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Protect Your Business Against Internal Crime with a Background Check

Being a small business owner can mean a lot of worries.  Not only are you dealing with all the normal business challenges like competition, pricing, location and customer service… but now security is also increasingly important.  As a business owner you face the threat of theft, fraud, embezzlement, scams… the list can seem almost endless.

Most Small Business Owners rarely consider these Background Check techniques for protecting their investment… which could prove to be a costly oversight.

It’s very possible for businesses to loose more to employee theft than to shoplifting, burglary, and robbery combined.  One study revealed that small businesses lost a far greater percentage of their earning to internal crime that any other business size category.

You may entrust your employees with company funds or confidential trade secrets that can be stolen. Other employees may be involved with negotiations or purchasing that can be abused. Your risk doesn’t end there; your vulnerability extends to vendors, customers, contracted services and business partnerships.

When running a small business, you and only you can look out for your company.  That’s why it’s becoming more common than ever for businesses to utilize the simple Background Check as a preventative solution.

What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

Most business owners think of their business as an extension of their family.  You certainly don’t want to think badly of the people that you hired.  The truth is most employees are trustworthy with a need for a good job and fair pay.

What you’re dealing with are a few criminals who are cleverly deceptive and often quite persuasive.  As with most honest business owners, you give your trust to people until they prove otherwise. However, this admirable and honorable characteristic makes you vulnerable to the covert con man.

Although it may go against your nature, you do have a simple, fast legal way of knowing just whom you are dealing with.  All it takes is a simple background check that may expose a person with a very sordid past and eliminate them as a candidate for hire.  What it may also reveal is that the person is simply not who they say they are, obviously a huge red flag.

All of the information you need falls under the category of public records which are legally available for anyone to evaluate.  You may have already considered this option but decided it will be too time consuming or just too expensive… well, not so think again…

Online Background Search Services are Economical and Fast

Gone are the days when you hired a detective to dig up the information you needed. Today there are online services that compile comprehensive databases that are easily and privately accessed online.

The higher quality services that offer the more in-depth background checking usually charge a small fee for access to over a billion records.  These services are typically updated far more regularly and are generally easier to use.  A year of service is often less than what you’d pay when buying lunch for a staff meeting.

Avoid services that are offered as a one time charge. This can become quite costly for multiple searches and most businesses will need the service several times during the year.  It’s not uncommon to conduct several searches for the same candidate, particularly when their names have changed due to marriage.

Look for services that are endorsed by those in the know, professionals who know what works because their income depends on it!  We recommend Net Detective which is endorsed by the National Association of Private Investigators (NAIPI).

These are some of the things you can and should be considering for the protection of your business…

Conduct Criminal Background Checks Regularly

The investment that you have in your business is more than just money… it’s time, emotional attachment and reputation, all irreplaceable.  Let’s face it; almost everyone you come in contact with in your business is a stranger.

In business you replace good faith with facts and knowledge.  Protect yourself by running a quick background check for any history of criminal activity.  Look for:

• Criminal Records
• FBI Records
• Prison Records
• Sex Offender Status

You have access to their entire criminal history if one exists.

Background Check for Employment (Pre-Employment Screening)

If you’re a small business owner, it’s crucial to your business to pre-screen each person you consider hiring.  No matter how professional, or how harmless, they may appear they could be deadly for your business.

A small print shop owner in Florida needed a bookkeeper after the business grew and he could no longer handle it himself.  He hired an especially friendly fellow who didn’t offer much in the way of references but he sounded like he was experienced and capable and… he agreed to work cheap.

The owner assumed he could save some money hiring the guy.  He assumed wrong.

His new economical bookkeeper embezzled more than a hundred thousand dollars from his company before he got caught.   It came as no surprise that he’d been previously charged with embezzlement.  A fast that a simple criminal background check would have quickly revealed.

Every Business should make a Background Check for Employment mandatory.

Background Check Existing Employees – Make this a Conditional for Employment

People can change, develop bad habits and become involved in activities that you may not expect or suspect.  A regular check on existing employees is just smart business.

Note: be sure to get legal advice for ways to make this a condition of employment.  It will likely be necessary inform your employees of this policy in writing, with assurance that it’s not invading their privacy.

Background Check Each Company or Individual You Do Business With

Know who you do business with and what their intentions might be. If they have a questionable or even criminal history, it could repeat itself.  Check on their credit; conduct a background check on the owners, managers, and the company itself.

You should also check your credit customers if your dealings with them permit it.  It’s quite common for non-retail businesses to look at their customer’s credit backgrounds for any warning signs but also consider the criminal background as well.  This is the best way to avoid non-payment for your products or services.

Check Charity and Other Community Support Organizations

If you are in businesses you’ll frequently get called on to support your community. Many charitable organizations will solicit donations, often in sizable amounts.  Never give money freely to anyone until you’re certain that they’re legitimate by running a background check on their organization and the principals involved.  The help you think that you’re providing could actually hurt your business.

The Final Word

Running your small business today is more of a challenge than ever before.  By utilizing online database Background Check search services you protect your business and keep you, your business, your customers and your employees more secure…. also it’s good for the bottom line.

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Internet Services Can Help You Keep Your Children Safer

One of the most disturbing trends of our time is the increase in sex offenses against our children.

