There was a time that discreet records about you and your family was limited to law enforcement, investigators, & members of the government.
Now a new website—Instant Checkmate (a play on words, meaning “check your mate”)—is revealing the full “scoop” on millions of Americans by making millions of records available to anyone, and its not just generic information either.
Instant Checkmate aggregates hundreds of millions of criminal, traffic, and arrest records and posts them online so they can easily be searched by anyone. Not only does the website post arrest records, but it also provides information on what assets a person might own (boats, houses, etc.), relatives, phone numbers, previous addresses, marriage and divorce records and even things like security guard licenses.
Members of the site can literally begin searching within seconds, and are able to check as many records as they like (think: friends, family, neighbors, boyfriends and girlfriends, etc. etc.).
In the past, if you wanted to research someone’s arrest records, you might have had to actually go in to a county court office—in the appropriate county—and formally request information on an individual. This process may have taken days or weeks, or the information might not have been available at all. With websites like Instant Checkmate, however, a background check takes just a few clicks of the mouse, and no more than a couple of minutes. An added benefit is that the website is able to scan records from across the country; meaning you don’t have to know the exact location of a person or specific record.
One of the most interesting aspects of Instant Checkmate is that it shows not only criminal records, but also more general background information like marriage records, divorce records, various types of licenses (medical, firearm, aviation, etc.), previous addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, assets and even satellite imagery of known addresses—it’s really pretty scary just how much information is in the public record and available in these reports.
In addition to giving information on the specific person you search for, the report also includes a scrolling list of “local sex offenders” for whatever region you’ve searched—along with a map plotting out the locations of those offenders. I started perusing the ones that showed up in my report, and I was absolutely blown away when I stumbled upon my junior high school wrestling coach’s mug shot. His crime was listed as “Out of state offense,” so I wasn’t able to get the specifics (you usually can—this was an unusual case), but he was definitely a registered sex offender. Scary stuff.
Anyone can start running background checks on Instant Checkmate within a few seconds—just click this link to get started.
If you would like to search someone you know, click here.
