We’ve all heard the stories in which a television repairman turned out to have a past serial killing record – and ended up murdering the family who had called him in for a repair job. Or the ones in which the new gardener a family hired to mow your lawn was revealed to be a homicidal maniac on the run from the law. And yet I know so many people who fail to take one basic precaution before hiring someone to do something as simple as mow the lawn: carry out a criminal background check on that person before trusting them with their loved ones and property.

I wonder why these people do not look into the variety of background checks that exist free of cost to help them achieve this peace of mind. While they do not offer a 100 percent guarantee, they do reduce the chances of running into shady characters or people with criminal histories so that they can keep their homes and the people in it safe.

One popular way of checking someone’s criminal history is to do it over the Internet. Several websites offer a free background check which can then be filtered according to area, neighborhood and category of offense. The first and foremost advantage of such checks is that they are accessible by anyone and may be carried out for anyone. All that needs to be done is access the website, enter your target’s first name, last name and middle name and you are presented with a complete report on that person. That’s all there is to it.

An online background check will also offer instant results so the hiring decision does not need to be delayed – or the report is not obtained after it is too late. This helps to ensure that you have the results in hand when you need them and are able to make an informed decision with those results.