Ever done a criminal/credit check on a independent contractor???

Hi David

Its a sad fact that very often "Levels of Honesty are directly connected to Levels of Opportunity. Some people, who might be otherwise honest, end up stealing. Especially when they see an opportunity to steal with a low likelihood of getting caught. Anyone can steal from you if they have your Paypal details, but if they know that you will find out first thing in the morning this will keep most people honest.

Every thief in the world would have passed a background check at sometime in their life. So even you if you get the checks done, never give anyone the opportunity. Set up procedures so that if things are amiss, you will know about them. Remember that the vast majority of people are very honest, but accept that some might steal given the right opportunity.

Why not go that route that your VA give's you the recommendation of issuing a refund if needed but you will be the one who has the last word and "press the button." Limiting the access to your monetary funds leaves the control in your hands.

Timo

I was using a company that was really good. I had a construction business and we had to verify status, SSN's, etc. and also a light criminal check. (I think it's called a 'blotter' check...police blotter)
I can't give you the url because the forum won't let me (I don't have 15 posts yet)
One thing I'm grateful for...one of the applicants turned out to be an escaped con with a heavy record of violence. I also found about 10 bogus SSN's ... mostly illegals.
I think for Paypal accounts or anything involving money I'd be really careful and yes, by all means, do criminal and background checks.
The appllicant shouldn't mind and if he does I'd get nervous about him/her.
By the way, there are about a million rip off artists selling these services...it took me a long time to find the right guys. If I could figure out how to do it I'd give you this company.

Sorry, forgot to mention that if your VA is in India or somewhere outside the USA, my company wouldn't work...they only do USA stuff.
I don't know about checking foreigners.

Doesn't PayPal have a way of setting up partial access to your account?

Gotta tell you guys a funny story about doing criminal/background checks...

Several years ago, I owned a specialty contracting firm and we subcontracted quite a bit of work out to individuals who weren't exactly Rhodes Scholars, or Nobel Prize winner material.

One major project that we picked up was located on a (US) domestic air force base and required us to collect quite a bit of information from each and every person that would set foot on that base during the construction period, because the military was going to do background checks prior to issuing them a base pass.

The looks I got from these people as I shared this small caveat with them was absolutely priceless. You could see this blank look of "oh my god, I either need to confess EVERYTHING, or I don't have a job, or I try to get in anyway and they arrest me at the main gate". I had to spend about 30-45 minutes with each individual listening to every sin of the past ten years. I would walk away feeling like a Catholic priest. Some of the stories I heard made me wonder about Darwin's theory - survival of the fittest. I'm still a bit surprised that the human race hasn't winnowed itself down some based on some of the stupid stories I heard.

At any rate, my personal philosophy is that the only employee who touches my money, is me. It's the other tasks that I assign to people, so that I have time to manage the finances.

Talltom

I recommend database records:

http://databaserecords.com/Business-Product-Page.html

I have done some work for the owner and he was very dedicated, experienced, knowledgeable, and credible and their consumer history is great compared to many of the alternatives.