Employment Screening Services now offers a search that will determine if your applicant is wanted on a felony charge or has an outstanding felony warrant issued by a local, state, or federal authority.   If your applicant is identified as one of the over one million persons in the United States currently wanted on felony charges, you will be notified with the following information:

   1. How your applicant’s identifiers were matched to the fugitive’s identifiers;
   2. The law enforcement agency originating the want or warrant;
   3. The nature of the charge.

If you wish to add the Wants and Warrant Search to your ESS Package, the cost is $13.  Please contact ESS if you would like us to customize your ESS Request Form to include the Wants and Warrants Search.

For over a decade, Employment Screening Services has worked with colleges and universities for purposes of enrollment and degree verifications.  We maintain a proprietary educational database that allows us to conduct verifications directly with the institutions in the most effective and timely manner possible.  We are finding that more and more educational institutions are deciding to outsource the verification function to third parties.  These third party services then charge Verifiers, such as Employment Screening Services, a fee for obtaining a verification.  The fees vary widely depending service.

ESS absorbs some of the added fee for obtaining a third party verification, but we cannot absorb the entire fee.   This is why, if you have asked ESS to perform degree verifications for very long, you have received a call from one of our Processors asking permission to charge an additional fee to complete a verification. Raising the cost for degree verifications across the board is not an option because the fees vary, and most schools still do not require Verifiers to go through a fee-based service.

One of the primary third-party verification services is a not-for-profit organization whose verification fee is reasonable.  ESS only has to charge clients an additional $2.50 to complete the degree or enrollment verification.  Because the fee is nominal, we believe a client needing a degree verification would prefer ESS to proceed with the verification, rather than stopping the process while waiting for specific authorization.

Unless you instruct us otherwise, ESS will automatically assess a third party verification fee that is $2.50 or less.  For amounts more than $2.50, we will continue to get authorization prior to the verification, unless you have standard instructions on file with ESS to automatically bill you for verifications fees. 

If you have any questions, please call us.

Understanding The Identification Report, Credit Report and Social Security Number Trace

The Identification (“ID”) Report and Social Security Number (“SSN”)  Trace provide valuable demographic information for conducting background checks on your job applicants.

The Identification Report is often requested in lieu of a full credit report.  Although ID Report information comes from a credit bureau, it does not include the financial data found on a credit report such as account balances, payment history, tax liens, judgments, collections, and bankruptcies.  (The Credit Report, however, includes everything in the ID Report.) Typically, the ID Report is chosen anytime the applicant’s financial record is not necessary or relevant for the position. Both an ID and Credit report are noted as “inquiries” in the applicant’s credit file. The format for the ID Report is:

     Bureau Accessed:
     Other Names Used:
     Addresses Listed:
     Employment Listed:
     Discrepancies:
     Comments:

The ID Report is initiated by submitting your applicant’s name, address and social security number to one of the major credit bureaus.  Since we are on-line with the bureaus we retrieve the data quickly.  This helps us in selecting the most appropriate location for the criminal history search.

Other names and social security numbers your applicant has used will generally show up on the report.  Names would include maiden name, previous married names and aliases.  This is important because often times records (criminal, education, profess-ional license, even employment) are found under a name different than the one submitted by your applicant.  Our searches are more thorough if we have all the names.  Addresses where the applicant has lived will also show up on the report.  Usually dates will accompany them.  We use these dates to determine how long the individual has lived at their current address.  If they have lived in that location for less than a year we typically conduct the criminal search in their  previous residence location.  The reason for this is that it’s very unlikely someone would be arrested, prosecuted and convicted in less than a year.  So it doesn’t make sense to search the records where they currently live.  If conviction information exists it is likely to be found in the individual’s previous location.

Employment information frequently appears on ID Reports.  When you apply for credit or a loan or make a major purchase typically you are asked to list your employment.  This information is then reported to the credit bureaus.

We compare the employers listed on the ID Report with those on the resume and employment application.  Occasionally, applicants will try to hide bad work experiences.  The ID Report is where we catch this and note it for you in the discrepancies or comments section. 

Keep in mind that just because an employer shows up on the ID Report and not on the resume or application, that doesn’t necessarily mean the applicant is trying to hide it.  It may be a part time job or that the employment is simply older than what is listed on the resume or application.

Conversely, not all employers on the resume or application will show up on the ID Report.  However, this should not be construed as negative.  It all depends on what is reported to the bureaus by their subscribers.

The Social Security Number Trace gathers much of the same type of information as the ID Report but from a different source.  The format for the SSN Trace is as follows:

     Bureau Accessed:
     Valid:
     State of Issue:
     Year of Issue:
     Employment Listed:
     Other Names Found:
     Applicant Addresses:
     Discrepancies:
     Comments:

The SSN Trace is initiated by submitting your applicant’s SSN to one of the major credit bureaus.  We use a different bureau than the one selected in the ID Report.  Different bureaus can have different information reported to them so we want to utilize more than one source.

