California woman reveals how routine background check led to a shocking discovery

A California woman shared how a routine background check led to a shocking discovery on her criminal record.

TikTok user Samantha posted a video warning others about the alarming information she learned when her employer conducted the screening before she started a job with a new company.

To her surprise, the San Diego woman learned the inspection found she had three felony charges against her.

‘This is a warning to you guys. If you’re going to go apply for a job, especially at a freaking financial firm, know what’s on your freaking background check,’ Samantha said in the video. 

‘Don’t be a d*****s like me and be walking around with three counts of felony charges.’

‘So I have three felony counts on my background check. That’s great. That’s great for me, right,’ she said.

Samantha said the record check was being conducted because her company was going through a merger, which meant she was keeping her job but working for a new employer.

The results found a woman with her same name and birthday had felony charges for burglary, identity theft and intense possession of a controlled substance dating back to 2014.

‘I don’t know how I got hired at the job I’m at currently, which is a financial firm, and no one caught it,’ Samantha said.

‘Luckily for me the company that I’m merging with does a super thorough check, they even do like an entire FBI fingerprint check.’

The results found a woman with her same name and birthday had felony charges for burglary, identity theft and intense possession of a controlled substance

‘They were able to clear me by my fingerprints, knowing that my fingerprints are not in the system, but for some reason someone used my name and my birthday and committed some crimes in 2014,’ she said.

Jordie Black, content lead for Zinc – a global background check company that did not specifically perform Samantha’s – told Newsweek it is possible for people to be misidentified.

‘It is possible for individuals to be mistakenly flagged as having felony charges on their record, even if they haven’t committed any crimes,’ Black said.

‘This “false positive” can occur when two people share the same name or other identifying details, leading to incorrect matches.

‘A good background check system should alert users to potential matches where information might be ambiguous or incorrect. The HR team or organization must then carry out thorough due diligence, verifying details directly with the individual and cross-referencing with other sources to ensure accuracy,’ said Black.

Commenters commiserated with Samantha and shared their similar experiences finding out about surprising information on their background checks. 

‘I had a similar issue. What saved me if that the height recorded was 5’7” and I’m only 4’11”. I was able to eventually have it all cleared,’ wrote a user named Aileen.

User Jenette said, ‘Had a similar situation. I was engaged and we were purchasing a house found out a family member used my identity to get a car. Was a horrible experience.’

Another commenter named Brianna said, ‘For a long time I had 2 accidents on my record – at a time and in places I’ve never been.’