Common-Name Mismatches Cause Background Checks to Return Someone Else's Criminal Record

When a background check company searches criminal records by name and date of birth — the standard method for most commercial screens — people with common names (e.g., Jose Garcia, Michael Johnson, David Smith) routinely get matched to someone else's criminal history. The screening company's algorithm finds a record with a similar name and approximate date of birth and includes it in the report. Some companies use Social Security number verification to reduce false positives, but many county court records do not include SSNs, so name-based matching remains the default. The candidate receives a job offer, authorizes a background check, and then gets a pre-adverse action notice (if the employer follows the law) showing a felony conviction that belongs to a completely different person. The candidate must now prove they are not the person in the record — effectively guilty until proven innocent. The dispute process takes days to weeks, during which the employer may fill the position with another candidate. For people with common names, this happens repeatedly across multiple job applications. This persists because the underlying criminal record databases were never designed for reliable individual identification. County courts file records by name and case number, not by biometric identifier or national ID. Background check companies face a tension between being thorough (reporting all possible matches) and being accurate (only reporting confirmed matches). FCRA requires 'reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy,' but courts have interpreted this standard inconsistently, and companies err on the side of over-reporting because under-reporting creates liability risk if a hired employee later commits a crime.