Often, on an employment application, you’re asked to list the addresses you’ve lived at over the past five to ten years. When a background check company looks at this information, they can verify whether or not you lived at those addresses. Accompanying this portion of an employment application is a space to list your name and any past names or aliases, as well as social security numbers. The combination of names and residences allows a background check company to easily look up information not only about where you lived but also your criminal history and driving records in each location if you lived there three to five years ago.
However, even if you don’t fill out an employment application, if a potential employer does a pre-employment background screening on a candidate, the background check company can look up all information about your past addresses based on a combination of your name, birth date, and social security number. Once these past addresses are brought up, a thorough background check will list anyone else who lived at the residence, be it roommates or relatives. In some cases for a very fine and detailed background investigation, these former roommates or relatives may be contacted and questioned about your character or habits.
Even if you’re not asked for the information on the application, the background check will bring up telephone numbers for these past addresses and dates of residence. As mentioned before, once all addresses, telephone numbers, names, and roommates are compiled together, making a fuller picture of a candidate is easier and also helps with checking for past criminal history if the job candidate lived at one of these addresses three to five years prior.
If you’re performing a self background check and then scan through all of this information once the background screening is over, you can spot identity theft. If a residence comes up on the background check that you never lived at previously, someone could have possibly used your name to get an apartment or, in extreme cases, purchase a home and a mortgage.