It’s not uncommon for people with a criminal background to attempt to conceal their identity to avoid unwanted attention from law enforcement, or to avoid peopled digging into their past. It will be harder for them to not only avoid detection, but also gain employment, loans or credit if they’re using a name that has warrants attached, or a long criminal background.
Criminal history is generally stored using name and date of birth, so without performing an alias search it can be surprisingly easy for people to conceal their background. They may simply choose to start going by a nickname or a previous last name, or they might use a different alias entirely. Uncovering a different name could reveal an entire criminal background you would not have discovered otherwise. In some cases, it can be almost as though you’re discovering a completely new person. This new information can be useful for criminal investigations or hiring decisions.
A criminal alias search uses SSNs to link past aliases that might not have previously been linked together in other circumstances. While additional names popping up is not necessarily an automatic indicator that the person who is being investigated has a criminal background, it can at least be a hint that investigators should look into that person’s background a bit more closely and see if there’s anything there worth noting.
