here to Request a Copy of Your Report Online
Are you eligible to receive a free copy of your consumer report from PeopleFacts?
To receive a free copy of your consumer report from PeopleFacts, you must meet one of the following conditions, as provided for in the Fair Credit Reporting Act:
You may receive one free copy of your consumer report at any time if:
- You are a person that has had an adverse action taken against you because of information in your consumer report and no more than 60 days has passed since the date you received notice of the adverse action, OR
- You are the victim of identity theft and have placed a fraud alert in your file with PeopleFacts.
You may receive a free copy of your consumer report one time in any 12 month period if:
- Your file contains inaccurate information as a result of fraud committed by someone else and you submit written proof of the same, OR
- You are on public assistance and you submit written proof of the same, OR
- You are unemployed but expect to apply for employment within 60 days of the date you request a copy of your consumer report and you submit written proof of the same.
If you are eligible to receive a free copy of your consumer report, then please mail a written request (Print Form Here) for a free copy of your consumer report specifying why you are eligible to receive it and include with your request a legible photo copy of your current, valid driver’s license (both front and back), valid social security card, and any required written proof of your eligibility to:
PeopleFacts
Free Consumer Report Request
4500 S. 129th East Avenue
Suite 132
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74134OR you may submit your request online by clicking HERE.
If you are not eligible to receive a free copy of your consumer report, then you may submit a written request for a copy of your consumer report including the following information:
- Your full legal name
- Your mailing address
- Your area code and telephone number
- Your date of birth
- Your social security number
Together with a legible photocopy of your current, valid driver’s license (both front and back), a legible photocopy of your current, valid social security card, and a processing fee of $10.00 payable only by money order to PeopleFacts by mailing your request and processing fee to the following:
PeopleFacts
Paid Consumer Report Request
4500 S. 129th East Avenue
Suite 132
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74134
Fill out our customer inquiry form and make sure to make a note in the comments to let us know what type of data services interest you.
Yes. Screening all employees ensures that you have consistent, compliant and accurate records and reduces your risk of discriminatory employment practices by treating all employees equally.
Records are readily available for up to 90 days. After that time, records are stored in archived files and are accessible indefinitely.
Courts are empowered to order the expungement of a record in many different situations and for many different reasons. Unfortunately, prior to 2011 no single point of expunged record collection existed in the United States of America. Consequently, anytime a record was expunged, an order was filed in an individual case and the individual courthouse would eliminate the record in question from their bulk data records database according to their regular update schedule.
However, that data elimination would not necessarily eliminate the record from the thousands of files and databases downloaded from the courthouse prior to the expungement of the record. In an effort to establish a clearinghouse for expunged records filed across the country, several leading organizations of the consumer reporting industry formed a national expungement clearinghouse designed to further protect consumers from the untimely or erroneous reporting of an expunged record.
PeopleFacts, through its national criminal database, is proud to participate in contributing expunged records to that clearinghouse and to receiving regular updates of expunged records from the clearinghouse in addition to receiving expungements from the original public record sources.
This is yet one more way that PeopleFacts has collaborated with industry leaders to create innovative solutions designed to protect consumer rights while continuing to report public record information.
Criminal records (like civil records, bankruptcy filings, tax liens, workers compensation records and driving records) are a form of public record which is made available pursuant to the Freedom of Information clause of the US Constitution and various provisions in the individual State Constitutions as well. Varying interests have differing positions on what information should be made available in order to both satisfy the rights and privileges afforded constitutionally and at the same time protect the equally important individual right of privacy. As an area requiring careful consideration of divergent interests, a delicate balancing of interests is constantly being achieved. As the balancing of interests leans toward one direction (i.e. protecting a consumer’s right of privacy by preventing the disclosure of a date of birth in an otherwise public record), an equally important right is taken away in another direction (i.e. less public information is made available and therefore it is more difficult to protect the rights of an employer or school district or church or apartment complex seeking to provide a safe environment because you cannot identify whether the person named in the public record is the same person who is applying for employment, housing, licensing, or otherwise). Consequently, the world of electronic public record data access is a constantly changing arena that is impacted by policymakers at multiple levels including individuals operating in the judiciary, legislative, government, private and political sectors.
In the midst of a constantly changing arena, PeopleFacts has been consistent about sticking to its mission by being committed to implementing reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy in the information it provides, while also preventing unreasonable delays in the processing of consumer applications for employment, housing and/or volunteer opportunities. To that end, PeopleFacts receives public record updates for its criminal data-sets electronically as often as they are made available by the original courthouse sources for bulk purchase. Over 85% of our public record sources provide updates on a semi-monthly (every two weeks) or monthly schedule. However, some public record sources are more limited in their resources and therefore only update their records on a less frequent basis (i.e. quarterly or more). In an effort to further minimize the time between criminal data record updates, PeopleFacts is working with other industry leaders to develop additional methods of further reducing the time between the original source updates, while maintaining record integrity and not causing a delay to reporting. In nearly 25 states we are receiving real time updates from original courthouse sources which result in the most currently available information being transmitted instantly through our systems. The number of states and number of courthouse sources with this type of rapid update access are increasing and we will continue to pursue the addition of those real time updates to our database as they become readily available.
Yes. Though criminal records are public information, credit and other Fair Credit Reporting Act information is not and therefore requires a consent form to be signed by the person on whom a background check is being run. During customer orientation, we provide a sample consent form for our customers’ use. The customer will not be asked to fax the consent form over to PeopleFacts, but consent forms will need to be kept on-site for a recommended 90 days before disposal. Additional copies of authorizations may be required in order to satisfy specific requests. In these situations, our PeopleFacts Fulfillment Team will contact you to obtain a copy of the authorization. Finally, all clients and even PeopleFacts are subject to audit by all original record sources and by government agencies entitled to do the same to ensure compliance with consumer authorization requirements.
PeopleFacts’s screening intelligence delivers multiple options to you the client. You can log on to our secure website to complete a form with your applicant’s data to receive the results, or you can retrieve our screening information through a seamless integration with your own software platform or one of our applicant tracking or people management platform offerings. Regardless of the method, you will find the process easy to use and at your fingertips, wherever you are.
While prices vary according to specific products, packages, delivery mechanisms and even data sources, PeopleFacts strives to deliver product and service solutions that are competitively priced and not cost-prohibitive. When statistics prove that over 70% of negligent hiring claims are lost by employers, a typical workplace violence incident costs an employer over $1 million, and an average tenant eviction costs between $5,000 and $15,000, how much is too much when it comes to a screening solution that will help reduce your risk of claims.
Identity verification, criminal research and reporting, resume verification, reference checking, driving history, credit history, drug and alcohol screening, talent assessment, federal contractor compliance, credential checks, integrity testing, people management, online training and more. PeopleFacts provides more than just a background check, we deliver screening intelligence. Call us today to find out more.
Serving clients in all 50 states, PeopleFacts has spent nearly two decades becoming an industry leading provider of background screening to professionals making daily decisions about executives, employees, contractors, vendors, temporary staff, tenants, renters, volunteers and more.
Our screening intelligence, professional, technology and risk management advantages, together with our “seal of accreditation” from the Professional Background Screening Association, have come together to help us deliver screening intelligence to you through our own proprietary system designed to track down and report the information you are allowed to see in a way that helps you make quality decisions every time.
After all, isn’t that what really matters?