Public Records Online

From LoveToKnow Online

What can public records online tell you, or tell others about you? Quite a bit - you will probably be surprised by what exactly is out there on the Internet! Some sites will make users pay for information; others offer what they know for free.

What Public Records Online Can Reveal

You can find out almost anything you want to know on the Internet; that's no secret. It still may come as a surprise that you can find out a person's address, phone number, how much she paid for her house, whether she's been involved in any court cases or has a criminal record, and more. Find:

  • A person's address and phone number
  • Birth date, age, and aliases
  • Criminal history
  • Housing prices in your neighborhood or your potential neighborhood
  • A person's relatives
  • Legal residency

Who Uses the Services

The average person may want to use public records, especially those concerning criminal background checks, to do something as simple as hire a housekeeper or babysitter. Other situations where online public records may come in handy include:

  • When buying a house, you want to know the type of people who live in the neighborhood as well as what the houses are selling for, have sold for in the past, and so on. You can also get property tax assessments.
  • Hiring managers need to know more about the people they might hire. The application doesn't always reveal everything you may want to know.
  • You can go online to look up an old friend from high school or college. You may get lucky and find his phone number (though probably not his cell phone number), and in some instances, even their address. Similarly, if you had a missed call on your phone from a mysterious number, a reverse phone lookup can tell you who it was—no call back necessary.

How You Can Search

To quickly and easily find the information you're looking for, some sites allow you to search nationwide or by:

  • Type of information you're seeking
  • State
  • Zip code
  • City and state

Criminal and Background Searches
  • E-Verify is designed to help employers verify the citizenship status of their new employees. It is operated by the Department of Homeland Security.
  • Criminal Searches allows you to search the database for free using a person's first and last name and her state of residence. With the advanced search option, you can narrow your results by providing a birth date, middle name, or county. You can search for sex offenders in your neighborhood, get criminal alerts, and more. You can also enter your address under the Neighborhood Watch tab and find out if any of your neighbors have committed crimes and what those crimes were.

Phone Numbers and Location

If you want to look up an old friend or verify an address or phone number, here are a few websites to try:

  • AnyWho.com: You can look up businesses or people here. There's a Yellow Pages section as well as a White Pages one. In addition, if there's a phone number on your caller ID that you're unsure about, you can use the reverse lookup option to see who called while you weren't available. If you are concerned about your privacy and do not want others to find you by using this site, visit the Privacy Listing Process page and enter your number.
  • White Pages is a similar site, but in addition to the phone number and address, you'll find out who else lives in the house and get a map to the address. You also get information on the city in which the person lives, such as the population, number of households, and median age. You also have the option to remove your listing here.
  • With further investigation, you can even find people's e-mail address online.

Buying a House

You can check your neighborhood or potential neighborhood out online to see if any criminals live there and what their crimes were. You can also find out what the houses have sold for in that neighborhood (by lot) and the property tax assessment. NETROnline.com lets you find sale prices, appraisals, owners' names', tax assessment value, basic information about a home, and more. Just click on the appropriate state on the United States map to get started.

Use Caution When Paying for Information

If you're looking for public records online and you stumble across a site that asks you to pull out your credit card, beware. They are not all scams that keep asking for more and more money for those "juicy" bits of information you want, but many are. Try searching for the name of the site you are about to enter your information into before going further. Look for complaints from those who have paid but never received the information they were promised. With so much free information available online, you should use caution before parting with your hard-earned money.

Retrieved from "http://online.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Public_Records_Online"

 


Comment on Public Records Online



(Displayed with your comment)                        (Will not be displayed)
Verification Code:   
    

Online Categories
LoveToKnow Tools
More Articles