A background company, HireRight Solutions, was ordered to pay $2.6 million in a settlement due to not verifying information in the criminal background checks they supplied. The company performs background checks on potential employees for thousands of employers nationwide.

The Justice Department filed a complaint on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission alleging that HireRight violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to verify the accuracy of the background checks, give consumers copies of the background checks or investigate disputes regarding incorrect information appearing on the background checks. More specifically, one of the practices the FTC alleged that the HireRight did was including expunged criminal offenses on background checks or reporting the same offense multiple times on the report. This caused some consumers’ criminal history to look more extensive than it actually was. As a result, many consumers were denied employment or benefits due to the inaccurate information. In this economy it is difficult to secure employment and having incorrect information appear on the background check makes it that much more difficult.

This settlement is the second largest settlement for the FTC for violations of the use of consumer information. The largest settlement was a $10 million settlement paid by ChoicePoint. ChoicePoint was accused of failing to secure personal information of more than 160,000 people.

Written by Record Clearing

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