The bar scene might never be the same. The once reliable lies you told to inflate your ego can now be checked out with the touch of an iPhone icon.
A new application for the smartphone allows users to instantly run a background check on anyone using a name or an e-mail address. Called the Background Check App, thousands of users have helped the program quickly become one of the phone’s top downloads.
“In today’s world, it is easier than ever to pretend to be someone you’re not,” said Josh Levy, chief executive officer of BeenVerified.com, the company that created the application. “People need the ability to make quick, on-the-spot decisions.”
It’s use, Levy said, extends beyond the bar scene. It can help business owners quickly check out a new vendor, or an investor learn more about a potential new stock broker. With just a click, the application will run a check on anyone in your address book.
The program runs names through BeenVerified’s background check system, which churns up basic information like name, age, address history and relatives. But it also does a nationwide criminal record search and scans social networking Web sites to provide more intimate information.
The report is instantly delivered to the iPhone.
It does, however, have its limits. For example, it’s only free if you’re willing to run just three background checks a week. After that, you have to buy a subscription to the service, which runs about $8 a month. The company says the reports are comparable to a $20 report that can be purchased on other background check Web sites.
This is the second iPhone background check application to come out this year, but the first — released by Intelius in September — crashed and burned due to high user costs. DateCheck was free to download, but Intelius then charged $19.95 for a criminal check.
The low cost of BeenVerified’s version has already made it the 12th-most popular download on iTunes’ list of free applications for the iPhone.
