Background Alert

At BackgroundAlert, our primary mission is to provide our
users with access to the information that they can use to protect themselves
and their loved ones. This is why we allow our users to access data from over
37 billion current public records. At the same time, we realize that while some
may use our site in order to feel safe, others may feel that providing our
users with access to sensitive information is a breech of their privacy. In an
attempt to try and appease both parties, we give everyone, member or not, the
ability to autonomously remove their information from our databases by
following a simple step-by-step verification procedure. We understand that this
verification process can be cumbersome for some and we hope to make further
strides, as we have in the past, to make this process as easy and effortless
for all of our current and potential users.
 
In order to help resolve this issue, I had a member of our
senior staff contact you at the number provided above to accommodate your needs
and remove your account information from our database. Thank you for your
interest in BackgroundAlert.

Dear [redacted],
 
Thank you for your interest in
Backgroundalert. We are sorry to hear that you are not
satisfied with our services. Please keep in mind that all the information we
provide comes from public records. If the information is available, we'll
report it. Some people have lots of data and other have next to zero; it really
depends on what kind of activity a person has had over the years.
There are many reasons why certain information may not show up on a background
check. Some people opt-out of having their information being publicly
available, and sometimes information becomes expunged, but in most cases it
comes down to an error or omission from when the data was being entered. Either
way, this service will give you a good idea of which of your information others
have access to. This is all a lot more clear after reading our ‘Privacy
Policy’, which I will provide here for easy reference:
We
Respect Your Privacy
At
BackgroundAlert.com®, your security is a top priority and we are committed to
protecting your privacy online. This pledge outlines the steps we've taken to
ensure that you have a great experience at BackgroundAlert.com, and also
provides details on how we treat any personal information you may submit to us.
Information
Collection and Use
We
will collect and use personal information about you to respond to your request
for products and services offered through this website. We will also collect
information in order to notify you about products, services, and other
opportunities we think will be of interest to you. Although personal
information we collect from you may be considered publicly available through
government records or available through widely distributed media, we will treat
all personal information submitted by you as nonpublic personal information.
The information we collect may be from the following sources:
·      
Information provided by you in connection with obtaining
financial products or services such as mortgage loans (such as full name,
telephone number, self-assessed property value, and social security number).
·      
Information you provide us when you register to receive
communications from us (such as your email address).
·      
Information you provide us when you enter promotions or
sweepstakes offered by BackgroundAlert.com (such as your full name, physical
address and email address).
·      
Information you provide us through surveys, feedback, or other
forms hosted on our website or the pages of a BackgroundAlert.com partner.
·      
Information you provide us when you apply for a job with
BackgroundAlert.com.
We
also collect demographic information. Demographic information is all other
information such as gender, zip code, or any information that is not tied to
your personal information. In addition, we might receive information about you
from other sources (such as service providers) for tracking purposes. We may
add the information we receive about you to your existing account. Like other
websites, we also automatically receive and record certain types of information
every time you visit us. We use "cookies" and the other information
to enhance your experience and present you with personalized offers. Likewise,
we sometimes use third-party advertising companies to serve and track
advertisements appearing on our website. These companies may employ cookies and
action tags to measure advertising effectiveness. Any information that these
third parties collect via cookies and action tags is completely anonymous.
The
security of your personal information is important to us. When you enter
sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security
number) on our registration or order forms, we encrypt that information using
secure socket layer technology (SSL).
Information
Sharing and Disclosure
We
do not share personal information about you with other people or non affiliated
companies except to provide product or services you have requested or under the
following circumstances:
Data
Products Searches or Service Requests
If
you submit a search request for a data product or service offered through this
website, we will share information contained in your search request (not your
personal information) with our data providers to fulfill your request. All data
providers are required to comply with federal and state privacy regulations.
Vendors
We
sometimes disclose the information we collect to companies that host certain
services for us such as marketing distribution services on our behalf. These
vendors only have access to personal information needed to perform their
functions, and may not share it with others or use it for any other purpose.
These companies are subject to confidentiality agreements with us and other
