CheckThem.com is one of the numerous people-search sites to look out for, posting millions of records online for a profit. If you want to protect your privacy and ward off cybercrimes, stick around as the OneRep team gives you highlights on CheckThem and helps you complete the opt-out process step-by-step.
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Data broker websites are on the market to sell personal information. While some people benefit from using them to reconnect with long-lost friends, check for a date’s criminal record, or run a reverse phone search, most people are only affected negatively by being listed on these sites.
What’s the danger? As we’ll cover in-depth in this article, data brokers exploit your data and potentially expose you to reputational harm, identity-related crime, as well as make you an easy target for anyone who’s looking to utilize your personal information for malicious purposes, compromise your online privacy, or even endanger your life. And that’s where an opt-out submission can come in handy. Thankfully, data broker sites are legally required to honor users’ opt-out requests.
But they aren’t required to make opt-out easy — in fact, most make the process as complicated or tedious as possible to stop you from taking your data off of their site. But don’t worry, there is a way to put an end to the exposure of your phone numbers, social media profiles, address history, court records, and more.
CheckThem Quick Links
Before we dig in, here are some quick links to important CheckThem.com pages. If you need to navigate to any of these pages while reading, just scroll up and locate them here.
What is CheckThem.com
Let’s start with the basics. CheckThem is a for-profit background check service founded in 2016 and headquartered in San Diego, California, staffing around 50 people. The company identifies itself as a “provider of a comprehensive background check” and claims to provide its users with fast, easy-to-use, and anonymous search results. CheckThem also markets itself as a way to find people, look up phone numbers, search property listings, and find criminal records.
While the company doesn’t disclose exactly how many records it has, the number should be pretty big since their algorithm searches billions of public records on the county, state, and federal levels. While it’s clear that they’re selling your data, they also provide reverse phone lookup, property search, and a deep web scan of your email address to reveal whether it has been compromised or hacked.
To that end, they claim to have delivered over 31 million successful reports to its users — but keep in mind that this service, and others with similar claims, are essentially posting your information online for money without your consent.
How CheckThem Works
Like other people-search sites, CheckThem compiles publicly available information into a digital report. Users find these reports by searching for someone’s full name and selecting a certain state. The site delivers the most relevant results, but it won’t show you all information unless you give them money.
In other words, CheckThem locks otherwise free public information behind a paywall, meaning if your information is listed on their website, anyone could quickly and cheaply get a report on you full of your sensitive details, including your address, occupation, property records, employment history, marriage details, and so much more.
What Information Does a CheckThem Opt Out Remove?
After opting out of CheckThem.com, your listing will be taken off of the website. That means a ton of personal data removed. In addition to your contact info, family ties and a whole bunch of other private details we mentioned above, the list also includes nationwide records such as police arrests, lawsuits, bankruptcies, and criminal history.
Keep in mind, the original sources used to create reports on CheckThem.com will still exist. Unfortunately, chances are high that CheckThem or other data brokers will use them again to update their databases and repost your information in a while. You can avoid that by periodically googling your name to check if your information has been relisted. Or else, you can entrust OneRep with this task and our service will automatically delete your information and monitor the 191 websites on our removal list for you.
Manual opt-out and monitoring people-search sites doesn't seem like a good idea?
OneRep will get rid of your unauthorized listings on CheckThem and 190 other data brokers automatically. For good.
Why Bother Opting Out of CheckThem.com?
Just because having your information published online is the “norm” doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous. Make no mistake: websites like CheckThem.com subject you to online and offline threats.
Chief among them is identity theft, one of the most dangerous cybercrimes that’s growing every year. According to Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book, the FTC received 4.8 million identity theft and fraud reports in 2020 — which is up 45% from 3.3 million in 2019.
Other threats include (cyber)stalking, online harassment, and fraud, as well as scams, doxxing, and swatting.
Is Opting Out of CheckThem Only Enough?
Removing yourself from CheckThem isn’t a complete solution — but it can help you avoid cybercrimes by reducing access to your personal details. No one wants to be an easy target for criminal activity, so you should always opt-out of data brokers when possible.
However, opting out of a couple of sites won’t cut it. To be effective, you need to remove your information from every data broker that exposes it. After all, according to OneRep’s statistics, an average person is found on 46 people-search sites.
Heavy hitters include Whitepages, MyLife, BeenVerified, Intelius, Truthfinder, and many others. Just like CheckThem, these sites obtain databases and display your personal records but do it on a much larger scale attracting millions of visitors monthly.
Not enough time to manually go over all the sites that expose your information?
OneRep will automatically remove you from CheckThem and 190 other people-search websites.
Complete CheckThem Opt-Out Guide
If you want to opt out of CheckThem.com manually, we’ve created the step-by-step guide below to take you through the process. Don’t forget to come back a few days later to make sure your request has been satisfied.
Check out more instructions on how to remove your information from 191 search websites here.
OPT-OUT REQUIREMENTS AT-A-GLANCE
- Opt-out timeframe: 48 hours
- Request should take: 15 minutes
- Require an email address? Yes
- Require CAPTCHA? Yes
- Require phone number? No
- Require a copy of ID? No
- Online or mailed request? Online
- Overall difficulty: Standard
Step 1 – Open Opt-Out Page
Let’s get down to removing your personal information from CheckThem’s database. First, navigate to the opt-out page. If you’re having trouble finding it, just click the previous link or look in the footer of the homepage under REMOVE MY INFO.
