A bunch of bologna

You receive an email from someone who appears to be a recruiter. A portion of the email indicates:


***The following is important information regarding your employment application.

We conduct thorough background checks on qualified applicants as part of our employment screening process. We only conduct background checks when we feel a position is available for an applicant.
Our Verification Check includes the following information:

Work Experience Verification
Educational Verification
Criminal Record Verifications
Consumer Report Verifications

Each employer has a unique and specific criterion that is used to determine the qualifications of certain positions that are available within their organization.

Erroneous information in your consumer report can prevent you from obtaining a job offer for which you are otherwise qualified. Companies in industries that provide employees with access to sensitive information rely heavily on the contents of these consumer reports.

We offer our applicants the opportunity to pre-verify the information that we obtain in our decision making processes.

To pre-verify your consumer report today:

As a convenience to our applicants and prospective employees, we have partnered with a company that enables you to receive your complimentary consumer report. Please visit http://www.empscreeninc.com/prescreen.htm to request your report. The link takes you to a spot where you can get a free credit report, but you also enroll in credit report monitoring at $14.95 a month. Ridiculous.

Any American can get a free credit bureau report or all the reports at once at http://www.annualcreditreport.com. This is the only legitimate website created for the purchase of the federal mandate giving each American one free report a year from each of the bureaus. This is a valid website and won't cost you a thing. FICO scores are available, but there is a small charge.

The take-away here: Be careful when responding to "recruiter" emails; some are bogus. And ALWAYS read the fine print BEFORE you get something on the internet. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you still question it, just conduct a Google search and see if any complaints pop up.