legal restrictions that prohibit them from using the information except to
market the specified BackgroundAlert.com products or services.
As
Permitted by Law
We
may be required to share your personal information with law enforcement or
government agencies in response to subpoenas, court orders, federal/state
audits or similar circumstances. We believe it is necessary to share
information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal
activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the
physical safety of any person, violations of BackgroundAlert.com's Terms of Use,
or as otherwise required by law.
Business
Transfer
As
with any other business, it is possible that BackgroundAlert, Inc. in the
future could merge with or be acquired by another company. If such an
acquisition occurs, the successor company would have access to the information
maintained by BackgroundAlert.com, including customer account information, but
would continue to be bound by this privacy pledge unless you consent otherwise.
Advertisements
& Pop Up Windows
On
occasion, you may receive advertisements for BackgroundAlert.com from third
parties. For instance, when visiting a third party website, you may receive a
"pop up" window advertising BackgroundAlert.com. Please note that
such advertisements are served by the third party website that you have visited
and are not controlled by BackgroundAlert.com. In addition, such advertisements
may be placed by third party ad servers or ad networks. In certain instances
our web banner advertisements may make a server call to
data.innovativemetrics.com for data that will be used in the ad. This server
may use your IP address to determine geo data and display advertisements that
are targeted to your geo location. This server does not collect any data nor
does it set any tracking cookies. We maintain relationships with a number of
the third party ad networks currently operating. You may find more information
at the website of either the individual ad network or the Network Advertising
Initiative.
Anti-Spam
Policy
You
will not receive BackgroundAlert.com email communications unless you submit
your email address to us and register to receive them. Additionally, you may
also receive emails that advertise BackgroundAlert.com's services from third
party publishers. We have established firm ground rules for dealing with any third
party email services to ensure that advertisements for BackgroundAlert.com are
not sent out through a "Spam" mailing -- ensuring that our offers are
sent only to those individuals who have given their permission to the third
party email service to receive email communications. If any third party email
publisher refuses to abide by BackgroundAlert.com's anti-Spam policy, we will
not use that publisher's services. If you want to stop receiving emails from a
third party, you should follow the opt-out instructions included in the third
party email so that you will not be included in any future mailings. An
"unsubscribe" link should appear within or at the top or bottom of
the email you received. However if for any reason it does not work, please
bring that to our attention by emailing us at BackgroundAlert.com Customer
Care.
Cookies
and IP Addresses
To
serve you faster and with better quality, we use "cookies"
technology. Cookies are small bits of code, usually stored on a user's computer
hard drive, which enable a Website to "personalize" itself for each
user. We generally use cookies to reduce the time it takes for pages to load on
your computer and to assist with customer tracking. Customer tracking (or
"click-stream") data collected by us is used to optimize your
experience by learning whether or not you successfully used
BackgroundAlert.com. Cookies are not tied to your personal information.
Additionally, we may capture click-stream data on some of our partner's
websites, limited to the activity involved with the completion of offers listed
on our website. This information is used to monitor the performance of our
partners.
We
also keep track of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. An IP Address is a number
that is used by computers on the network to identify your computer every time
you log on to the Internet.
Third
Party Cookies
Some
of our business partners (e.g., advertisers) use cookies on our site. We have
no access to or control over these cookies. This privacy statement covers the
use of cookies by www.fetcharate.com only and does not cover the use of cookies
by any advertisers.
Clear
Gifs
We
employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is
effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in
function to cookies, and are used to track the online movement of Web users.
Clear gifs are not tied to users' personally identifiable information. We also
use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails the
recipients have opened. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain
communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. If users would
like to opt-out of these emails, please see the Opt-out section within any
email you receive from us or unsubscribe from our homepage by clicking here.
Confidentiality
and Security
The
security of your personal information is very important at BackgroundAlert.com
and we take a number of steps to safeguard it. For example:
·      
We limit access to personal information to those employees or
agents who assist us in providing requested products and services to you.
Employees are required to comply with our strict policies and procedures
regarding the handling of your personal information. Employees who violate
these policies are subject to our normal disciplinary process.
·      
We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that
comply with federal standards to guard personal information about you.
