With summer vacation almost here, some parents are busy making – or have already made – plans to send their children off to summer camps for days, weeks, even months. However, while summer camp should be a time for fun, freedom, and frolicking, volunteer screening helps keep it safe and secure.

Ensuring the safety and security of campers is a top priority for any summer camp. Since many popular organizations promoting summer camps are nonprofits – meaning that they must rely on the work of volunteers – a thorough and extensive volunteer screening program is necessary to protect the campers, fellow summer camp workers, and organizations.

According to the American Camp Association (ACA), more than 11 million children and adults attend approximately 12,000 camps throughout the United States, and these camps use almost two million individuals as staff or volunteers to serve children, youth, and those with special needs.

While the benefits of the summer camp experience are many – including the learning of responsibility, resourcefulness, and resilience – these lessons can only be taught in a safe and caring environment. To ensure that environment exists and is protected, many camps routinely perform volunteer screening of applicants to increase security and reduce risk and liability.

And while the chances of having Jason Voorhees from the “The Friday the 13th” horror movie series as a summer camp counselor are non-existent, it takes only one volunteer with a criminal past – and future criminal intentions – to turn a summer full of laughter into a memory full of sorrow.

To meet the specific requirements of non-profit organizations for volunteer screening, MyBackgroundCheck.com – a leading provider of volunteer screening for nonprofits such as the American Red Cross – has developed a unique and comprehensive Volunteer Tracking System (VTS). VTS tracks volunteer applicants within nonprofit organizations for effective risk management at the local, regional, and national levels, while significantly reducing volunteer screening costs and protecting volunteers, communities, and organizations.

VTS also allows a volunteer screening “donation” option in which the volunteer donates the cost required for the volunteer screening, allowing the money saved by the nonprofit organization to be used on the children instead. In return, the volunteer can use the screening reports for college entrance, rental applications, and job opportunities.

For more information about MyBackgroundCheck.com’s VTS, please visit www.volunteertracking.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or speak with a VTS representative at 1-800-503-2364.

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With schools closing their doors for summer vacation soon, millions of children across the nation will be released for three whole months, leaving many overwhelmed and under-helped parents scrambling to find safe and trustworthy nannies and babysitters to assist with childcare.

One way to find a reliable and experienced nanny or babysitter is with a background check. Nannies and babysitters who are truly interested in the job and who have nothing to hide will not only submit to a background check, but may even help pay for a portion of the cost (or even all of it).

A nanny or babysitter background check is completed by verifying or uncovering background details about the caregiver to be hired such as: true identity (and any aliases used), age, date of birth, address history, phone numbers, criminal records, educational background, driving records, alcohol or drug problems, and credit problems.

If this sounds like too much information to ask for, then welcome to the modern age of being a nanny or babysitter, where even Mary Poppins herself would most likely undergo a thorough background check.

Why?

Because stories of inexperienced and neglectful nannies, babysitters, and au pairs have filled newspapers, televisions, and computer screens lately, the most recent one involving the arrest of a “Manhattan Manny.”

According to a New York Daily News article, parents in some of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods are panicking after a 21-year-old male live-in nanny who supposedly worked for celebrities and high profile families that he met by word of mouth – and possibly without proper background checks – was charged with molesting four boys.

Known as the “Manhattan Manny” on his website, the suspect also had access to hundreds of other young boys in recent years at private schools and summer camps, both in New York and beyond, in addition to his nanny jobs with families, according to a prosecutor in the case.

This is just one more example why parents need to run extensive background checks on a nanny, babysitter, or any person that they will allow to live and work inside their home. So where can parents find a fast, accurate, and thorough background check at a reasonable price?

While most background check providers concentrate on large companies, MyBackgroundCheck.com was a pioneer in "personal" background checks for individuals and has screened more than one million people, including jobseekers, students, tenants, volunteers, and nannies and babysitters.

For more information on MyBackgroundCheck.com’s personal background check services for individuals, please visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364.

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tahearn@mybackgroundcheck.com

As if finding work in these tough economic times wasn’t already hard enough, this story from WHAS-TV Channel 11 in Louisville, KY tells us about a Kentucky jobseeker who is discovering first-hand how identity theft can turn the dream of landing a job into a nightmare.

Like most of us who have ever looked in a telephone book or visited social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, Michael Anderson realizes that he shares his name with many others in this country.

