Topic Library — Background Checks: Know Your Own Record (Year 1 Foundations)

School: Minister Destiny Testimony Schools Track: Adult Class: Topic Library — Year 1 (Foundations) Founded and presented by: Muslim Ordained Minister Destiny Marie Morgan

This lesson is educational information, Massachusetts-first, and is not legal advice. Laws and procedures vary by state and by case. If you are in danger right now, call 911. If you have a real case, talk to a lawyer — legal aid organizations help many people for free.

Before you start

This school never asks your name. Your progress is saved only in your own browser on this device — the school collects and keeps nothing. If you pass this unit's quiz (80% or higher, retakes allowed), you earn a downloadable certificate with a blank line — you write your own name on it after you save it. Quiz answers are not shown; if you miss a question, re-read the lesson and try again.
Employers, landlords, and licensing boards read your record before they meet you. This unit teaches you to read it first: where it lives, how to get your copy, how to fix errors, and where the legal line sits when the record is someone else's.

The lesson

Part 1. Why audit yourself — and the map of your records

A background check is not one document. It is a family of records kept by different keepers, and an error in any one can cost you a job, an apartment, or a license before you learn it exists. Auditing yourself means you find the error first.

The map: criminal records — federal (the FBI's fingerprint-based file, Part 2), state (in Massachusetts, CORI, Part 3), and court files; consumer files — the three nationwide credit bureaus plus specialty companies for bank accounts, renting, employment, and insurance (Part 4); court records, plus driving records, license records, public registries, and your open-internet footprint (Part 5).

The golden rule: use only official sources. Look-alike sites charge marked-up fees for records the government gives free or cheap. Type official addresses yourself — fbi.gov, mass.gov, annualcreditreport.com, consumerfinance.gov.

Part 2. Your criminal record, federal — the FBI Identity History Summary

The FBI's Identity History Summary is the federal picture of you: arrests reported to the FBI, with the outcome (the disposition) where reported. The FBI's fee for a direct request is $18. Three routes, all at fbi.gov: (1) online through the FBI's eDO portal, then fingerprints at a participating U.S. Post Office or by mailing a fingerprint card (Form FD-258); (2) by mail to the FBI CJIS Division, with form, FD-258 card, and payment; (3) through an FBI-approved channeler — a private company charging its own extra fee, serving only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, and not usable for employment or licensing; those checks run through the requesting agency.

Read for the disposition: an arrest records a custody; a disposition is what the case became — conviction, dismissal, acquittal. Missing dispositions are common: no outcome listed usually means the outcome was never sent to the FBI, not that the case is open. To challenge an error, 28 C.F.R. §§ 16.30–16.34 sends you to the agency that contributed the entry — typically the state repository or the court — or to the FBI CJIS Division, which forwards the challenge there; the FBI changes the record when that agency confirms the correction, on certified court paperwork.

Part 3. Your criminal record, state — Massachusetts CORI

Massachusetts criminal records live in CORI — Criminal Offender Record Information — run by the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (DCJIS) through iCORI, reached from mass.gov. Request yours online through iCORI (access now runs through a MyMassGov account — check the current steps on mass.gov) or by the paper Personal Request Form. The fee is $25 per request; a fee waiver exists — a person who cannot afford it may submit an Affidavit of Indigency.

Two features matter most. First, you see more of your own record than an employer does. CORI access is tiered — Personal Access (your full view), Standard access, the Required levels for requesters the law requires or authorizes to screen, and Open Access — and each requester level returns less than your own view. Second, the self-audit: a log of who has requested your CORI, excluding law-enforcement queries — free once every 90 days; extra requests inside the 90 days cost $25, and an unauthorized request can be reported through DCJIS's complaint process. Every state runs an equivalent repository; find it through that state's police or attorney general site.

Part 4. Your credit and consumer files

Start where the Credit Reporting unit starts: AnnualCreditReport.com is the only federally authorized source for free reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — the FTC and the CFPB both say so. A credit score is a separate product; the report is what you audit.

Your file is wider than credit. The CFPB publishes a list of consumer reporting companies — use that list, at consumerfinance.gov. It covers specialty bureaus such as ChexSystems (bank-account history), tenant-screening, employment-screening, and insurance bureaus. A denied bank account, apartment, or job is often a specialty report speaking — with the same rights to see and dispute it.

