According to a recent U.S. Labor Department report, 2.6 million people lost jobs in 2008, the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945, the year World War II ended. As if job seekers didn’t have enough to worry about while trying to find work in the worst job market in six decades, criminals have given them yet another problem to deal with: protecting personal information.

In today’s computer age, most job seekers look for work not by “pounding the pavement” but instead by posting resumes and entering personal information at job sites online. The importance of protecting personal information became more apparent to job seekers recently when Monster.com, the largest job search engine in the world, revealed criminals had attacked their database and stolen personal information such as user names, phone numbers, IDs, passwords, and email addresses. While the personal information taken from job seekers did not include social security numbers (which Monster.com doesn’t usually collect), it is obvious that criminals can and will access such personal information if it is available to them.

This is only the most recent case of criminals stealing personal information from Monster.com’s database, which contains over a million job postings and 150 million resumes from job seekers. Even more troubling, an anti-spam firm has warned in its 2009 threat forecast report that criminals will increase their focus on employment sites such as Monster, LinkedIn, and CareerBuilder during the economic downturn because the increased traffic will also increase personal information shared by job seekers.

Protecting personal information from criminals is a must for all people, but especially for job seekers entering sensitive personal information on multiple job sites online. The last thing job seekers need to deal with while looking for work is the theft of personal information. MyBackgroundCheck.com – a personal information management service and a member of the Pre-Employ.com Family of Companies – empowers job seekers to take control of their personal information. With a MyBackgroundCheck.com account, job seekers can view, manage, and protect personal information, check credit scores, and prevent criminal identity theft.  MyBackgroundCheck.com helps job seekers keep their personal information current, accurate, and secure.

Job seekers who wish to know more about protecting personal information may visit www.MyBackgroundCheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364. To create a MyBackgroundCheck.com account, please go to https://www.mybackgroundcheck.com/order/CreateApplicant.aspx.

Summer – and excited children heading off to summer camps for swimming, hiking, and boating – may be months away, but the hiring of camp staff and camp volunteers begins long before the temperatures start getting warmer. And while summer camp should be a time for fun, freedom, and frolicking, there are those criminals who would use this opportunity to prey upon the most innocent of victims in the most pleasant of surroundings.

According to the American Camp Association (ACA), more than 11 million children and adults attend approximately 12,000 camps throughout the United States every year. These camps use almost two million individuals as staff or volunteers to serve children, youth, and vulnerable adults – all potential victims of criminal activities. A recent ACA pilot program in which selected youth serving organizations had access to timely and inexpensive background checks on potential volunteers revealed some alarming criminal data.

Of the nearly 40,000 criminal background checks conducted on volunteers, 6.1% of all applicants were found to have criminal records that rendered them unfit to work with children. These criminal records included convictions of criminal sexual conduct with a child, aggravated criminal assault, rape, homicide, and other serious felonies. In addition, 40% of these individuals had a criminal record from other states – meaning that only a nationwide check would have uncovered that fact – and 26% of them showed a different name on their criminal record than the one they used to apply.

Protecting members from the unthinkable – and the criminals who commit those crimes – is the top priority of any organization, including non-profit and volunteer groups. Leading consumer background check provider MyBackgroundCheck.com – a member of the Pre-employ.com Family of Companies – is sponsoring a FREE webinar titled “Preventing the Unthinkable: An Integrated Approach to Protecting Campers and Staff” on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 from 1:00 PM to 1:40 PM PST to help camp owners keep their camps safe and protect their campers and volunteer staff from criminals. Campground decision makers and camp volunteers interested in joining the webinar may sign up at http://www.mybackgroundcheck.com/Business/Volunteer/Camp/.

Participants in this webinar will learn how to increase camper and camp volunteer staff safety by preventing exposure to sexual predators and other criminals, tracking camp job and volunteer applicants to see if they have ever been denied placement at camps before, and implementing a minimal-cost, comprehensive screening solution for camps on a local, regional, and national level.

How can criminals be prevented from being volunteers at camps? The answer is by using Mybackgroundcheck.com’s comprehensive Volunteer Tracking System (VTS), a unique volunteer screening program that tracks volunteer applicants within your organization for effective risk management at the local, regional, and national levels. VTS significantly reduces volunteer screening costs and protects volunteers, the community, and your organization.

To learn more about MyBackgroundCheck.com’s VTS, please visit www.volunteertracking.com or contact a VTS representative at 1-800-503-2364. To learn how to protect your camp or volunteer organization from criminals, or to sign up for the FREE webinar – “Preventing the Unthinkable: An Integrated Approach to Protecting Campers and Staff” – please visit http://www.mybackgroundcheck.com/Business/Volunteer/Camp/.

The new year is a time for New Year’s resolutions, and 2009 is no different. But along with losing weight, exercising daily, and being a better person in general, you should consider one more resolution: give yourself a personal background check.

Why? Because you should want to know everything – good and bad – that is contained in your personal information BEFORE anyone else does. And you can, by giving yourself a personal background check. A “background check” is a collection of information about you pulled from searches of your public records and used by organizations to verify your personal history and credibility. However, a “personal background check” is when individuals give themselves background checks.

With the growing trend in personal information control, more consumers are purchasing their own background checks to monitor their information, correct inaccuracies, and prevent identity theft and fraud. Whether you are looking for a new job, an apartment, or simply want to volunteer for charity work, providing your own background check to organizations helps speed up the application processes and protects your vital personal information.

MyBackgroundCheck.com – a member of the Pre-employ.com Family of Companies – was one of the first consumer-driven web-based background check services available and is now a leader of the growing trend in personal information control that provides personal background check services to consumers nationwide.

With a MyBackgroundCheck.com account, you’ll have the opportunity to see your reports before others do and invite them to view your background checks over our secure network. In addition, you can collect your work references and past-employment verifications to show employers and lenders while keeping your personal background check information current, secure, and accurate.

To learn how to take total control of your personal information, please visit www.MyBackgroundCheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364.

tahearn@mybackgroundcheck.com