Unfortunately, according to the WHAS11 report, another Michael Anderson living in the United States also shares THIS Michael Anderson’s date of birth AND his social security number. Even worse – especially considering that most employers now routinely run criminal background checks on jobseekers before hiring – the OTHER Michael Anderson has an extensive criminal record that includes indecent behavior with a juvenile and assault.

How does THIS Michael Anderson know? Because every time a potential employer runs a criminal background check on him, the OTHER Michael Anderson’s criminal history shows up. As a result, no one will hire him.

At first, WHAS11 reported, Anderson couldn't understand the background check results. He would tell himself: “It wasn't me.” But when he took a closer look at the background check documents, Anderson realized it was him – his name, his birthday, his social security number, and – in the eyes of potential employers – his criminal past.

Where in many cases identity thieves steal information outright from someone they are not connected with, what makes Anderson’s identity theft case unusual is that the identity thief shares the same name and date of birth as the victim, according to the WHAS11 report.

While Anderson’s case is unusual, identity theft is not. According to Javelin Strategy & Research, identity fraud increased 22 percent in 2008, affecting nearly ten million Americans. Overall, approximately 1.8 million more adults fell victim to identity fraud in 2008 as compared to 2007, the first year-over-year increase since Javelin began collecting data in 2004.

Identity theft victims can file a police report and put out a fraud alert, but it's tough to recover from a serious case. On average, it can take victims like Anderson up to seven years – depending on the severity of the identity theft – to get their lives back in order.

Jobseekers suffering from lost employment opportunities due to mistakes and misunderstandings uncovered during background checks are becoming more common. MyBackgroundCheck.com – a pioneer in personal background checks for individuals – helps jobseekers gain the protection they need against identity theft by allowing them total access to their own personal information. With an account from MyBackgroundCheck.com, jobseekers can make sure no errors or inaccuracies exist in their background checks and find out if they have been victimized by identity theft.

For more information on how jobseekers can protect themselves from identity theft through personal background checks, please visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364.

(UPDATE: Soon after posting this story, I was contacted by Linda Foley, Founder of the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), a nonprofit, nationally respected organization dedicated exclusively to the understanding and prevention of identity theft. She would like Michael Anderson – and other victims of identity theft – to know that they can find help, support, and no-cost victim assistance at the ITRC website located at www.idtheftcenter.org or by calling toll-free 1-888-400-5530.)

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tahearn@mybackgroundcheck.com

Parents will usually do just about anything to protect their children. They try to provide them with the best nourishment, take care of them when they are sick, and give them lots of unconditional love. Parents also try to do everything in their power to prevent complications so children can have the best chance to grow up healthy and happy.

However, parents now must face a growing problem that could harm the financial futures of their children: Child Identity Theft.

A recent article by one of America’s leading identity theft experts, John Sileo, warns parents to be on the lookout for child identity theft. Keeping an eye on your child's credit now can save them from a tremendous amount of financial heartache in the future from identity theft and fraud.

Child identity theft can cause a lifetime of headaches. Even though their children may not be in high school yet – or even have all of their teeth – parents should remain vigilant against child identity theft and check their child's credit score for fraudulent activity.

Parents who think they have many years before they need to worry about protecting their children from identity theft are sadly mistaken. Children are highly attractive identity theft targets because they have untouched and unblemished credit records. Identity thieves steal a child’s identity early, nurture it until they have a solid credit score, and then abuse and discard it.

According to Sileo, child identity theft is the fastest growing type of the identity theft. Although it’s difficult to estimate exactly how many children lose their identities – since the crime can go undetected for years – the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that 5 percent of identity theft cases target children, which translates into approximately 500,000 "kidnapped" child identities each year. Even more troubling, the Identity Theft Resource Center discovered that in over half (54 percent) of the cases, the child was under the age of six.

So how does child identity theft happen?

All an identity thief needs to ruin a bright financial future for children is their name and Social Security Number (SSN), and these pieces of personal information are exposed in a variety of ways:

• When registering for daycare, schools, and recreational sports.
• When filling out medical, dental, and hospital records.
• When joining organizations like the Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts.
• When the child's information is permanently stored and accessed by volunteers or employees.
• When one of the organizations storing the child's information is breached by a hacker or malicious software.
• When an adult becomes a "friend" to a child on a social networking site like MySpace or Facebook and tricks the child into disclosing personal information.

