Who’s looking
at you, kid?
In the cyberworld of dating,
you can't be sure who's
playing RomeoCheck out what they’ve got on you
Illustration By David Swann, Star-BulletinBy Dawn Sagario
Star-BulletinDATING used to be simple. Well, relatively simple. It went something like this: Bob likes Mary. Bob calls Mary on the phone and asks if she wants to go to the movies (or something equally noncommittal) and Mary says yes if Bob seems worthy.
Enter the Internet and its maze of chatrooms. With quick wit, brought to life by swift, masterful pecking at the keyboard, all of the sudden, any ordinary Bob can become a virtual Romeo, with a new nickname, something like LOVERBOY4U. Mary becomes a computer screen siren, luring cyber conversationalists with her seductive prose as "VENUS1."
Is Bob the real deal? Could Mary's self-description hold up in person? As more couples meet online, those looking for love want to be sure that their prospects are who they say they are.
Technology caused this tangled Web of intrigue, and technology is the weapon of companies popping up to perform background checks on prospective dates.
WhoisShe.Com and WhoisHe.Com are online services run by California attorney Linda Alexander. For a $75 fee, she'll find out if your virtual pal is all he or she claims to be by running a search of more than 4 billion records contained in national and state-specific databases. An additional $45 to $50 will get you a criminal check (per county). This takes about three to five days.
About 70 percent of Alexander's search requests come from people wanting to know more about their prospective love interests, and more than half are Internet related.
Individuals between the ages of 21 and 80 years old have used her services, with an even split between men and women.
"The benefit to our business is filling in the blanks, sometimes putting information together, sometimes unwinding it," Alexander said.
Who's lying?
The idea came to her in November 1997, after she had been chatting with someone online for about five months. When she did a background check on her Internet pal, though, she found he was not the widower he claimed to be. Instead, he was still married and living with his wife.Alexander uses national databases that include professional licenses; corporations; liens, judgments and bankruptcies; and Federal Aviation Administration Aircraft Registrations.
And that's just the beginning.
State agencies keep basic phone directories and vehicle registration information. For good measure, federal firearms and explosives licenses are included in the list. The lovelorn can get all this sent to them in less than 24 hours -- in both e-mail and hard copy forms. "Everything is public records," Alexander said. "There's nothing people couldn't get."
Although the information is accessible by the general public, she said it would take an individual with no experience at least three weeks to compile the same amount of information she can collect in less than a day.
As a lawyer, Alexander has the opportunity to buy access to national databases available only to attorneys, private investigators and police departments.
According to Alexander, 60 percent of search subjects lie, with men fudging about marital status and women fibbing most about age and financial holdings.
"Women tend to lie significantly about their age," she said. "It's by about an average of 10 years; in some cases a little more."
Lying to people is easy on the Internet, so an individual also takes a risk when employing a stranger to check up on another stranger through the same shadowy medium.
Alexander says her customers are "pretty satisfied." In the nearly two years she's been in business, her search has come up empty only once. In that case, the client providing the information was not sure the data given was accurate. She offers a $45 refund if she is unable to find the person.
Alexander says, though, that she doesn't advertise herself as a private investigator. She chooses to call the service she provides a background check.
"A private investigator will go and check out a situation," she said. "Private investigator work means staking out and having someone followed. Mine is a totally different service. I give people information and they decide what to do with it."
Snooping on the snoop
Some argue that the computer search Alexander conducts is part of being an investigator, an occupation that requires a license in the state of Hawaii."You're walking a fine line between an investigator and just a database search," said Elise Johnson, an investigator with Busch Investigations. "I wouldn't trust someone who's not an investigator."
Michael Machado, the state's Executive Officer of the Board of Private Detectives and Guards, said any kind of research done as a service to the public that is being paid for requires a license.
"If you conduct any investigation in Hawaii and are being paid for it, you do need a license," Machado said. But because online commerce is such a new field, the board is still looking into how these Internet investigative agencies should be regulated.
"It's a new phenomenon," he said. "Other states have contacted us to ask what we're doing to try and solve the problem."
Other local private investigators also warned using online services like Alexander's can be risky."I would beware of any online investigative services," said private investigator Mel Rapozo, owner of M & P Enterprises on Kauai. "Before you send any money, make sure you check their credentials and that they're legitimate in the state they're in."
A client of Rapozo's experienced firsthand the uncertainty of one of these businesses. The man had paid a company $75 for information regarding his estranged wife. When they couldn't locate her, they offered to keep her name on file for an additional $200. The man then went to Rapozo, who, after a few minutes doing a low-level search on the computer, found the man's wife in Honolulu.
Locally, private investigators keep a look out for businesses that advertise Internet searches.
Nabil El-Ramly, owner of Business Services Center, put an advertisement two years ago in the yellow pages that solicited payment for information obtained through Internet searches. A private investigator called him, saying El Ramly needed a license to advertise that type of service.
"The investigator threatened to take legal action," El Ramly said. "The people were convincing enough to not make me pursue it."
Want to take a stab at checking up on a new chatroom pal, or see what information is available on you? According to Nabil El-Ramly of Business Services Center, individuals can try to play spy on their own. Check out what
they’ve got on youPutting the cyber background
check to the test"If someone has the Internet now, they can do it themselves," El-Ramly said.
Software described as detective, or "spy," toolkits can assist a person in their search. Online businesses offer programs like Cyber-Detective and the Cyber-Spy Toolkit, which allow access to databases such as those available to detectives, and link you to other online resources.
For $24.95, Cyber-Detective provides a program containing tools like social security number and area code databases. Another feature is the Cyber-Track and Spy Software diskette, which can be used to track anyone's Internet activity. Free software, e-books and reports can also be found at http://www.cyberdetective.net.
Visit http://www.cyber-spy.comand the Cyber-Spy Toolkit will give you access to resources such as vital statistics, criminal databases and bank account information. Military databases, driver's records and lawsuits can also be tapped into. Snail mailing the diskette will cost $20; a download costs $19.99.
The National Cyber Detective Network (http://www.worldusa.com/cyberspy/preview.htm) and The Ultimate Internet Spy Tool (http://www.hitekinfo.com/snoop/snoop.html) are more services.
Here are a few more sites:
(PI) http://www.bigbook.com -- The Yellow Pages provide business information, which includes phone, fax and toll free numbers and addresses.
(PI) http://www.four11.com -- The site connects you to Yahoo! People Search for telephone or e-mail searches.
(PI) http://www.whowhere.com -- Plug in a name for matches through e-mail, phone, address and Web site listings.
Click for online
calendars and events.
