It used to be very difficult to find out information about someone in order to verify their identity, find ways to contact them, and check whether they have criminal records. But it is now easier than ever.

Services like Truthfinder allow you to quickly and easily search through the huge amount of information, including public records maintained by government agencies and information from social media profiles. This data is then used to create a report with everything you could want to know about a person.

Although this might sound concerning, there are many situations where someone may reasonably want to know more or verify information about someone else.

Maybe you want to confirm an online date’s information before you meet up in person for the first time. Or perhaps you have concerns about a new neighbor and would like to put your mind at ease. And you may even want to run a background check on someone who will be spending time with your children. Truthfinder can help you out with all of those things.

Whilst you would have a hard time collecting all of this information yourself, it is all publicly available so you are not breaching anyone’s privacy. This makes Truthfinder an ideal solution to keep you and your family safe.

But this all might sound too good to be true, and you might even find yourself asking: “Is Truthfinder legit?” Whilst the skepticism is understandable, we’ve been testing Truthfinder’s capabilities and examining how well it delivers on its promises.

What is Truthfinder?

Truthfinder is a website containing a range of tools to help you find out information about anyone in the United States, all straight from your web browser. It does this by searching through millions of public records, social media accounts, and other data.

This may even include items found on the deep web that you wouldn’t be able to find yourself through Google or another search engine. Once Truthfinder is finished searching, the information will be compiled into a handy report, making it easy to find exactly what you want to know about the person you’re looking into.

Pros and Cons of Truthfinder

As with all tools and services, Truthfinder has both its pros and cons. Whilst our investigation noted a lot more positives than negatives, it’s important to consider them all when deciding whether Truthfinder is right for you.

Pros of Truthfinder

Easy to use

It’s easy to run a background check or other type of search to generate the reports you need. You are then free to navigate through these reports online or to download them as a PDF, so you can keep them for your reference or even print them out. It also means you’ll always be able to access the information whenever you need it.

All you need is a name or a phone number

This means that you have a great deal of accessibility in terms of who you are able to search with this background check service. The ability to use a phone number to look someone up means you can get comprehensive background reports on someone, even if they are using a fake name (as long as you have their number, of course).

Wide range of accurate information

Truthfinder utilizes a public records search engine to pore through millions of records from various sources, like government records, social media sites, and other public information.

This service even pulls information from the deep web or the dark web, meaning that you would not be able to find them using a standard search engine like Google.

Amazing customer support

Truthfinder has a dedicated customer care team that responds to customers who have questions or concerns with the service. When you call Truthfinder support, you will be connected with a helpful customer service representative, who will be happy to help you with any issues you may have, whether they’re about your account or how to use any of the features of the website.

And if you leave online Truthfinder reviews, a customer service rep should respond to address any questions or concerns you may have.

Truthfinder has an A+ rating on Better Business Bureau, which is an organization that ensures businesses and services are legitimate. So if you’ve been asking yourself, “Is Truthfinder legit,” then that rating alone should give you your answer.

Cons of Truthfinder

Information may shock you

When you use background check services like Truthfinder on someone you know, you may find out information you weren’t expecting. But even if that is the case, we believe that it’s better to know so that you are able to make decisions and proceed in a fully informed way.

Subscription-only service

Requiring a recurring fee to use these background check services may deter some future customers, and it is mentioned often in Truthfinder reviews. But Truthfinder’s monthly subscription prices are actually very reasonable, especially considering that they are able to easily perform searches whenever you need and can help you feel more secure.

Truthfinder does offer a five-day trial, which is perfect if you need some additional first-hand experience to see whether this service is right for you. During your free trial, you can run unlimited searches and compile unlimited reports. So if you do decide that the service isn’t worth keeping, you will at least be able to get the search results you need.

Truthfinder Features

Truthfinder’s website has an impressive suite of features, allowing you to easily find the information you need when you need it.

Background Checks

Background checks are the perfect way to find out the truth about someone. Truthfinder’s comprehensive and legitimate background check service allows you to run a check on anyone using just their name or phone number.