Two protections, in brief (the Identity Theft unit teaches both in full): a fraud alert flags your file for extra verification; a credit freeze locks it so new accounts generally cannot open until you lift it. Both are free.

Disputing, concisely: (1) dispute with the bureau whose report holds the error, in writing, naming the exact item, with copies — never originals — of proof; (2) the bureau generally must investigate within 30 days; (3) the furnisher has its own duty to investigate and correct; (4) if an item stays, add a brief statement of dispute and complain to the CFPB. The Credit Reporting unit teaches this in full — this is the map; that unit is the territory.

Part 5. The rest of your file — courts, driving, licenses, registries, and your own name

Court records. Federal dockets are searched through PACER, the federal courts' public access system (fees and free-access thresholds are posted there — check the official page). Massachusetts cases are searched through the Trial Court's MassCourts public access, linked from mass.gov; other states run their own portals. A docket is not a CORI result or an FBI summary, and the three can disagree. Some matters are never public: juvenile records are generally confidential, and sealed matters (Part 6) drop from view.

Driving record. Order yours from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles through mass.gov: an unattested record online (listed at $8 when checked) or a true and attested record for official use (listed at $20) — confirm the current fee on the RMV page first.

Licenses and registries. If you hold a professional license, look yourself up in the issuing board's public lookup. Public registries — the Massachusetts sex-offender registry is the best-known — exist to be checked; know what they say under your name, including a namesake's entry.

The footprint check. Search your own name in a search engine, news archives, and people-search results, hunting wrong-person matches and stale facts. What you find is what a stranger finds.

Part 6. Fixing the record — sealing, expungement, and criminal identity theft

Sealing (Massachusetts) hides a record from most requesters; the record still exists. Under M.G.L. c. 276, § 100A you petition the Commissioner of Probation; the waiting period — from the disposition, including any custody — is 3 years for a misdemeanor record, 7 years for a felony record, with no disqualifying conviction in between; some offenses are excluded and sex offenses carry a longer rule, so read the section first. § 100C handles non-convictions: not guilty, a no bill, or no probable cause shall be sealed unless you ask in writing that it not be; a dismissal or nolle prosequi is sealed when substantial justice would best be served. Once sealed, § 100A requires application forms to state that you may answer "no record" about prior arrests, appearances, or convictions.

Expungement is different and narrow. Under §§ 100F–100K it destroys the record. The time-based route (§§ 100F–100H; eligibility § 100I; exclusions § 100J) covers only offenses committed before the petitioner's twenty-first birthday, caps at two records, and uses the same clocks. Separately, § 100K lets a court expunge a record created by false identification or theft of the petitioner's identity, by an offense no longer a crime, by demonstrable errors of law enforcement, witnesses, or court employees, or by fraud on the court. No one can sell you "expungement" of an ordinary adult conviction — it does not exist; sealing is the adult remedy.

Criminal identity theft — someone else's offense under your name — is fixed as a procedure: (1) report it to police and start a plan at IdentityTheft.gov (the Identity Theft unit covers the financial side); (2) go to the court that created the false record with proof of who you are — fingerprints are decisive; (3) push the correction to the state repository (DCJIS here) and the FBI under Part 2's challenge route; (4) in Massachusetts, ask about § 100K. Mugshot sites and data brokers: some states restrict mugshot sites' removal fees and brokers offer opt-outs, but removal is partial and slow. Fix the official record first.

Part 7. Checking other people — the lawful lines

Your own record, you may pull freely. Anyone else's is fenced by the FCRA's permissible-purpose rule, 15 U.S.C. § 1681b: a consumer report may be furnished only for a listed purpose — credit, employment, insurance underwriting, a government license or benefit, the consumer's own written instructions, a court order, and a few others — "and no other." Curiosity is not on the list. You may not pull a report on a neighbor, a date, an ex, or a rival, and obtaining one by pretending to have a listed purpose is itself a federal violation: civil liability for willful noncompliance under § 1681n, and obtaining information under false pretenses under § 1681q.

Lawful screening has a shape. For employment: a disclosure in a document consisting solely of that disclosure, the person's written authorization, and — before adverse action based on the report — the § 1681b(b)(3) sequence: pre-adverse-action notice with a copy of the report and the CFPB's summary of rights, a waiting period to respond or dispute, then the adverse-action notice. A Massachusetts employer seeking CORI must use iCORI with the applicant's signed acknowledgment; "ban the box" (M.G.L. c. 151B, § 4(9½)) bars criminal-history questions on the initial written application, with narrow exceptions; sealed records may not be asked about — the applicant may answer "no record."