While the child’s age should show up on any credit background check, the majority of people screening the credit report rarely give it the time and care necessary to detect fraud and simply match the name and the SSN provided. Identity thieves are then free to wreak havoc on a child’s perfect credit, leaving a maxed out credit card, unpaid bills, and possibly even a criminal record.

Even worse, the age of the “applicant” – i.e. the identity thief posing as a child – becomes official with the credit bureaus upon the first credit application. This makes clearing a sabotaged credit record even more difficult because parents have to prove to the credit bureau that their child is not old enough to have a credit card and isn’t responsible for the accumulated debt.

Unfortunately, both parent and child might not discover the identity theft until the child is older and tries to open a bank account, apply for a job, get a driver’s license, or enter college. At that point, the grown child could spend years cleaning up someone else’s fraudulent mess.

Parents acting now on behalf of their children will protect them from the consequences of child identity theft:

• Starting adulthood with a low credit rating.
• Being denied a first loan, credit card, or apartment rental because of a crime committed many years earlier (the passage of time makes this crime very hard to clear up).
• Being denied access to college or a new job.
• Having a warrant out for an arrest for crimes that they didn’t commit.

For parents, cleaning up the disaster of child identity theft for their children is costly and time consuming. Just as parents can’t protect their children from every bruise and scrape, nothing can entirely remove the risk of identity theft. However, taking steps right now to protect children from child identity theft is a one of the best investments parents will make in their children's financial future.

Parents can take control of their children’s sensitive information – and their own as well – by giving themselves and their children a personal background check. While most background check companies focus exclusively on employers and large corporations, MyBackgroundCheck.com is a leading provider of consumer background checks and has performed over one million background checks on individuals worldwide. For more information, please visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364.

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tahearn@mybackgroundcheck.com

If you are one of the estimated 14 million "officially" unemployed people in the U. S., you probably have tried just about everything to find work. Resume polishing, job fairs, interview tips, and an impressive new suit or dress can help, but in the end all of those efforts – and expenditures – will not matter if you cannot pass a background check.

Times are indeed tough for jobseekers. According to recent Labor Department reports, unemployment rates have reached their highest figures in a quarter of a century with approximately 5.7 million jobs having been lost since the recession began in December 2007. Even worse, some experts say that the job market – especially with the recent layoffs in the auto industry – may get worse before it gets better.

With a growing number of jobseekers competing in a rapidly expanding pool of qualified competitors, employers can – and most surely will – be very selective when it comes to pre-employment screening. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports that more than 85% of large companies and a rapidly growing number of smaller employers currently perform some form of background checks.

From entry level to the executive suite, the majority of jobs these days require a background check, so most of the 14 million people currently looking for work will likely undergo one. What exactly is in a background check? It depends on the job or the industry, but most basic background checks include:

• Social Security Number (SSN) Address Trace
• Criminal Record Search
• Sex Offender Registry Search
• Employment & Education Verification
• Professional License Verification (if applicable)

Jobseekers should be ready for their background checks before actually undergoing the process. A job offer can be taken away because of a failed background check, even if the reason for that failure was false, erroneous, or inaccurate information uncovered during the background check. Many jobseekers have had this happen to them, many never knowing what was uncovered or even having the opportunity to explain.

There are several types of errors made during background checks, but the five most common mistakes are:

• Mistaken Identity
• Wrong Social Security Number (SSN)
• Identity Theft & Fraud
• Incomplete or Missing Information
• Illegal Information

To ensure that their background check will be based on the most current and accurate data, jobseekers need to know first-hand what is included in their personal information and if it contains mistakes. To do this, they must first perform a “personal” background check on themselves to see if their data contains errors, inaccuracies, discrepancies, or incomplete/missing information.

While background checks performed by employers on prospective employees is standard procedure, jobseekers requesting background checks on themselves to better their chances of getting hired is a recent trend. These “personal checks” provide employers with validation of resume contents, ensures that public records are accurate, and helps individual jobseekers stand out from the growing pack of applicants.

While most background check companies focus exclusively on employers, MyBackgroundCheck.com was one of the first consumer background check services available online and has performed over one million background checks on individuals – including jobseekers – worldwide. For more information, visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364.

Download FREE Article "Is Your Background Check Costing You A Job? The Five Most Common Mistakes & How To Correct Them" (.PDF File)

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