Once you’ve provided one of these, Truthfinder will run the search and provide you with a report full of useful and accurate information about that person.

This information includes all of the basic information you would expect, such as their address and contact details, but also things like a person’s criminal history. Not all of the information is this extreme though, with plenty of other information such as employment and location history available too.

Truthfinder offers a legit background check service that makes it super easy to check up on someone’s background and history, no matter the reason you choose to do so.

Find out more about Truthfinder’s background check service here

Reverse Phone Lookup

The reverse phone lookup service differs from Truthfinder’s other offerings in that it doesn’t require a name and location. All you have to do is provide a phone number and Truthfinder will scour public records to identify who that number belongs to. These Truthfinder reports will also provide additional information about that person, potentially even including links to their social media profiles.

So if you are ever plagued by strange or unpleasant calls or texts from an unknown number, it is easy to find the source so you can handle the matter appropriately.

You can also use this feature to verify someone’s identity if you only have a first name to go on or you suspect they are trying to hide it behind a pseudonym. This can be common if you’re dating online, and being able to confirm that your date is who they say they are can help protect you from dangerous situations.

But whatever you end up using it for, this feature can provide an incredible amount of information on someone without you needing to provide anything other than a phone number.

Find out more about Truthfinder’s reverse phone lookup feature here

People Search

Truthfinder’s people search allows you to find information on someone using only their name. This can be perfect for finding out more information about someone you don’t know well, such as a new neighbor or potential romantic partner.

This feature can also be used to help protect you or your loved ones by finding out more about someone who will be spending a lot of time with them — or even someone who’s suddenly gotten close with them. 

And someone doesn’t need to currently be in your life for you to benefit from this search feature. If you’re looking to reconnect with anyone, from old friends to family members you haven’t spoken to in a long time, the people search can help you do that.

This feature allows you to find addresses and contact details using only a name. This can work if you’re looking to track down someone you haven’t spoken with for decades, or even if you’re hoping to meet a distant relative for the first time.

Whatever the reason you’re searching for more details about someone, Truthfinder’s people search can be an invaluable resource.

Find out more about Truthfinder’s people search feature here

Public Records

Truthfinder allows you to search public records in order to find information on anyone using just their name or phone number. This means you can quickly and easily find any information held by various government agencies and public institutions, whether these are at a county, state, or federal level.

These records include birth and death records, criminal records, arrest records, bankruptcies and liens, and census data. In the modern internet era, public records can also include data held by social media sites.

Whilst it would be possible for you to manually search through government documents and databases on your own in order to find someone’s details, this is a tedious process and would be incredibly time-consuming. Fortunately, Truthfinder can search through all of these records for you and compile them into a single report, allowing you to see everything you want to know all in one place.

Find out more about Truthfinder’s public records search feature here

Is Truthfinder Safe?

Truthfinder is a safe service to use and keeps all your searches and reports strictly confidential. There is no way for someone to find out if you search their name or look them up using their phone number or email address.

Truthfinder even implements 256-bit encryption to protect all data sent between you and the site — as well as all of the information they store relating to your requests — so you don’t have to worry about your data being intercepted.

256-bit encryption is an even higher standard of security than the encryption which was previously approved by the US government for protecting their own top-secret classified data.

This encryption is backed up with an SSL Certificate from Cloudflare, Inc., one of the world's largest internet security organizations. This means you can rest assured that however you use Truthfinder, your privacy and data security will be held to the highest standards.

Is Truthfinder Legit?

Given the amount of information provided, it is natural that many will find themselves wondering: “Is Truthfinder legit?” Truthfinder is a completely legal and legitimate service.

They are very upfront about what they offer and what their service can and can’t be used for. In particular, they make it clear that, as they are not a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, their service cannot be used to make decisions regarding employment, offers of tenancy, or consumer credit.

