Trouble with criminal report

[Rachel Pivonka]

Hello! We are in the process of screening a tenant with mysmartmove.com. The criminal report came back with several charges and arrest, however the name on the report in most places had a different suffix than our applicant (Jr vs II). Our applicant was extremely surprised said their record was clean.  I called the company to see what was up and they said they only use the name to look up the criminal information and it is not tied to their social security number. They also said sometimes the wrong reports are pulled if there is someone with the same name and similar information. Has this happen to anyone else? This doesn't seem like a very good way to run a background check.

Does anyone use a company that does a more in depth background check and would make these mistakes less likely to happen? I am planning on having them another get another background check with a different company. I was skeptical at first but I think I believe the tenant but obviously need proof. Thanks!

[Thomas S.]

What was his credit score, you will usually find a correlation or simply find his score does not fit your criteria eliminating the need to confirm his criminal record. If he has a higher than average credit score (above 700) his criminal record may be clear.

Unfortunately the one person you can not trust to be truthful is the applicant.