National Red Cross Battling Scammers

After 49 people were indicted in a scheme that bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars from a national Red Cross fund designated for Hurricane Katrina survivors, the local chapter is not worried about declining donations - yet.

Martha Griese, chief executive office of the Three Rivers Chapter in Yuba City, said Wednesday that donors might be angered by the discovery, but she hopes they will not stop giving to the cause.

“That's horrendous. It's going to make people leery of making donations, for sure,” she said. “It makes me mad, and that's what it's going to do to the donors and volunteers - make them mad.”

At least 14 suspects worked at a Red Cross call center in Bakersfield and are accused of helping family and friends file false claims for aid money. Six have pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges.

The fake claims netted at least $200,000 from the fund, with an average payout of about $1,000, Red Cross spokeswoman Devorah Goldburg said. The total could grow as the investigation continues.

Griese said that despite a background check on all volunteers, a “few bad apples” may pop up in an effort as large as the outpouring for Katrina victims.

“Just because you do a background check, unfortunately it's not ever going to show if someone is going to be dishonest,” she explained. “I think it's also important for the community to know, that when Katrina hit, it was the largest disaster this nation has ever faced, and we needed thousands upon thousands of people to help.”

Griese said because of the urgent need for volunteers, most were accepted on the belief that they just wanted to help, with minimal background checks. The local chapter did a “Megan's Law” background check and left it at that, Griese said.

“I know my attitude is the same as Red Cross; anyone who walks in here and says, ‘I want to do something to help,' I believe they're speaking from their heart,” she said. “If someone walks in and says, ‘I need help,' I also believe they're speaking from their heart. We are neutral - it's one of our guiding principals, whether you're a victim or a volunteer.”

The Bakersfield site is the largest of three Red Cross centers set up to handle hurricane calls. Others are in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Falls Church, Va. Operators provided qualifying victims with a personal ID number they then presented to receive aid funds from Western Union, authorities said.

The Red Cross contacted the FBI after it performed an audit of the call center and discovered an unusually high number of claims were being paid out at Western Union outlets in the Bakersfield area.

None of the indicted employees worked directly for the Red Cross.

The indicted workers were providing PINs to their friends and family who would then go to Western Union to collect the funds, an official said.

“Red Cross will stand behind this mistake, and if they need to own it, they'll own it,” Griese said. “And not only will they own it, but they will take the steps they need to take to do all they can to make sure it doesn't happen again.”

Since the organization began collecting donations for Katrina survivors, local dollars have totaled “well over the $400,000 mark,” Griese said. When she looked at records of businesses and individuals donating $1,000 and above, Sutter County had the highest number of donors, followed closely by Butte and Yuba counties.

“I'm really hoping this won't deter the generosity of this community,” Griese said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Background checks by companies spark worries

STAMFORD, Conn. – Jessica Smith thought she was a shoo-in for a cashier's job at an Office Depot in Minnesota last summer. The store manager was encouraging, saying he just needed to run a criminal background check.

But a week later, Smith received a rejection letter that cited a lengthy rap sheet, including drug convictions in Washington.

"I have no record," Smith, 19, said as she flipped through court documents. "They all say felony and guilty. I've never even been to Washington."

Smith, who fought for six weeks to clear her name before eventually landing the job, was a casualty of one of the latest trends in business hiring. Companies increasingly rely on pre-employment background checks to ease security concerns and protect against costly lawsuits.

"It's very important and it's getting more important," said Robert Belair, a privacy attorney in Washington, D.C., and editor of the Privacy and American Business newsletter. "The incidence of negligent hiring lawsuits is way up."

But the burgeoning field lacks consistent standards, causing errors that can disqualify reputable job applicants, some industry experts and consumer advocates say. When criminals slip through with clean records, the consequences are more severe.

Early this month, FedEx Corp. was accused in a lawsuit of hiring a sex offender who was later charged with molesting an 8-year-old boy while at work in Fairfield.

FedEx spokeswoman Sandra Munoz said the company's background check did not reveal a criminal history. The company conducts criminal background checks on all job candidates, she said.

"That person is either lying or Federal Express is wildly incompetent in how they do the background checks," said Neal Rogan, the boy's attorney.

But people with knowledge of the industry were not surprised by the charges.

"There are no standards for what is a background check," said Tal Moise, chief executive of Verified Person, a New-York based company that performs background checks. "This is an industry that has delivered historically a very low quality product."

A national task force funded by the Justice Department this month recommended national standards for screening companies.

"The nation's security, as well as on-the-job efficiency, and certainly civil liberties and privacy interests, all demand the development of a blueprint," the task force concluded.

Background screeners say companies must conduct thorough searches to determine whether applicants have criminal records. That means searching multiple counties and checking for addresses not listed on job applications.

In the FedEx case, the employee worked in Connecticut but had a criminal record in Maine, according to the family's lawsuit. The FBI's criminal database is generally not public, except for law enforcement and some organizations. State depositories are often sealed or prohibitively slow, so screeners send runners from courthouse to courthouse.