In terms of accuracy, our testing showed that Truthfinder was able to produce a lot of highly accurate information about us, our friends, and our family members who agreed to check their reports for us.

As Truthfinder offers a five-day trial, it’s easy for you to go and verify their accuracy and legitimacy for yourself by using this trial period to run searches on yourself or your family members so you can easily verify that the information provided is complete, true, and accurate.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I run a background check on Truthfinder?

Truthfinder’s background check service is easy to use. All you need to do is open the Truthfinder website and enter the person’s name — and the city and state they live in, if possible. This additional information will help narrow down the results where there is more than one person found with the given name, which is certainly possible.

Once you’ve done this, you may need to review some additional data to select the right individual if there are still multiple matches. After this has been done, Truthfinder will complete its checks and generate the report for you to review.

Searches made using a phone number or email address work largely the same way as those using the individual’s name and location, with the only significant difference being the information that you will need to provide at the start of the process.

Where does Truthfinder get its data?

Truthfinder gets its data from a wide range of publicly available sources, including the deep web and dark web, which are not indexed on search engines and so would be very difficult for you to find on your own.

This includes public information from many different government agencies at the federal, state, and county levels, like registrations of births and deaths, voter rolls and census data, criminal and arrest records, and records of bankruptcies and liens.

Additionally, Truthfinder scours social network data from many different sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, in order to provide you with even more information.

Does Truthfinder notify the person you are searching?

All of the searches you make on Truthfinder are completely confidential, regardless of whether they are made using a name and location, a phone number, or an email address.

Truthfinder never notifies anyone when a search is made and it is not possible for anyone else to view who has searched for them, or even if they have been searched at all.

Can I find information about someone using their email address?

Truthfinder has a reverse email lookup feature that works very similarly to its reverse phone lookup feature. If you receive an email address from someone you can’t identify, or you want to check that the person emailing you is who they say they are, you can generate a report based on an email address. This report will contain the sender’s name and all of the other information you will need to verify their identity.

Can I run a Truthfinder report on myself?

You can absolutely run a Truthfinder report on yourself, and we would highly recommend doing so. Not only does it allow you to easily test the capabilities of Truthfinder for yourself, but it also allows you to see exactly what information other people will be seeing about you.

Running your own report allows an opportunity to review the publicly available information about yourself and ensure that it doesn’t contain incomplete or inaccurate data. If it does, you can contact the relevant agency to get everything updated and amended as necessary, avoiding any issues further down the line.

Can I use Truthfinder to check a new tenant or employee?

Whilst we can understand the temptation for employers and landlords to want to take advantage of Truthfinder’s services, they absolutely cannot be used for these purposes. This is due to legal reasons, specifically the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which restricts which companies can offer services for these purposes, as well as for assisting in decisions regarding consumer credit.

Truthfinder does, however, provide a helpful way for job seekers and tenants to see some of the information that employers and landlords may see about them when they run their own searches with a consumer reporting agency.

Is it easy to cancel the trial if I decide Truthfinder is not for me?

There’s no need to worry when signing up for Truthfinder’s free trial because there are no obligations and it is incredibly easy to cancel. If at any point during the trial — or even once you have moved on to the regular subscription plan — you feel that the service isn’t for you or that you no longer need it you can quickly cancel through the Truthfinder website or by calling their dedicated customer care team.

If you wish to cancel through the website, all you need to do is navigate to the Account section of your Truthfinder dashboard, click through to the Membership Settings page, and hit the Cancel Subscription button. Once you’ve done this, follow the simple prompts and your subscription will be canceled within minutes.

Alternatively, if you’re more comfortable speaking to a person, Truthfinder support will happily cancel the membership for you as soon as you let them know your account details. Once this is done, you will receive an email confirming that the subscription has been canceled within an hour.

Conclusion

So if you’ve found yourself questioning the legitimacy of Truthfinder, now you don’t have to. It’s accredited through the Better Business Bureau and pulls deep web data, so you know you’ll be receiving accurate information from areas of the web even Google can’t reach.