The SSN Trace will indicate if the applicant’s number is valid and where and when it was issued.  This catches the common ploy of using a child’s number or that of a deceased person.

As with the ID Report, names, addresses, and employment information are obtained. In addition, the SSN Trace will list anyone else who has used the applicant’s social security number.

People who are trying to conceal a criminal background or severe financial difficulties will often try to confuse you by giving you a slightly altered name or an incorrect social security number. 

Multiple names, numbers or addresses on a SSN Trace or an ID Report can be a tip off that additional criminal searches should be conducted; especially if the criminal search is clear in the first location checked.

It should be noted, however, that having additional names appear on either the SSN Trace or ID Report is not necessarily suspicious.  Occasionally, a spouse’s name or other family members can be linked to the same credit file. 

In fact, even totally unrelated names can sometimes be linked.  This occurs when a credit bureau subscriber reports a social security number incorrectly.  If they happen to enter the number of your applicant by mistake (perhaps by inverting a digit or two), the recorded person’s name will appear in the file.  The way to distinguish a mistaken entry is by checking the addresses.  If there are no matches between the “other name(s)” addresses and the applicant’s addresses, chances are the other names are harmless entries.  If there are any matches, it is possible the applicant is using an alias and there may be cause for concern.

As you can see, the Identification Report and Social Security Number Trace provide valuable information about your applicant and are important components of the report packages ESS offers.

By now you are likely familiar with subsection 1681(b)(3) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which describes an employer’s adverse action obligations:

“In using a consumer report for employment purposes, before adverse action is taken based in whole or in part on the report, the person intending to take such adverse action shall provide to the consumer to whom the report relates: (A) a copy of the report; and (B) a description in writing of the rights of the consumer…”

Among other forms, our website already has a sample Adverse Action letter which adheres to the requirements set forth in the Federal Register  (Volume 62, No. 126), but some clients struggle with the communication to an applicant prior to the Adverse Action letter when a copy of the report and a summary of rights are provided. Now added to the Clients Only section of the Employment Screening Services website is a sample Pre-Adverse action letter. 

The FCRA and the Federal Register do not prescribe what information should be in a pre-adverse action communication, but a designated attorney for the Federal Trade Commission makes it clear that the consumer be given an  “ample opportunity to review the report and address any discrepancy.”  The law firm of Jackson, Lewis, Schnitzler & Krupman suggests an applicant/employee have a “short but reasonable time to provide information that would explain the discrepancy, omission or misrepresentation.”  Another law firm asked the FTC if five days was sufficient, and they responded by stating, “five days is not unreasonable.”

Therefore, the Pre-adverse Action letter  (or verbal communication if you choose) should encourage the employee/applicant to respond to any discrepancies as soon as possible.  Should the applicant contact Employment Screening Services to dispute any of the information in the consumer report, we immediately notify the client.

The law provides consumer-reporting agencies 30 days to re-investigate disputed information and report back to the consumer and the user of the report; however, we understand the importance of time, and typically complete the re-investigation is 1-3 days.

NOTICE:  This information is not to take the place of legal counsel.  Your legal department should review the Pre-adverse Action Letter (and all ESS forms) prior to use.

Criminal Search Court Fees:

There are 3,012 counties within the 50 states. Approximately 3% (82 counties) charge a fee, usually $5.00, to search the county's criminal record database of files. Since this is such a small percentage of counties, a court fee is not included in the price of your criminal history search. Rather than increase the standard price of a criminal search across the board, we pass the court fee to you when we encounter one of these counties. All clients are informed of the possibility of a court fee, but due to personnel changes, you may not have been aware of it. Also, court fees may change at any time without notice. The ESS website maintains an Additional Fee Schedule that is updated as soon as we are aware of changes. You can access this schedule in the Clients Only section of our website.

Motor Vehicle Fees:

Unlike the small percentage of county courts that charge fees, all state departments of motor vehicles charge a fee to obtain a driving history. Years ago, the fees were very similar from state to state, and we used an average fee to determine the price of our Motor Vehicle Reports. Recently, especially in the last year, state DMV's have been increasing their fees; however, other states have kept their fees low. Again, instead of raising the standard price of an MVR, when a state has made a significant increase, we pass part of the fee on to you. The Additional Fee Schedule in the ESS website also includes additional MVR fees for certain states. These fees change regularly so it is important that you check this listing on a regular basis.

To do so, just call Chris Redmond at
1-800-473-7778 X 103.