How to do a Background Investigation
Background investigation is a tedious process and a specialized task, most background investigators are experienced former law enforcement officers, but you do not need to be one in order to do it. In this article, we will focus on people, we will guide you in the process of properly conducting a background investigation on business partners, investors, or anyone for that matter.
Why Conduct a Background Investigation?
Here are some reasons why it is very important to learn how to do a background investigation:
#1: It’s easy to do business this way
Most of the time, a fraudulent business partner will only give you information that they want you to have, not the ones that you need to have. Conducting a screening on all information that they feed you will greatly help in the due diligence part. But if no background check is done, a fraudulent business partner will later show warning signs for a possible fraud and deceit, making you more vulnerable to illicit schemes.
#2: A bad business partner will cost you
You will lose thousands, if not, millions of dollars in your hard earned money in fraud if you do not perform a background investigation and due diligence on your business partners. Most victims who falls to frauds and scams have failed internally to prioritize risk management, this is due to their failure to conduct a proper background investigation in their business transactions.
#3: It helps legit businesses and companies to be compliant
Businesses and companies have an inherent fiduciary responsibility to perform and invest in background investigations before business ties are established. Background investigations can reduce the risk of getting involve with individuals who have a criminal background or have ties with a criminal.
Here are some important advices on how to do a background investigation:
- Verify their identity
The first step that you need to do is to verify their identity. Most fraudsters are keen in hiding their true identities with the companies or individuals that they plan to defraud, this is usually their first instinct. You can perform an identity verification by requesting at least two (2) types of personal identifiers such as a valid passport, driver’s license and other forms of identification documents that are issued by a government authority. After securing this personal identifiers, coordinate with the issuing government agency to attest and verify whether the document is legit or not. It is very vital to ensure that you are dealing with the same person that they introduced themselves when you first met them.
- Identify their business or company ties
You can identify their business or company ties by requesting for a resume, after which you can perform your own background check on all entities that your business partner is connected currently or previously to. You may also check for their professional networking accounts online, in websites such as LinkedIn or Xing to identify any kind of discrepancies. Another good option for you is to look for free company registries online that can give you free access to their database to get the right info on your subject.
- Ground-up approach to check if the person is telling the truth
Your aim in your investigation should be objective. Every information that your subject gives to you voluntarily should undergo a background check, this way you will be able to screen any false positives during your background investigation. Make sure that you get rid of immaterial data on your list of info since this will complicate your investigation and waste your time on other matters that are more valuable. Point being, do not leave any stones unturned because one crucial info can cost you a lot if it goes unnoticed.
Try to also look for any loopholes that can affect you and your business, and you may do so by checking online or acquiring the services of a specialized company like us for your investigation to look for any issues, fraud, scam or illicit activities on all entities that you identified that your subject is associated with directly or indirectly.
- Conduct a Criminal record check
Criminal record check can determine whether your subject is currently or have been previously involved in any crime whatsoever. Criminal record check online are not readily available, aside from open sources data that can or cannot be accessible online. Perhaps it’s best to start by looking for a provider that sells data per search regarding local and international criminal record checks. Always bear in mind that the most important part of this check would be the local records since most domestic cases are litigated in local courts.
- Look for professional service providers
Background investigation is meant to be performed by specialized service providers like us. The cost of acquiring this service from us is a little amount compared to the possible damage that frauds and scams can do to you, your company and business.
We offer services that covers the background investigation on individuals. Click on these packages to learn more about their benefits:
