I want to thank everyone who responded to my initial inquiry. Many ask that
I summarize findings for the list so here goes.
Legally, it is not possible to secure background information on an
individual, other than what you can obtain through public records, which
would include such things as Social Security numbers, addresses and phone
numbers, professional licenses, assets, etc - those typically found through
traditional online services such as Lexis, WL, CDB and others.
However, the business of information is booming and if you want to find out
something bad enough and are willing to pay, you can most certainly find
someone who will do the work for you (i.e. information broker or pi). Most
of this "investigative" work does involve deceit and trickery. Most of the
time it is actually information obtained by a phone call, not an Internet
search.
There are many such services that advertise on the Internet and claim to be
able to find out such information as medical records, phone records, bank
account information and credit information, as well as much more.
The show that our client was thinking of actually did air. It was a 48
Hours show from September. The transcript is available on WL.
In sum, money, desire and a general disregard for legalities can go a long
ways. While some circumstances are most likely truly legit, it is
unfortunate that there are individuals who are willing to blatantly
abuse our laws and morals to pry into the private lives of individuals. It
is even scarier that there are people out there willing to go to any extreme
to obtain this information.
Keith S Knopf
Kegler Brown Hill & Ritter
Columbus, OH
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