·      
We use industry standard data encryption technologies when
transferring and receiving consumer data on the BackgroundAlert.com website.
·      
We have partnered with VeriSign to protect against the loss,
misuse or alteration of information that we collect from you.
Changes
to Your Personal Information
If
your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire
our service, you may correct, update, delete or deactivate it by emailing our
Customer Support at [email protected] or by contacting us by telephone
or postal mail at the contact information listed below.
Opting-Out
You
may register to receive communications from us directly on our website or
through a third party. Upon registering, we will periodically send you
newsletters and other e-mails featuring special and exclusive offers,
promotions and other members-only benefits. If you no longer wish to receive
these communications, please let us know by sending an email to
BackgroundAlert.com Customer Care (You may also opt-out by clicking on the
unsubscribe link in our emails). Our email database is updated continually.
However, you may continue to receive email communications from us up to ten
business days from the time we receive your unsubscribe request. Please note
that BackgroundAlert.com can only control its own mailing list and policies.
Third party advertisers that maintain their own mailing lists may send
communications that advertise our services, and you may need to contact these
parties directly in order to stop receiving their email communications. Also,
please note that if you enter into a transaction through our website, we may
send you a thank you notice, ask for a satisfaction rating, request a
testimonial and give you periodic product reminders as part of your service.
Third
Party Links
This
Privacy Pledge applies to all information that you provide to
BackgroundAlert.com. However, when you visit websites to which
BackgroundAlert.com provides a link, keep in mind you will be interacting with
a third party that operates under its own privacy and security policy. If you
choose to obtain certain services through a third party site, the data
collected by the third party is governed by that third party's privacy policy.
A third party site will also have its own policy regarding the use of cookies
and clear gifs. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any other
service provider from whom you request services.
If
BackgroundAlert.com receives personal information from a third party that is
not in conjunction with a service offered on our site, the use and disclosure
of such information is governed by the agreement (if any) between
BackgroundAlert.com and such third party.
Third
Party Cookies
Some
of our business partners (e.g., advertisers) use cookies on our site. We have
no access to or control over these cookies. This privacy statement covers the
use of cookies by www.fetcharate.com only and does not cover the use of cookies
by any advertisers.
Framing
In
some cases, we may use third party vendors to operate portions of the
BackgroundAlert.com website. Although the particular section of the website may
have a similar appearance as the BackgroundAlert.com site, information
submitted through these outside third parties are subject to this Privacy
Pledge unless otherwise stated. For example, personal information submitted
through our Affiliate Program is subject to the Commission Junction privacy
policy.
A
Special Note about Children's Privacy
You
must be at least 18 years old to use this website. We do not knowingly collect,
use or disclose personal information about visitors under 18 years of age. If
you are under 18 years of age, you can use the services offered on our website
only in conjunction with your parents or guardians. Please see our Terms of Use
for more information.
Changes
to this Privacy Pledge
BackgroundAlert.com
may update or modify this Privacy Pledge from time to time. If there are
material changes to this Privacy Pledge or in how BackgroundAlert.com will use
your personal information, we will post such changes here. You will be notified
if any of the material changes that affect the use of your personal information
and asked to opt-in to the new use of your personal information. If you do not
agree with the changes to how your information will be used, please do not
continue to use this website.
By
using this site, you signify your assent to the BackgroundAlert.com Privacy
Pledge. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use any of the
BackgroundAlert.com site. When you request rate quotes or other information
through BackgroundAlert.com, you are authorizing us to share information with a
lender or one of our business partners, who will contact you by phone, email,
or mail. If you do not want further communication from them, please notify the
partner directly. We reserve the right to make changes in this policy at any
time. Please check the policy each time you use our website to ensure you are
aware of any changes in our privacy practices. Our Privacy Pledge will indicate
the date it was last updated. Your continued use of our site will signify your
acceptance of the changes to our Privacy Pledge.
Please understand that it would be a breech of our privacy
policy for us to determine which information was accurate, and which was not;
however, we do fully acknowledge that this is possible. That being said, if you
tell us which of your information is inaccurate, we may be able to advise you
on how to correct this information. Lastly, I have checked our records, and it
seems that your background report has been removed. In the case that this is an
error, please contact our customer service center at: [redacted] [redacted]. We are
open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
Regards,
[redacted]

