Who is calling my references?

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Hello. I began applying for jobs a week before I had my baby. My baby is a month old now and yesterday I had my first interview with a local hospital. This morning I had a phone interview with an insurance company. Within the last 20 minutes, my phone has been off the hook. Many of my old co-workers and nurse friends were texting and calling, "Some background checking company called me about you today." They were aware I used them as references, because of course I asked their permission before doing this. So they were all like, "So which job is this?" I have no idea! I applied to several jobs who asked for references on their application. The job has obviously used an outside company to call these references. I have never had this experience before. I have only known the company to call references, not a "background check" company. Is anyone else familiar with this?:confused:

Specializes in Mental Health, Medical Research, Periop.
I got a call from my bank one day, asking if I'd authorized charges for 2 tickets to Abu Dhabi.... I had blocked international charges on my debit card, so they caught it... but I had to go through the identity theft crap. I have no idea how my info was obtained, unless it was a random card screening, and my numbers clicked as valid. My card was never charged (thanks to the bank). Never found out who it was....these crooks are clever. There's a PayPal fake that sends e-mails to update accounts- those are always fake per the real PayPal, who never solicits information.

:eek:

You know with your information floating around in "technology world" there is no way to tell who can get a hold of your information. This world wide web is great but ultimately it can be damaging, especially when it comes to identity. You can see a persons home on Google maps, even find someone past addresses and current addresses. I was once looking for my deceased mom news article from her 1989 car accident on the web, and guess what I found? HER SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!!!! It had her full name, birthdate, our old address, and yes her SSN! CRAZY!!!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Okay, I feel so behind in the times. It still seems odd that a company would pay another company to do this. Thank you for this information, I did not know that this was a common practice.

It's called outsourcing.......It's cheaper to outsource a company overseas with extremely low overhead and next to slave labor.....than hire more manpower in the HR office at a US salary and benefits. The new work force today.....:down:

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You know with your information floating around in "technology world" there is no way to tell who can get a hold of your information. This world wide web is great but ultimately it can be damaging, especially when it comes to identity. You can see a persons home on Google maps, even find someone past addresses and current addresses. I was once looking for my deceased mom news article from her 1989 car accident on the web, and guess what I found? HER SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!!!! It had her full name, birthdate, our old address, and yes her SSN! CRAZY!!!

Yeah- for 10-40 bucks (depending on how much info you want) you can buy anybody's background info.... :eek:

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I always put "references available upon request and in the spaces if it won't let me go on I placed Nonono Nononono, 123 NoNoNo, No,000000... If you want to call my references.....you can ask me first.......... in person.

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There are US-based companies that do this kind of service, too. I worked for one a few years ago. We actually verified the "whole package". Verified education/degrees, called personal references, called former employers to verify dates of service/position held, performed background checks, etc.

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It's not always companies that are hired to do phone jobs.....the NC travel bureau uses prisoners who are still incarcerated... some catalogs do the same thing :eek:

http://lpa.igc.org/lpv24/lp3.htm

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-01-13/local/me-27697_1_reservation-agent

http://www.digtriad.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=173212

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Have any of you ever thought of using that LifeLock thing? I think it's insurance against Identity theft. You're supposed to be insured for up to a million dollars. When I hear about things like this, it makes me want to do it.

Thoughts?

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Cardiac.
There are US-based companies that do this kind of service, too. I worked for one a few years ago. We actually verified the "whole package". Verified education/degrees, called personal references, called former employers to verify dates of service/position held, performed background checks, etc.

Yeah. I was surprised to get a call from a private investigator when I applied to my current employer. She was following up on my degrees. E-mailed her a copy of the diploma and transcript and no further problem.

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