In the know or a set up for lawsuits?
 

I kept seeing an advertisement for this http://www.intelius.com website. They claim that you can do background check on anybody to see what kind of criminal record they have, if any.

Since you can also do property searches and such, just for fun (and it didn't cost anything) I typed in my address to see what the site had to say about my house.

Problem number one was that my street address was posted twice. There are no two houses in town that share the same street address. Second problem was the site said my house was built in 1985 and the square footage is off by over 500 square feet.

I don't know where they got their information from, but my house is smaller than 1,300 square feet and it was built was built in 1972. The finished basement doesn't count in terms of resale value, so it shouldn't be included.

Not exactly what I would call a reliable source of information. If they can screw up the stats on a piece of property, I can't help but wonder what kind of fictional backgrounds they come up with about people.

Eta: zabasearch.com and peoplefinders.com do the same thing.

Makes me wonder how many people have been screwed from this info being wrong.

So much for having a real right to privacy. It seems to me that we are far too... nosey as a rule. Gods forbid anyone have a stalker!