"It's very easy to miss it, even if it's done properly," said Mary Poquette, co-chairwoman of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners. "There is no way to be absolutely sure the person they're hiring does not have a criminal record or a pending case because the records are scattered throughout 3,142 counties."

A survey this year by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 68 percent of personnel officers said they always run criminal checks on applicants. Thirteen percent say they sometimes do.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a non-profit consumer rights group that handled Smith's case, says it regularly receives inquiries from applicants related to background checks.

"It is a simmering issue and has grown in the last several years," said Tena Friery, research director for the group.

Smith's background check was conducted by ChoicePoint Inc., which earlier disclosed this year that thieves had accessed its massive database of consumer information.

In another ChoicePoint case, a lawsuit is pending in Connecticut in which Randy Cruz says he was fired from Boston Market after a background check falsely turned up two felony convictions that actually were misdemeanors.

ChoicePoint declined to comment on Cruz's case but said it resolved Smith's case in about two weeks.

Companies of all sizes, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and US Airways Group, have been sued for negligence for not performing pre-employment background checks.

Massachusetts-based Trusted Health Resources filed for bankruptcy after it was ordered to pay $26.5 million in damages 1998 to the family of a quadriplegic murdered by his health aide. The company did not run a check on the worker, who had six felony convictions.

In the Wal-Mart case, Tarsha Perry's 12-year-old daughter was in the cosmetic aisle when an employee of the nation's largest retailer repeatedly fondled her, according to a lawsuit filed last year in a South Carolina court. The employee, Curtis Scott, was a registered sex offender, according to the suit.

Despite earlier allegations of assaults in its stores, Wal-Mart policies did not include background checks for most employees, the lawsuit said. The retailer began running backgrounds on all applicants last spring and now checks to see if employees are on sex offender lists, Wal-Mart spokesman Marty Heires said.

Perry is lobbying for a law requiring companies to perform background checks.

"I was floored," Perry said. "I would never have dreamed Wal-Mart had issues like this."

Beware of lying on your resume

BANGALORE: India Inc is now getting smart towards ‘resume’ frauds: job applicants who send in resumes with false information. Companies are increasingly hiring professionals to run background checks on job applicants.

Background checks are not entirely new to Indian companies. “But these were earlier viewed more as a formality but not as a stringent necessity,’’ says B.S. Murthy, Bangalore-based HR consultant. The process has now become tougher and organised following the entry of foreign competitors. Background checking now covers education, previous employment records, criminal verification, sexual harassment history, corruption and credit defaults.

As companies scale up, the screening has expanded to more sectors. IT and ITES sectors were among the first to adopt background screening. Now hospitality, healthcare, transport, education and FMCG sectors have followed suit. “In 2000 US financial services companies were our main customers. Now Indian BPOs, insurance and; oil and gas sectors also use our services,” says Yogesh Bhura, the managing director of First Advantage Quest Research, a leading employee-screening firm in Mumbai.

Earlier this year, Wipro chief Azim Premji made a starting revelation: a background check revealed that one per cent of Wipro’s workforce had submitted false documents at the time of interview.

Awareness is growing, as risks involved are huge, says Ajay Trehan, CEO, another screening company AuthBridge Research in Gurgaon. This has meant better procedures and quality of checks.

But lack of laws making screening mandatory and unavailability of online records in India makes background screening difficult, says Shehan Menezes, director, of Mumbai-based screening company BlackJag Consulting. “Recruiter’s look out for ‘red flags’ or false claims in resumes across all levels. This is done now more than before because decision-making responsibilities that affect a company’s future is delegated to people down the chain,” says Gautam Ghosh, Hyderabad-based HR consultant.

Resume fraud is seen across all levels in India, most people lie about educational qualifications. According to a BBC Risk Advisory Group 2004 study, a quarter of CVs they received had a lie. Most common lies pertain to previous employment, achievements and education. Costs of screening per employee ranges from Rs175-6,000, depending on the type of check undertaken. In India the primary focus is on education and work experience, while in the West it is criminal records and personality screening.

Council says ice-cream sellers must pass background checks

ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Ice cream vendors will soon have to pass criminal background checks to sell treats in Tucson, now that the City Council voted unanimously to require those checks.

By April 1, vendors will have to have pass a fingerprint and background check before being allowed to ply their trade.

The city currently has no restrictions on who can sell ice cream from vehicles.

Councilman Steve Leal asked the council to require fingerprints and criminal background checks to protect children from potentially being molested. Applicants would have to provide their fingerprints every year to the Tucson Police Department, which would conduct the check.

The license would be denied if the applicant had been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor sexual offense in the past five years. Also, if the applicant was ever convicted of an offense requiring registration as a sexual offender, the license would be denied.

A license valid for one year will cost vendors about $50, and they will also pay about $29 for the background check.

Yahoo Groups New Policy Update

Yahoo Groups New Policy Update

If you belong to any Yahoo Groups, this is important...

Yahoo is now using something called "Web Beacons" to track Yahoo Group users around the Net and see what you're doing and where you are going--similar to cookies. Yahoo is recording every website and every group you visit.

