In this day and age, it would never hurt to know more about the people in your life. From a long-lost friend and a potential date to a new next-door neighbor to an online seller, running a background check would protect your sanity and safety.

In the meanwhile, not all background checks are anonymous. In some cases, you are required by the FCRA to request permission from the person being searched, while in others, you’re legally permissible to pull background check reports of a person without them even knowing. Wonder why? Please read on…

Are background checks anonymous?

This depends on the types of background checks and the contexts you’re in for running one. Generally speaking, consent is a requirement for background checks conducted in a professional setting (e.g. vetting a prospective employee or screening a nanny)*. Outside the realms of employment, if you’re trying to run a background search on someone for purely personal reasons, it’s technically possible and legally permissible that you pull a background report of them without them knowing.

If the latter, or a personal background check, describes your situation, then you’re in the right place! Here are 5 of the best 100% secure background search services you can use…

1. Background search on someone with BeenVerified

Social media habits may reveal a lot about a person’s personality and lifestyle. If you’re curious to find out what social networks someone is on and how they interact on these networks, then BeenVerified makes a good option.

BeenVerified is capable of searching for a person’s footprint on 55+ social media and dating profiles. All you need to do is enter a name, email address, phone number, home address, or username from a different platform!

1. To run a background search at BeenVerified, head to BeenVerified Official Website.
2. Choose a search method, enter the information, and click SEARCH.
   
3. Within seconds, you’ll receive a report, detailing the available public records of the person you searched for.

2. Get in-depth background reports with PeopleLooker

PeopleLooker is one of the best background search services and our favorite of its kind. It sports millions of data sources, allowing you to enter just a name to dig out tons of information about people.

A PeopleLooker report may give you insights into a person’s contact info, address history, assets, social media accounts, marriage records, jobs, criminal records, licenses, and more if available.

1. Go to PeopleLooker’s official website, enter the person’s name, then click SEARCH.
   
2. Sit tight while PeopleLooker scans its data sources and finds matching records for you. Once finished, it will organize the records into a report, giving you a summary of the person’s life.
   
   

3. Run a dating background check with Social Catfish (Supports reverse image search)

Just started dating someone and wondering if there are any red flags? Or do you get this funny feeling in your stomach that your S/O may be secretly fooling around behind your back? Social Catfish may just help you sleuth out the answer.

Social Catfish originates as a dating investigation service. And it does what it says on the tin. Apart from tracking down a person, it runs a further identity check against its proprietary database to help you find out if a person is genuine, or a cheater, impersonator, or scammer in disguise.

To do a dating background check with Social Catfish, just follow the steps below:

1. Go to Social Catfish Official Website.
2. Choose a search type, then provide the information, and click Search.
   
3. Within seconds, Social Catfish will dish up a detailed report, revealing the available information about the person you searched for. For reverse image search, you may receive an alert if the person is flagged as a scammer in Social Catfish’s database.
   
   

Hire a private investigator at Social Catfish

If you’re serious about learning as much as possible about the person, and you want guaranteed results, you can pay for a Social Catfish Specialty Service. The people search experts at Social Catfish will do all the hard work for you, using the same tools that the FBI uses. And they guarantee they’ll find the person.

4. Reverse phone lookup with Spokeo

Spokeo is another background check service built with privacy in mind. It secures its website with 256-bit encryption, which makes sure all your searches on its site are safe and confidential.

Secrecy aside, Spokeo is also characterized by its reverse phone lookup. It allows you to track down the owner of an unknown number, be it a landline, cellphone, or VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).

Here is how to perform a Spokeo background check on someone:

1. Go to Spokeo’s Official Website.
2. Choose the search type: name, phone, email, and address, then enter the information and click Search.
   
3. Wait a few minutes as Spokeo combs through its data sources and generates an in-depth report for you. 
   

Summary

There are circumstances in your life where you need to run background checks on someone. And it isn’t quite like a pre-employment background check, but instead sensitive and delicate in nature – we get it. This is why we’ve compiled 5 services to help you conduct anonymous background searches. Hopefully, they’ve helped! Which services do you find most useful? Please let us know in the comments below↓. Thanks.

All product names, logos, brands, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.