A study by the US Department of Justice found:

- 67% of all victims of sexual assault were juveniles, under 18 years old
- Thirty-four percent of the victims were younger than 12
- One of every seven was less than 6 years old
This is such a tragedy but at least parents are becoming more aware of the problem.  They’re taking steps to safeguard their children by keeping them from going out alone or from going anywhere unsupervised.

If you’re a parent, now there’s even more you can do to protect your children.

How the Internet Can Help You Protect Your Children

Your computer and the Internet can play a major part in helping you keep your children safe.  If you’re like most folks, you probably have at least some experience looking up information online, using Google or Yahoo search perhaps.

What you may not realize is how much information you can uncover online about sex offenders and other criminals who pose a threat to your family.

Specialized background checking services now exist that take you directly to criminal histories and sex offender records.  While the common search engines are good for finding general information on a variety of topics, they’re not so helpful when you want to search for criminal records.  The specialized services make it a whole lot easier and faster.

I became familiar with these criminal background checking services from my work as a professional writer and researcher.  If you’re a parent trying to protect your children, you’ll want to find out as much as you can about what’s available.

You Can Now Find Out Secrets Once Deeply Hidden While Sitting at Your Computer

It used to be time consuming and costly to check someone’s background to see if they had a criminal history.  You had to hire a private detective or go through some expensive reporting agency.  Not today – not with Criminal record databases so readily available to us.

Sometimes referred to as Internet Detective sites, or Personal Search sites, these web-based search services give you the low-down on all kinds of formerly-hidden information.

They let you make complete criminal background checks and give you access to detailed information including:

- Sex Offender Status Records
- Geographic Locations of Registered Sex Offenders
- Criminal Records for all kinds of crimes
- Prison Records
- FBI and other Law Enforcement Agency Files
- Criminal History

Why Checking Criminal Backgrounds Can Help You Spot Crime Before It Happens

The unfortunate truth is that many offenders commit crimes again and again.  The DOJ tracked one sample group of around three hundred thousand offenders and discovered an amazing fact.  This one group of felons has so far accounted for nearly five million arrest charges over their recorded careers.

Here are more disturbing findings from US Department of Justice studies:

- When criminals were arrested for a new crime, more than half of them were out on probation, parole or pretrial release for a previous crime.
- 39% of jail inmates had already served 3 or more prior sentences.
- Of the hundreds of thousands of criminals released from prisons during a one year period, an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted, and 25.4% resentenced to prison for a new crime.

And the most chilling statistics ….

- Sex offenders were about four times more likely than non-sex offenders to be arrested for another sex crime after their discharge from prison.
- Of released sex offenders and child molesters arrested for committing another sex crime, 40% perpetrated the new offense within a year or less from their prison discharge.

It’s extremely troubling but the very fact that so many criminals are repeat offenders is what makes using criminal background checks so effective.  Those past crimes leave a trail.  Access to that trail, that criminal history, is easily available through the specialized background check services.

The criminal history you can easily find out there can forewarn you.  You’ll know if someone has a criminal background and is therefore likely commit a crime again.  It’s not pre-judging.  It’s just being realistic and practical.

Experts Recommend Parents Use Criminal Background Checking Services

Safety experts are starting to recommend that parents use a criminal background checking service regularly.  By running a criminal background check on anyone you find suspicious or even anyone your child might come into contact with, you’ll know if there’s anything to worry about.  You’ll be armed with the knowledge you need to take appropriate action.

You can use the search services to check out your baby sitter, nanny, au pair, day care center and staff, and even school teachers and workers.

You can use it to search geographically and find out if known sex offenders live near you.  It’s now possible to determine exactly where they live.

When You Choose a Criminal Background Search Service, Here’s What to Look For:

To help you find the best possible service for criminal background checking, here are the things I’ve found important to consider during a review:

1.  Free versus Paid

I’ve been disappointed by the free services. Better to pay the small fee and get quality information you can trust.  Many of the better services have special offers of multi-year memberships for a low one-time fee.  The cost can be less than what you’d pay for a low-priced blouse or golf shirt.

2.  Speed

You want a service that responds quickly and gives you exactly the information you need.  Make sure you try it out. Check both speed and accuracy!

3. Proprietary Database

If a service compiles their own database, it’s a sign they’re more likely to be in the business for the long term. That’s because a proprietary database is costly to build and maintain. A company wouldn’t invest if they didn’t expect to stay in business.

From a usability standpoint, a dedicated database is better too.  You get a single interface that you can quickly learn.

(One note: I’ve never seen a free service that has its own database. Most of the free services I’ve checked out are really just link farms – they just point you at some public or government database. You could get that from the general search engines.)

4.  Training and Support

Be sure you can easily learn to use any service you choose.  Actually, you’ll find that the better services are pretty intuitive: you’ll know what to do just by looking at it.  But better services will also provide extra, in-depth searching.  If you ever need the extra, it might require you dig into it a bit before you can fully use it.  Just make sure your service has easy, accessible ways to learn, like tutorials.

And don’t ignore support.  Sooner or later you’ll have questions or there will be something you need help to get resolved.  The best services offer free, live support with a phone number or live chat where you can talk directly with a person.

It’s a threatening world but fortunately, you can use modern technology to better protect your children.  Like the experts recommend, sign up for Criminal Background Checking service and use it regularly.

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