Take a look at their updated privacy statement:

http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy

About half-way down the page, in the section on cookies, you will see a link that says WEB BEACONS.

Click on the phrase WEB BEACONS. That will bring you to a paragraph entitled "Outside the Yahoo Network."

In this section you'll see a little "click here to opt out" link that will let you "opt-out" of their new method of snooping.

Once you have clicked that link, you are exempt.

Notice the "Success" message on the top of the next page. Be careful because on that page there is a "Cancel Opt-out" button that, if clicked, will undo the opt-out.

Bill targets abusive educators

School and day care employees would be required to self-report any felonies or certain misdemeanors under legislation introduced today to protect children from abusive educators.

Employees would face a two-year felony for not reporting a sex crime arrest to their employer and to the Department of Education and a one-year misdemeanor for other crimes. To ensure compliance, the teachers' criminal history would be checked monthly with a state police database.

Bill targets abusive educators - 06/14/05

State of Michigan: Child Molesters Can Be Teachers

We all know that the media spin issues to make headlines. Realizing that folks love gossip and drama, they fill newspapers, television, and radio with negativity and the public soaks it up like a thirsty sponge. Even though people know this, we buy the papers, listen to the news, and discuss the issues the next day.

With all this being said, I am surprised and delighted when I hear of the media using their influence for good. In April 2005, a Detroit News investigation found communication lapses between prosecutors, courts and the State of Michigan. This breakdown resulted in some teachers convicted of sexual misconduct remaining certified. To make matters worse, the state's officials learned about these offenders through the media. How embarassing!

IU trustees look at background checks

IU trustees look at background checks: "A proposal by the University Faculty Council would limit background checks for academic employees to those who handle university funds or work with “vulnerable populations.”

But some trustees argue that faculty should be scrutinized as closely as people the university hires to cook meals and sweep floors."

Why We Don't Want to Stop Zabasearch

Can We Stop Zabasearch -- and Similar Personal Information Search Engines?

Suppose there were a website that allowed you - at no charge -- to find out the following information for virtually any person in the United States: The addresses where he or she lived over the past ten years or so; what his or her phone numbers were (unlisted or not) over that same period; and what year he or she was born.

Who Needs to Conduct a Background Check?

While companies constitute the bulk of people who use the services of background checking specialists, others include:

• folks considering business dealings with another company or individual
• landlords screening tenants
• parents screening daycare providers and babysitters
• homeowners hiring landscapers/cleaning personnel/contractors (anyone with access to their homes)
• parents who want to check out Delaney's mom & dad before Friday's slumber party
• singles who want to make sure their partner is who he/she says they are

Just as there are those who think that these screenings aren't necessary, there are just as many who wish they had questioned the background of someone in their life. Criminals are good at lying and deceiving and the average Joe cannot even conceive what's in that criminal's mind. It only takes the restaurant valet a few minutes to make copies of your keys and the address on your vehicle's registration. The teenager who sits on Saturday night may have been convicted for a sexual crime but because he/she is a minor, the case was sealed. What's worse is there may not have been a conviction because of a plea agreement. A parent needs to know either way.

We tend to only consider our safety when crime happens to someone close to us. No one is suggesting paranoia because the likelihood of something bad happening is slim, yet everyone can agree that we need to be more aware and take nothing for granted. You're not being "nosy" or over-stepping your bounds. Protecting yourself and the ones you love is your right and your duty.

Due Diligence & Hiring Mistakes

One out of every three resumes has false information, with 10 percent of these being serious-enough misrepresentations to cause a prospective employer to pass on an applicant. About one in every twelve people lie about their academic degrees. If getting what they're bargaining for is not enough incentive for employers to check out prospective employees thoroughly, then the courts are providing additional motivation. Courts are finding companies negligent in cases where they have failed to perform due diligence on the employees the hired. They're not the only ones being held liable in court: Former employers who fail during a reference check to disclose vital information such as a terminated employee's history of violence are being sued as well.

As a result, most companies today are checking into the background of prospective employees. Some companies have in-house staff who do this work, using databases such as www.knowx.com, www.informus.com, www.advsearch.com, www.digidirt.com, and www.people-wise.com. Others retain a security consultant, private investigator, or a consultant who specializes in background checking. Either way, companies that do not perform due diligence are begging for trouble.

Why I Blog

The reason I blog about background checking is that there are very few people doing it. There are a number of blogs about closely related issues, but few about this specific industry. The ones that are out there are mostly operated by a company that does background checks in an attempt to drum up business (which I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing), and even if they have the best of intentions it’s hard to take the advice of someone who is paid money to write. Here’s an interesting post about this topic.

I’ve worked in the industry for several years and have found that there are a lot of misconceptions about background checking that are held by employers and “consumers,” or individuals on whom a background check is performed. There are also a lot of bad practices on the part of companies that actually do the background checking, and I hope to expose some of these practices and help employers and individuals make better informed decisions. I don’t have any grand notions about holding the industry accountable with this blog, but I do hope that generating more candid discussion on the Internet about the subject of background checking will save at least a few people from unnecessary stress and headaches.