Complaint Review: Instantcheckmate

I signed up for this service,Iinstantcheckmate (or Icm), which advertises that it researches and provides information on criminal behavior and background information, like address and income, of individuals. Online, Icm offered me several legal records for the person I needed to know about. However, on examination those records turned out to be coded and indecipherable, containing numerous abbreviations.

In order to verify the trustworthiness of the Icm report, I then entered my own name for research, and was very surprised and alarmed to find that, according to Icm, I had three criminal "events" in my background. The fact is that I don't have any, not one, have never confronted the police, have never been picked up nor arrested. Nor did Icm produce any details of these "incidents", or whatever they were referring to.

Also, in the space for a background record, at my home address Icm had listed as current residents the names of a number of people who had lived here as renters and had moved away a minimum of 15 years ago. Also, they did not include the names of several family members who had actually lived at the residence.

When I called to ask for clarification of the abbreviations so I could interpret the court records, I was told by Patrice, the phone person, that I could call the court houses (in other states) and ask the meanings, or I could go online and do research (great idea --thanks!). When I asked to speak to a supervisor, Patrice explained that she was the supervisor. I then cancelled my membership and, having been on for roughly 12 hours, asked for the five-day rate which I had initially attempted to sign up for.

(Icm doesn't tell you that that rate exists until you try to exit their site.) Patrice then told me I was signed up for a month at the monthly rate, and that I would have access to their site for another month. Thanks again. Of course, the bottom line is that I don't want or trust their unreliable information, I'm disgusted with their con-man attitude and behavior, and I don't want to have any further dealings with them.

So, I'm filing this report, hoping that they won't pull any more shenanigans, like bombing my amail or charging my credit card for additional sevices -- according to other write-ups, a trick that Icm has done at times. In fact, I think I'll close that credit account.

Good luck to everyone but them.