Hi [redacted],I am sorry that you are having trouble with our optout process. Please go to http://www.backgroundalert.com/optout/ and go through the process of removing your information. When asked to send in your ID, please select 'Fax my Id' and hit continue. Once this is done, please send us a...

message using this form http://www.backgroundalert.com/contact and we will review your optout request right away.Best,[redacted].www.backgroundalert.com

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
I thank you so much for your assistance in resolving this matter. Without your intervention, I do not believe the outcome would have been the same.  I am retired on a fixed income and cannot afford these fraudulent charges on my credit card. Once again, please accept my deep gratitude.   Best Regards,
[redacted]

Hi [redacted],We do show a record of you calling and that there was an error on our end. We apologize about this. Please be advised that a refund was issued when you had called us on March 31st, there was no need for a BB complaint to have been filed.best,[redacted]Backgroundalert.com

Review: Dear Sir, my problem is that I paid for a credit report online through Background Alert check. Half of the information they provided was totally incorrect. The information they provided is damaging and defamation of my character.Desired Settlement: I am requesting an apology in writing and a statement of admission that certain information that they were advertising was inaccurate. Also I am requesting that they discontinue providing background information of my name.

Business

Response:

Review: While I did purchase the minimum amount of service from Background Alert which initially amounted to $19.95. I DID NOT authorize them to charge me for a six (6) month service priced at $59.70!!Desired Settlement: Background Alert must refund the unauthorized amount of $59.70 to my bank account. I do not want and did not request an additional six month service from Background Alert!

Business

Response:

Dear Mrs [redacted],

Backgroundalert.com takes pride in being one of the leaders of the public records search industry. Our sites gives users access to over 37 billion public records instantly online. We have a clear checkout process and the customer indeed signed up for a 6 month plan. We want our customers to be happy, Its seems like this is not what they intended to do, so we have refunded the $59.70 fee and trust this resolves the matter.

Best,

Backgroundalert.

Customer Service

Review: Received an advertisement for $1 to try their service. Paid the $1, pulled 1 report and compared it with my other service that I have used for years, [redacted]. I discovered that the data returned by BACKGROUND ALERT was minimal compared to the data returned using the [redacted] service (using the same search parameters.) I was subsequently billed $29.99 on my credit card. I did not notice that you must call within 5 days to cancel the service and future monthly billings.Desired Settlement: Full refund and that the company more prominently display the requirement to call to cancel the service within 5 days if you are unhappy with their service.

Business

Response:

Review: Privacy related. Refusal to remove a user account created on the site. They 'seem to' require the retention capability of my user account information that was created on their site, after I asked that the user account be removed from their system. I am not doing business with them, yet they still retain this information without my permission or approval, and seem to refuse to delete the user account.Desired Settlement: All I have asked was to have the user account information removed. I do not need or want my username/email address/ password/ contact information, retained in their user database. i.e. delete user account from database.

Business

Response:

by far the worst rip off ive ever seen , some one ought to take these people to court when they refuse to do a charge back on their credit card because of the lousy useless information thy provide and try to trick you out of more money. I called and cancelled because it suposedly bills you every month for this garbage, if it shows up on my bill next month they will get sued!!!!!!

[redacted]Buyer! Beware ![redacted] I thought I save me some time and try to get copies of some Public Records of divorce papers and got scammed $22.00 from these [redacted]. These [redacted] put on a great show and say that it's free. Well low and behold there is nothing free about it.$22.00 to see the report. They say if you upgrade to a premium account you can get the information you ask for. Well [redacted] I already paid $22.00 and No records exist where there should be Records by [redacted]. Customer No service is of no use and they only offer 50% of the money I already spent! How nice of them to steal my money and give me half of it back. Now I spend a day at the Bank stopping this thing and another day a the Law clerks office and spend even more money .The loops the government puts disabled Vets through is down right Criminal!

