Digging for Disclosure: Tactics for Protecting Your Firm’s Assets from Swindlers, Scammers, and Imposters

3. We Call That a Clue

So what does a background check really find? We hear that all the time. The answer is: anything.

A typical background check goes through numerous research steps and utilizes hundreds of public record and proprietary sources to collect information. While the Internet and LexisNexis are both bonafide sources of information, you cannot rely on any one source. The key is knowing not only how to effectively gather information but also how to interpret and analyze the facts.

Some common things we find in our research are résumé fraud or exaggerated credentials. While we may have uncovered this hundreds of times, there have also been some publicized examples: the RadioShack CEO who embarrassed the company when it was discovered ...