Watching the news these days, and seeing what can happen to a person who trusts a new person in their life, without verifying who that person is and what they really want, can make you stop and think twice. Who is this new and wonderful boyfriend or girlfriend that has suddenly appeared and seems too good to be true? Does your new nanny have a criminal record? Will a new tenant be likely to pay his rent on time? Finding the answers to this type of question with a simple background check, can give you peace of mind and may just keep yourself or a loved one from becoming a new episode of Dateline.

Background checks used to be a tool mainly accessible to law enforcement or those with the money and resources to hire a private detective. It was costly and time consuming for anyone who had to gather information from many different sources in order to compile a comprehensive meaningful report. Computers and the Internet have changed the way that this type of information is gathered. Today, massively large databases are readily shared and collated to create a wealth of information that is readily accessible. Services that make this information available often include information from sources such as background records, criminal records, sex offenders, and warrant search can provide information such as - addresses, relatives, phone numbers, properties owned, judgments, criminal records, arrest, offence information, bodily marks, etc.

Birth records, death records, divorce records, and marriage records can provide such information as important dates, locations, names, ages, relative, parents, properties owned, etc.

Locating people via various means now include not only phone numbers and addresses, but the ability to lookup email and cell phone numbers. There are also services to do reverse lookups on phone, email, cell, and addresses.

Google and Internet web sites also contain a wealth of information. Sites like myspace, facebook, blogger and other web sites are full of personal information and images that may prove useful. With the rapidly expanding availability of all this information, be careful what you share.