Fast people search.com

[Mark Daily]

www.fastpeoplesearch.com

I recently ran across this website and was amazed how much information they compile for free. I messed around with it for awhile and discovered some of the information is out of date (like phone numbers) or erroneous (it says both of my parents are still alive- they aren’t).

So I’m curious to know how accurate it is. Your mission, while you’re home with nothing to do, is check out yourself or people you know and report back here with your findings.

Thank you!

[Lee DeRaud]

I messed around with it for awhile and discovered some of the information is out of date (like phone numbers) or erroneous (it says both of my parents are still alive- they aren’t).

I've found that true of all of them. The public databases they work from are pretty good about adding information, and suck heinously at deleting information.

They also tend to make inferences of the form "person A lived at address X and married person B, therefore person B lived at address X", which results in things like me getting junk mail addressed not only to my ex-wife (divorced since 1986), but also her current husband. If I look myself up, it typically shows their first home as one of my "prior addresses".

[Dave Anderson NH]

I did a check and they had lots of wrong information. Listed 1 wrong address, 3 wrong phone numbers, a couple of wrong dates, and at least 20 people who I've never heard of let alone be related to in any way.

[Jim Becker]

All these sites are are complications of public records information that may or may not be accurate and virtually all of them are working to sell you more advanced services.

[Ron Selzer]

lot of mistakes, show me married to my last ex, etc.etc

[glenn bradley]

Think about the business model. As Jim points out, they just want to show you enough to get you to buy their product. This is not evil, it is good business. I imagine once you buy in they get the added advantage of having you vet their erroneous data for them.

[Bill Dufour]

I just put in my name and california. The first 10 or so were the same name but not in california before i was listed/ So pretty ghar dto limit the search for a common name.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I put in my name. It identified a couple others with my name none of whom were in my current home state or previous home states and had totally different middle names. I agree, it's just a compilation of names from public records probably there to entice your financial involvement.

[John Goodin]

My wife googled her son’s name once and clicked on one of these sites. Ever since then she has wondered if he was arrested since it said “may have criminal or court records.”

[Mark Daily]

My wife googled her son’s name once and clicked on one of these sites. Ever since then she has wondered if he was arrested since it said “may have criminal or court records.”

John- It’s not unusual to see that notation. There is no central online database of criminal records that is accessible by anybody but law enforcement. NCIC is the national database used by law enforcement.

Some courts across the country put that information online but it is a “local” database meaning you would have to query that specific location.
For example, in Arizona most counties put criminal arrests online but you would have to go to each county’s website and run a search.


In your wife’s case she would need to have some idea where her son might have been arrested and query that county for felony arrests.

[Mark Daily]

Thanks everybody. Obviously these free searches really aren’t worth the time spent to use them. I doubt that the paid product would be any better.

[John Goodin]

John- It’s not unusual to see that notation. There is no central online database of criminal records that is accessible by anybody but law enforcement. NCIC is the national database used by law enforcement.

Some courts across the country put that information online but it is a “local” database meaning you would have to query that specific location.
For example, in Arizona most counties put criminal arrests online but you would have to go to each county’s website and run a search.


In your wife’s case she would need to have some idea where her son might have been arrested and query that county for felony arrests.

If he was arrested it wasn't a felony but more likely involving alcohol or alcohol related stupidity in college. He is 31 now and a fine, young man. Actually, he always had his head screwed on right.

[Rick Potter]

OK, I typed in the name of a former girl friend from 1960, and it tells me she is a he. Who knew?

[Jim Becker]

The one thing that I actually have found some of these "free" services useful for is having multiple sources to attempt finding a name, etc., for my Ancestry.com research on things like former spouses of family members that are not showing up in the normal tools. IE...just some additional pot-shots that sometimes glean a minor detail. But otherwise, these are absolutely come-ons for selling more advanced "search" services.

[Mark Daily]

The one thing that I actually have found some of these "free" services useful for is having multiple sources to attempt finding a name, etc., for my Ancestry.com research on things like former spouses of family members that are not showing up in the normal tools. IE...just some additional pot-shots that sometimes glean a minor detail. But otherwise, these are absolutely come-ons for selling more advanced "search" services.

Very true!