Step 2 – Fill in Information
Enter your first name, last name, and city, and select the right state. After that, click the green “Search now” button.
Step 3 – Click on Your Profile
Locate your listing and click the green “Choose” button when you find the right one. In case you have a common name, take a closer look at the options to narrow down the relevant record.
Step 4 – Fill Out the First Form
Enter a valid email address, complete the security questions, and finish the CAPTCHA. Next, click the “Send Verification Email” button.
Step 5 – Verify Your Email
Remember when we said data brokers don’t like to make it easy? Well, you’re not done yet. Now, open your email, find CheckThem’s message, and click the verification link to complete the opt-out process.
You did it — your opt-out request has now been submitted. You should see a screen that reads: “Successfully opted out. Please allow 24 hours for the cache to update.” We recommend you to check with CheckThem.com within this timeframe.
Alternatively, you can submit your opt-out request by calling CheckThem at (800) 410-3722 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m PST Monday – Friday. Or, send them an email at support@checkthem.com, including the following information: full name, age (as it appeared on site), city and state (most recent listed on site), and a link or screenshot of your listing.
Finally, note that it can take 2-3 business days for CheckThem’s staff to process your request. Also, they say they’ll only remove profiles that pertain to you, so you can’t remove relatives, friends, or other individuals.
CheckThem Reviews: It's Not Legit
You probably guess it, but CheckThem isn’t exactly the upstanding business it presents itself as. While its service seems to be pretty intuitive and straightforward, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has registered a growing number of user complaints about CheckThem.
In fact, over the last three years, the service got 83 complaints total, 25 of those were closed in the last 12 months. The majority of complaints are related to problems with the product, sales, and advertising. Here are a few patterns we saw in their complaints:
- Non-responsive to opt-out requests.
- Deceptive trial period and recurring charges.
- Relisted profiles after removing them from the database.
That’s right. They allegedly ignore some opt-out requests, trick users into more charges, and relist removed information. If that didn’t do it for you, here are some testimonials from dissatisfied customers:
- “I have attempted to remove my information using the opt-out form without any luck…”
- “I ordered a background on myself for the stated price of $2.99. I have now been charged $2.99 and an additional fee of $4.99. I immediately canceled my credit card and an unwanted subscription service with this company. This business uses deceptive business practices to steal money from customers.”
- “An attempt to contact customer service was unsuccessful. The message said “We’re sorry, no agents are currently available to assist you” then hung up. The service provided was overwhelmingly incomplete and inaccurate.”
- “I reject this because CheckThem is attempting to pretend that they didn’t republish my information in another state AFTER it was removed from their site as requested. I did verify that they did remove it entirely (in all states that I have lived in) and then after they sent that confirmation, they republished it.”
CheckThem.com & the California Consumer Privacy Act
According to CheckThem.com, California Civil Code Section § 1798.83 permits users of their website who are California residents to request certain information regarding their disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. For more information regarding the CCPA Act and CheckThem compliance, California residents can contact CheckThem.com via email at support@checkthem.com.
Does CheckThem Disclose User Data?
CheckThem.com is a U.S. based data broker and as such is compelled to obey U.S. laws. In terms of user privacy, it means that they may disclose your information to government authorities and other third parties as required by law, if they receive court orders or subpoenas. Should this happen, they may attempt to notify you of such disclosure but only if they are permitted to do so by law.
FAQ about CheckThem.com
It should come as no surprise that the CheckThem.com business model leaves more questions than answers. That said, our team still tried to get to the bottom of some of the Internet’s biggest questions about CheckThem.com.
Is CheckThem.com legit?
This is a tricky one. Technically, CheckThem is a legal and legitimate business. However, if you’re concerned about your privacy and want to protect yourself, it is crucial to opt out of CheckThem.com and other similar sites as soon as possible — since they ultimately profit off of selling your information.
How Do I Contact CheckThem.com?
You may reach out to CheckThem at (800) 410-3722 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m PST Monday – Friday. Alternatively, you may send an email to its customer service team at support@checkthem.com.
Where are CheckThem’s Headquarters?
CheckThem operates in California, with headquarters located at 861 6th Ave, Ste 310, San Diego, California, 92101, US.
How Long Does it Take to Have My Information Removed from CheckThem.com?
CheckThem claims to process opt-out requests within 48 hours after the submission. Make sure to click the link in the verification email to confirm your request. This action is essential to kickstart the removal process.
Do I Need to Provide my Email Address to Opt-Out?
Unfortunately, yes. CheckThem requires an email address to send you a verification link and confirm your opt-out request. The email is solely used to complete the opt-out process and is not going to be shared or disclosed on the website. If you want to be extra cautious, create a separate email address that doesn’t disclose your personal information.
Can I Remove Multiple Records Listed in My Name?
Yes, but you’ll need to submit separate removal requests for each listing. Also, remember that CheckThem doesn’t accept third-party opt-out requests unless they’re paired with a notarized document.
OPT-OUT REQUIREMENTS AT-A-GLANCE
- Opt-out timeframe: 48 hours
- Request should take: 15 minutes
- Require an email address? Yes
- Require CAPTCHA? Yes
- Require phone number? No
- Require a copy of ID? No
- Online or mailed request? Online
- Overall difficulty: Standard
