The Importance of checking aliases.
You’ve done your due diligence. You’ve completed a background check on all your employees. Your organization is safe, right? Or is it? Did you run an Alias Name Search on your applicants as well?
An alias is any other name someone may be known by. Most of the time we see this because of marriage. If a someone goes by his or her married name, the maiden name would be considered an alias. Names can also be hyphenated, causing more confusion. Sometimes our researchers discover alias names caused by typos or misspellings in court documents. Occasionally we find candidates who purposely lie about their name to try to hide a criminal past.
Why does an Alias Name Search matter? Court documents are stored by name and date of birth. Jane Jones may be a perfect, upstanding citizen, but under he maiden name, Jane Smith, she robbed a gas station. Without searching her alias names, you may never know this, putting your organization at great risk!
So how do you make sure you know someone’s full history?
- Ask candidates if they’ve ever gone by another name on your background check authorization form.
- Include a Social Security Number Trace in your background check package, so our researchers can find any undisclosed or unknown aliases.
- Include the Alias Name Search in your background check to make sure candidates don’t have a criminal past under another name.
Catching a criminal before he or she works for you protects other employees from harm, your organization from being a victim of a crime and your company’s reputation.
Have questions? Want to make sure your company is safe? Contact us today to make sure your covered!
