Background Checks

I’ve gone through several background checks in the past for things like employment and housing, but I had never actually seen any of my reports until yesterday. I was applying for a place live and as part of the application the landlord wanted to run a background check on me through TransUnion’s SmartMove program. After filling out the online form I submitted it and later in the day the landlord got the report and called me about it. As expected, my credit history was flawless and I had no evictions or collections on record. My criminal record, however, contained one item. To my surprise and dismay, it showed me as having a criminal citation this past March in Orange County, California. Seeing as how I was never in Orange County at all this year, I was extremely confused as to why my report listed this.

Earlier today I called the TransUnion customer support line and requested to dispute the item in the criminal history. The customer service rep I spoke with informed me that the citation was a traffic-related offense, and I informed them that I was not in California during the month of March (or February, or January). The dispute has officially been sent to TransUnion’s investigative department and they now have 30 calendar days to look into this. When they have concluded their research I’ll get a letter in the mail with the results of the inquiry. I’m not particularly keen on having someone else’s crimes being associated with me, so that thing better get wiped from my record.