Review: I contact them 7/24/14 with a complain of the your service. I demanded a refund that I never got. Now I've learned that they have been charging me each month. They did not cancel my service after telling them that I was displeased and did not want it. I did not use the exact words cancel according to the CSR so they didn't cancel the service. I am sure that I told somebody I wanted this cancelled and but they have notes about my complaint but yet didn't cancel because the notes don't reflect me saying, CANCEL THIS!! What a bunch of crap. I want all my payments refunded back to me now since I asked in Jul. for a refund and said I did not want this service. The payments are $22.95/mo for a total of $183.60.Desired Settlement: Total refund of all payments charged to me from Jul 2014 - Mar 2015. $183.60

Business

Response:

Hi [redacted],We do show a record of you calling and that there was an error on our end. We apologize about this. Please be advised that a refund was issued when you had called us on March 31st, there was no need for a BB complaint to have been filed.best,[redacted]Backgroundalert.com

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted]7, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.Thank you for the update. I was told when I called that they would not refund the money so I filed the complaint. Apparently they did and I do have the funds now.

I wish I had read the reviews about this company before purchasing a subscription. This is hands-down the worst company for obtaining information about someone. You can find more by "Googling" someone than they will provide. When you buy a subsctiption, you will get a very basic background history and are asked to "upgrade" for another $20 bucks to see more. This site is a total scam, waste of time, and waste of money. Good luck getting your money back too. They want no part of your story. You paid for it, now you are stuck with it.

Review: In May of 2015, I used background alert to do a background check. I select the option for a one-time use. Money was taken out of my account in May for this one-time use. But they took out $22.95 out of my account in June, July, August, September and October. It was not until a week ago that I noticed they were taking money out my account. So I called them and they told me that they have automatic renewal. I canceled the renewal and only refunded the money back for three months. They still owe me for two months. They refuse to pay me for the other two months.Desired Settlement: I would like the money back for the remaining two months.

Business

Response:

Review: On March 9, 2015 I went to their web site for possible use in my HOA. When I came to the part where they wanted to sign me up for a month, I said no. They offered to me a one time fee of $1 to see a sample of their service. I agreed and gave them my credit card number. They charged me $1. When I received my monthly credit card bill I noticed that 4 days later they billed my card $29.99.When I called for an explanation they said that by paying the $1 I triggered an automatic contract payable monthly "unless" I called them back. Since I did not see that when I agreed to the $1, they billed my card for the additional month. It is illogical to me that by paying $1, I was committing to a monthly service.Since I did not believe I had bought their service, except for the initial $1 day, I never used their service ever again.Customer service said they would go to Billing for a decision. Three days later I called customer service and they told me that Billing would not credit me back the $29.99.At the very least I think their site is deceptive. I think they should credit me back the $29.99 since I never used their product.Desired Settlement: Either credit my credit card used $29.99, or send me a check for $29.99.

Business

Response:

Hi [redacted],We apologize for the miscommunication here. We have refunded you the $29.99.Best,[redacted]

Background Alert is a scam as far as I'm concerned. The information pulled up with their basic search and the premium was old and not current in any sense of the word. I had more current information on the searches I was doing than this company did. When I asked for a refund, I was declined. I wasted time and money using this online service.

I was charged $44.99 for the premium service when I only requested the basic $14.99. I contacted the company 3 times and asked for a refund and to cancel my acount. I am still waiting for a refund! Very disreputable!

Review: I was offered a trial period for a $1.00 for four or five days. I proceeded and provided my credit card information. My account was charged a $1.00. I did two searches and had no intentions on signing up for their monthly service. I noticed on my [redacted] a charge of $29.99 on 7/3/2015. I contacted the company by email. I received a response today to call them. I called during my lunch hour. The woman told me she didn't understand what I just said about the trial period and my charge on my credit card. Then she proceeds to look at the billing date and tell me I couldn't get a refund. She couldn't explain how it happened and then couldn't do a refund. I told her I wanted to cancel the service. I asked once again about a refund. Then she says she might be able to forward it to someone who would give me a partial refund. I asked about an email confirmation the service was cancelled. I haven't received that either. The I have no resolution and definitely lack adequate answers.Desired Settlement: I would like the $29.99 refunded to my [redacted].

Business

Response:

Review: Made a (1) one time order for a personal background check on an individual, but was billed without my consent the sum of $ 22.95 for 10 monthsDesired Settlement: I have requested an immediate stop to these illegal charges and reserve the right to file a police report alleging theft.

Business

Response: