Instant Checkmate is an instant background checker that says it can show you criminal records in a matter of seconds. This is different than some of the other services out there because it focuses primarily on criminal and sex offender records without getting into things like judgements and social activity. So is this service really useful?
Overview
Knowing if someone has a criminal record can be important if you are considering them as an employee, potential marriage material, potential babysitter, or any other reason why you wouldn’t want them in your life if it doesn’t come back clean. Just be sure to remember not to judge people too harshly for things that were done in the past because then you overlook the potential for people to change or start things over again fresh.
The Claim
Instant Checkmate claims that you can get with the push of a button you are effectively searching through billions of documents that are out there so you get a thorough search on the person you’re interested. They also say that their databases are kept current so even if something happened very recently, you’ll know about it. They say that the searches you perform remain anonymous, so you don’t have to worry about them finding out you’ve been checking them out.
In addition to any criminal records and mugshots someone might have, they claim that their service will also show you things as simple as a speeding ticket. The big stuff is of course covered, like felonies and misdemeanors. But they also get into other legal matters like lawsuits, tax liens, and judgements that have been placed against them. They will even give you the records for marriages and divorces.
There’s also a lot of other data they say might come up, which can help you compare notes to see if they are providing you with accurate information, like how old they are, and their address and phone number.
You can also get into some more stalker-style information, like how much they make per year, how much their home is worth, who their relatives and neighbors are, and how many properties they own. Keep in mind though that if a person doesn’t have these things, they won’t be included in the report.
They also say that they include a map of sex offenders in the area you search so you are getting a clear idea of where everyone is at. All of the information they provide is free to the public and available to anyone that asks for it, but this is a way to get it without having to sift through all of the data yourself, or find out which websites to go to to do the searches individually.
The Hype
There are a lot of different background checking services out there that have been popping up, as more and more companies figure out ways to aggregate the available data and bring it all into one place so you don’t have to. What they do is try to present their service in the best light to get the most number of people to use it instead of trying to do it on their own.
The Cost
For around $20 you can run an unlimited number of searches on Instant Checkmate for one month. They offer other plans as well, allowing you to bring the price down a bit by paying for more months upfront. And they also let you run a single report for $30.
The Commitment
This pretty much has to be considered a reduction in your commitment level, because trying to run a thorough criminal check on someone would take several hours and involve searches run on several different sites. By saving you a lot of time they are making it so you can get this done quickly and get on to other things.
Evaluation
Instant Checkmate provides a pretty extensive report, but you have to keep in mind that you are taking a chance here that they might not have too much to include in the report. But that is sort of the point. You want the search to come back clean so that you can hire them, or date them, or for whichever reason you’re running the check. It’s a way to put your mind at ease, and if something does come up you could potentially address the situation and move on rather than having it come up later on.
Final Instant Checkmate Review
You could add Instant Checkmate to your list of background services to consider. $20 for a month of unlimited searches is quite reasonable, and this would come in handy if you want to run a large number of searches. If the reports come back clean, you can proceed as planned, and if they come back with a host of information on them that you can’t come to grips with, you can give them a wide berth.
Our Recommendation
When it comes to a background checking service you only need one good one, and once you have that in place you can just use it again and again for all of your searching needs. But finding the one that best suits what you need it for can be a bit tricky. You could try this one out for a month and see if it’s living up to your expectations, and then continue looking for a better service if you find you don’t like it.
Official Website: Instant Checkmate
Checkmate sucks. They keep on lying and charging. I wonder if I can call the authorities on them or the police shutting them down cause I searched up my info and they said I was 58 instead of my real age. They put me tickets and charges I never had at all. They didn’t even get my Facebook account.
They are a bunch of scammers
Why users still make use of to read news papers when in this technological world everything is presented on net?
On our 20th anniversary, I got an email from him about how much he loved me and couldn’t wait to spend another 20 yrs with me. Attached somehow was an email from one of the women he was cheating with, pissed at him for cheating on her. It dawned on me at that moment that he was cheating on me with atleast 2 other women, I needed to find out the whole truth. I knew tracking and spying on his phone would go a long way in getting these answers. I started researching, and even bought about 3 of these apps online but none of them gave me what I wanted. Luckily, I saw someone recommending – I N C F I D E L I B U S at G M A I L.C O M, who was able to help me get into my husband’s phone (&even retrieved all his old &past messages/chats). I now have all the answers I need &enough evidence to confront him, all thanks to I N C F I D E L I B U S at G M A I L.C O M
A TOTAL FIASCO!
InstantCheckMate is just a big fraud. They will offer a $2.99 trial but they will charge the full prce of immediately a $34.95. Even you cancel your account they will keep charging you until you open a fraud claim by your credit card.
Their information is totally fake. They can’t even guesss the age of the person you are searching. They claim 57 years old for a person only 49 years old. The crimal background doesn’t show any offenses. They just indicate an offense occurred. Moreover they will force you to upgrade to Premium services for a better Report after paying $34.95 for the search. The premium report will not show either the offenses nor correct the age.
We wrote them that we were not satisfied at all from their services. They promised and clearly indicated that they have already credited $34.95 our account. They asked us to wait 5 business days for the credit to appear on our account. We contacted them to worn that we didn’t receive the credit after 11 days. They told us your already completed credit is NOW pending.
Reports.com supplies better information; moreover if you are not satisfied they immediately credit the fees to your account.
We will open a Freudian charge on our credit card. Moreover we will file a BBB claim against them.
They are just pain on the back. If you don’t want to get tricked by them, DON’T even bother with them.
I was planning to obtain the aggregated data from public record, and was willing to pay Instant Checkmate’s advertised price. When I started the process, he price increased, so I navigated away from their page. Their “sticky banner” popped up offering me a $1 trial for 5 days for unlimited reports. That was okay, so I clicked it and filled out the form. I ran one report that held a lot of bad information (someone else with the same name). Another banner said that to get accurate and deeper result (I’m paraphrasing because I doesn’t remember the exact wording), to click here. In all, I wound up with two bogus reports, 80% for the wrong people, and they tried to charge me over $50.00. When my credit card company sent me a message regarding fraud, I asserted that I did not authorize $19.99 and then $29.99 and another $2.99 – and they pended the charges. I called Instant Checkmate, and a rude lady told me to let her speak! I did, and she explained she would refund all 2/3 of the charges, and that I was mistaken in thinking I signed up for the $1 for 5 day trial. She interrupted me whenever I tried to talk, but I finally told her she was wrong. I signed up for $1.00, and that’s all I would pay. She kept telling me I was confused, and since they had to pay the state for the records (which was another false statement), they couldn’t refund the last $15 or $20 (whatever that amount was). I called her out, because they don’t have to pay for public information. After telling me I was confused and that I never signed up for the $1 trial, I explained I had retired from a law enforcement agency, and knew she was lying. After researching this site, BBB, and other boards – turns out many, many people go through what I did almost verbatim. Their website keeps changing the dynamic, and you end up getting charged exhorbitant amounts for nothing. The information they aggregate (for free) is terrible, and they try to keep a portion of your money when you catch on – giving you some back to calm your angst. I’ve been a programmer for almost 30 years, and will return to the PC I ran this on to capture their pages – meaning I can prove they manipulate their website through simple forensics. This info will go to friends at the FTC and to the BBB. Avoid this company unless you want garbage at a premium price.
Complete waste of time. I found more reliable info on my own. Charges were made to my credit card that they don’t make you aware of.
The fact that I cannot specify that I am a Junior or Senior or III is appalling.
Here you are, promoting your site to people to get the skinny on their friends. And they make the crucial mistake of not including that all important identifying detail. How many friends am I going to lose because I share a common name over this?
They didn’t find my social media. Google searches work better.
Do not give them your credit card number – they will never stop billing you! This site is a complete rip off with all the hallmarks of a scam. The information you get for the $27 fee is totally worthless, and everything beyond that is a series of additional fees. I suspect I could have paid well over $100 to get what they promised up front, but if the quality of the info I did get is any indication I would have just gotten more junk. When I called threatened to report this scam to my credit card company, they said “as an accommodation we will terminate your service and stop billing you,” when I said it again they said they would give a partial rebate, when I said it again they said they would rebate the last month’s charge. I bet I could have gotten them to rebate the whole thing.
If your using it for employment reasons. I think you should have that written on the application. If thats the case you really have no bussiness knowing all of theirs
Ya instant check mate is a rip off. It showed only one previous address then said all the other info not available. But some where along the way when i clicked into one thing then backed out. It brought me to the home screen not done looking i clicked back ti where it was. Thats when it happened. They charged me a second $26.82 charge. They got a nice email from me. I only asked for the one $26 charge back cause even though they didnt do anything i did knowingly by the first go around so i figured theres my almost 30$ lesson. Dont use the site its not worth a $1
I thought this might be handy to check when hiring a model.
WRONG!
For those (like me) that tried the ‘instant’ checking and found to my sorrow I should have checked reviews first.
Valarie, and others, if you used PayPal (possibly others) to pay you can log onto your account and cancel the autopay – I just did after reviewing my ‘extensive’ record check on my self.
Now I fully expect to also be the recipient of many many junk emails.
But that’s why I will be placing them on the blocked list!
Mac
Pretty much the same story. I paid. My first real search was on myself then my wife. Of the very little information they provided more than half was wrong and most was old or out of date. I called them and then sent them the PDF of my report with all the errors and omissions and let them know how bogus they really are. They actually refunded my $20 plus in 3 days. I was shocked at that!
I am running a new small businesses and need a service like this claims to be, and I am willing to pay a fair amount for good information. Anyone know of any? What do other companies, without huge Human Resources Departments use? Don’t waste your money here.
Instant checkmate is one big scam – used the service once and cancelled immediately because the only way to access information was to purchase a membership. Cancelled on June 2 in plenty of time to not be billed again. Was billed for July and August – when I called, the operator told me that we had 2 accounts and that the second one was in another family member’s name. Have cancelled that one and asked if any other accounts exist with any of my information. I was assured that everything was now cancelled. STAY AWAY – BIG SCAM – WILL BE REPORTED TO BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU IMMEDIATELY!!!!!
I have already paid up to August and I can’t access without another payment. What’s up
It’s very irritating when a company/business advertises that you can do a reverse look up of a phone number for FREE, and then wants you to “join” / purchase a membership BEFORE you even get to see the results!
Really? WTH is up with that?
RED FLAG…RED FLAG…RED FLAG!!!!
If a company/business starts off with a LIE, HOW in the world can you TRUST THEM? YOU CAN’T !!!!!
I wasted my time just trying out their “FREE” reverse phone look up , only to recieve NOTHING!
Checkmate is like all the rest of these places that advertise you can find out anything about anybody. What they don’t tell you up front – CHECKMATE IS NOT FREE!!!!. Also, you must provide CHECKMATE with a valid email to even browse. Checkmat then, leads you round and round in an endless circle claiming they are collecting the information you want. After about five minutes of this Checkmate hits you with the subscription fee. If you are not interested in paying and try leaving the site CHECKMATE hits you with popups “do you really want to leave this site.” About the only way out is “Ctrl/Alt/Delete which brings up the task manager in windows to end the session. In the meanwhile CHECKMATE has added your isp# to their data base and where you logged on from. Also, CHECKMATE for their records, using spyware, has tagged your browser. Example: If you are using I.E. CHECKMATE using your email and isp# plus email has added that information to their data base. What you end up doing for privacy sake is running something like malwarebytes afterwards to remove the spyware. In reality instead of receiving information CHECKMATE takes yours and then turns around and sells it without your consent.
Why would you enter your billing information to a site that is supposedly free? I would assume that once billing information is being requested then services are not free. . . I read reviews before signing up for services and everyone makes it seem as if it is a scheme or scam, after reading all of the terms and seeing the page lay out I have come to conclusion that people are idiots, you don’t read and you want to place the blame rather than assuming responsibility. I signed up, I did not get the information I was hoping for but I also knew that before I signed up just by reading the disclaimer, I called I cancelled and I was done. I bet you were the customer from hell and gave the poor representative a hard time. Shame on you and everyone else that lack accountability
I signed up after reading what would be provided in the “FREE” report. I clicked on the “UNLOCK MY REPORT” button entered my credit card information for the $22.88 report. I had to pay another $1.99 to get the report in pdf format. Then when I read it there was NOTHING in it that couldn’t be found by doing a simple “GOOGLE” search. If I wanted to get the “business associate’s” information or ANY other IMPORTANT information on the person I ran the search on I had to “UPGRADE” for another $19.99. I will say that after asking to speak to a supervisor and voicing my displeasure with the results I was refunded HALF of my fees ($11.44). It remains to be seen if they really refund anything.
DON’T USE THIS SERVICE FOR ANYTHING.
Clarence Saxon
CGSAXON@msn.com
I happen to search on instant checkmate’s site for someone, for fun. I closed the window when it came to pay… I wasn’t THAT interested.
I used a bogus email address that I use when I have doubts about a website. Within a day I was getting all sorts of spam emails which I’d never gotten before! There is no question in that they sell your email address! So if you want home equity, baby formula, warranty repairs, or to go pick up that check that’s “waiting” for you… then just give them your email address. You’ll get dozens of useless emails per week! SPAMMERS = BEWARE! (I do not know about the services that they provide.)
Instantcheckmate does not really give you anymore information than what you get from http://www.whitepages.com. They claim they can access billion of records which is untrue. I did not get any marriage license or criminal record. When the criminal record came up, they are not sure if it is the person I am looking for as they list people the name I was searching for. Then they hit you up with another $19.99 (after you pay $22 or $30) for premium data: Sexual Offenses, Criminal Convictions, Weapons Permit, Property Foreclosures, DUI Arrests, And Much More!
Lol, didn’t they charge me enough already and should have provided me with all the background they claimed they can get me? What did I really get for my money? Name, address, phone #, other people associated with, month and year born. I can all this information through the http://www.whitepages.com for free. The only thing they didn’t listed was the month of birth, but I got the the age.
Go, with the free 7 day trial background check. They basically are not any better, same information what the white pages can provide you.
Call me paranoid all you want, but I think in this day and age it pays to be more cautious than ever. I have the landscaper people coming to our home every week and I have no idea who those people are. My children are home all the time with their nanny and the last thing I want is to have them near criminals or child molesters. I’m getting all their names and checking them out now before I give them my business.