Recently, the Wall Street Journal had an article about married couples who wound up having the same name. And this issue may become more common as names previously considered male or female become gender-neutral. For example, in November of 2022, movie star Taylor Lautner married Taylor Dome, who became Mrs. Taylor Lautner. While the article […]
Category Archives: Background Check Errors
A person’s surname can reveal a lot of information about them, particularly their ethnicity or ancestry—but it’s not always safe to assume that you know who someone is because of their last name. Plenty of folks get their name from marriage; others take the name of their adoptive family. Some people make up their name […]
You’re probably aware that many Italian surnames have a vowel as the final letter, but the number of them that end with an A, E, I, or O might surprise you. Of the top 100 Italian surnames, 96 fit that convention! Piras, de Angelis, de Santis, and Dal are the only four that do not […]
The story of German people in America is as old as the story of America itself. Most people know that immigrants from all over Europe flocked to the United States in the 1800s, but the German population here had some 200 years of American life under their belts by then. A few of the notable […]
Read part 1 by clicking here! From January 2020 to September 2021, CFPB received more than 700,000 consumer complaints about Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax—the national credit reporting agencies (NCRAs). But the number of successfully resolved complaints dropped to just 5%. Why? According to a recent report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), one reason […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is required to gather information relating to the credit reporting industry and submit an annual report to Congress about its findings. In years past, the CFPB included this information in another larger report. But the number of complaints against Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax—the national credit reporting agencies (NCRAs)—skyrocketed in […]
Read part 1 by clicking here! While the prevalence and impact of collection debts on credit reports are clear, what’s even more of a concern is how often mistakes are made. And this flawed reporting is having an impact on consumers’ lives. Currently, there are no accepted or enforceable standards for when or why debt […]
Last summer, Consumer Reports asked 5,858 volunteers to ask for their credit report and examine it for any errors. And more than one-third of them did indeed find at least one error on their credit report. And this wasn’t the only time Consumer Reports and others have found such damaging results. And those errors matter; […]
Perhaps you had gone to court and successfully had a prior arrest or conviction expunged from your record. Or perhaps you were eligible for an automatic expungement—as is the case for many New Yorkers convicted of misdemeanor charges for marijuana possession. You were thrilled you could apply for a new job or an apartment, knowing […]
In 2014, 38,313 men in the United States shared the name “James Smith.” It’s impossible to know if any of them were related to each other, or the 34,810 Michael Smiths and 34,269 Robert Smiths also walking around. But we can expect that they, and the 32,092 Maria Garcias and 30,507 Maria Rodriguezes, all have […]