Alias Names: How They Affect a Background Check

The most common misconception, when running a background check, is that criminal history information is stored under an individual’s social security number. The reality is criminal history information is stored by name and date of birth. To protect consumer privacy, data called Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as social security numbers, I.D. numbers, and driver’s license numbers are not included in public records and will severely impact what is uncovered when criminal research is conducted. 

One of the most common ways for criminal records to “slip through the cracks” is through the use of a maiden name, additional name, and/or an alias. Name changes throughout one’s lifetime, multiple marriages, or intentional misrepresentation of one’s name may suppress criminal records. Add the complexities of hyphenated names, suffixes, apostrophes, and human errors while entering data, and it’s easy to see that there may be numerous variations of a single name that might require additional research.

Many employers struggle with the decision whether to run all alias names that turn up. Other employers are challenged with the types of alias names to run (maiden names, letter reversals, first name discrepancies). In a perfect world we would suggest running every alias name to improve the results of a background check but that could be cost prohibitive.

Court documents are typically filed under a person’s legal name, as printed on a birth certificate, ID card, passport, or other government issued instrument. However, people who are known by a nickname could possess enough proper documentation under that name to cause a court clerk to record an alleged crime under that nickname. For example, if Robert Smith is arrested under Rob Smith and a prospective employer only runs a search for Robert Smith, there is a strong likelihood that no record will be found. The same holds true for maiden names and past married names. If Jane Doe is arrested under her maiden name, remarries, and takes on her spouse’s last name of Jones, a background check will not find the record under Jane Doe because a search was only run for Jane Jones. Both of these criminal searches of current first and last names will most likely result in the missed records.

Seasoned criminals use all kinds of subversive ways to conceal criminal records. They may purposely leave a letter out of their last name, add a Jr. to the end, or swap two letters in the hopes of misleading prospective employers.  If John provides Jon on his application, an employer running the background check under Jon would miss any records for John. Other commonly misspelled names include Stephen/Steven, Stacy/Stacey, Philip/Phillip, Katherine/Kathryn, and Sarah/Sara.

To increase the ability to match a candidate with a criminal record, background screening companies associate a name with a data of birth. Whether on purpose or by accident, transposing a date of birth will wreak havoc with finding a record. A criminal simply needs to change his or her year of birth to mislead a researcher and miss records. Date transpositions also occur, such as November 1, 1975 (11-1-75) and January 11, 1975 (1-11-75).

The best practice is to run all aliases, particularly for C-level executives and childcare providers. If that is not economically possible, at least run all maiden and married names, along with names that appear to have obvious letter swaps.

Quality background screening companies will confirm the accuracy of data submitted by an applicant, prior to submitting an order for research. This confirmation should include the verification of spelling, dates of birth, and address history. Cross-referencing the information provided with government documents is useful as well. Always use a Social Security Trace to reveal all possible alias names an applicant may have used over the last 7 or 10 years. Never use results from a national database as the sole source of criminal records. These kinds of records are useful as supplemental research to assist with finding aliases but may have huge gaps and data variations.

NAPBS accredited screening providers, like Aurico, embed manual audits, such as the Aurico Audit™, into their research process, to validate candidate provided information and find all possible records. Such background screening companies are aware of the methods used to deceive employers and will proactively mitigate your hiring risk.

Learn more: www.aurico.com

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