What anyone may research publicly: court dockets, property and assessor records, Secretary of State business filings, license lookups, and the public sex-offender registry for its stated purpose. Two warnings: broker data is often stale or wrong, and a name match is not an identity match — Ramirez, below, is what a name-only match did at national scale. The hard prohibitions: pretexting — lying to obtain phone records is a federal crime (18 U.S.C. § 1039); lying to obtain financial records violates the Gramm-Leach-Bliley pretext provisions (15 U.S.C. §§ 6821–6827); motor-vehicle records are limited by the Driver's Privacy Protection Act (18 U.S.C. §§ 2721–2725); impersonation is fraud. Finally, plainly: research used to frighten or control a person is stalking and harassment, unlawful in itself.

Words to know — Background Checks: Know Your Own Record

Identity History Summary — the FBI's fingerprint-based summary of arrests reported to it, with dispositions where reported.
Disposition — the recorded outcome of a charge: conviction, dismissal, acquittal.
CORI — Criminal Offender Record Information, the Massachusetts system run by DCJIS through iCORI.
Self-audit — a CORI report listing who requested your CORI, excluding law-enforcement queries; free once every 90 days.
Consumer report — an agency's report on a person's credit, character, or history under the FCRA; specialty reports target one industry.
Permissible purpose — a purpose listed in 15 U.S.C. § 1681b for furnishing a consumer report; no other qualifies.
Sealing — restricting access so most requesters are told no record exists; the record still exists.
Expungement — destruction of a record; in Massachusetts, narrow — chiefly youthful records and records from false identification, error, or fraud.
Criminal identity theft — another person's offense filed under your name because they used your identity.
Pretexting — obtaining records by lying about who you are or why you are entitled.

Myths vs facts — Background Checks: Know Your Own Record

Myth: One website can show me everything about anyone for $29.95. Fact: No product holds the official records, and no site may sell you a consumer report on another person without a permissible purpose. Your own record comes from official sources, mostly free or cheap.
Myth: An arrest with no outcome listed means the case is still open. Fact: Missing dispositions are common; the outcome usually was never reported. The court holds the truth.
Myth: Employers see everything on my CORI that I see. Fact: CORI access is tiered; your Personal Access view is broader than requesters' views.
Myth: Sealing and expungement are the same thing. Fact: Sealing restricts access; expungement destroys the record, and in Massachusetts it is narrow.
Myth: Paying a screening company makes checking on a date or neighbor legal. Fact: Payment creates no permissible purpose; curiosity is never lawful under § 1681b.

Think it through — Background Checks: Know Your Own Record

The situation: Denise is turned down for a hospital job. The employer followed the law and sent her the screening report first: a felony arrest in another county under her name and date of birth, no disposition listed. Denise has never been arrested, and she has a short window to respond.

Walk it through: (1) Read first: the missing disposition (Part 2) marks the entry incomplete, and fingerprint-based records separate her from a namesake or thief (Parts 2, 6). (2) She orders her own records officially: FBI summary ($18, Part 2), CORI through iCORI ($25, Part 3), free self-audit (Part 3). (3) She answers inside the window, in writing — disputed, not hers, correction in motion — the response Part 7's pre-adverse-action sequence exists to allow. (4) She corrects at the source — the other county's court and that state's repository, with fingerprint proof, plus the FBI challenge under 28 C.F.R. §§ 16.30–16.34; if her name was used, § 100K is the Massachusetts route for criminal identity theft (Part 6). (5) She keeps copies of everything.

Cases & codes to study — Background Checks: Know Your Own Record

TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190 (U.S. Supreme Court, 2021)

The facts: TransUnion sold an add-on flagging consumers whose first and last names matched a government list of terrorists and drug traffickers — name alone. Ramirez was flagged while buying a car; 8,185 people carried the flag; 1,853 had reports sent to businesses.
The question: Which class members had standing to sue for damages — all 8,185, or only those whose reports were disseminated?
The ruling and the outcome: Decided June 25, 2021: the 1,853 whose misleading reports reached third parties suffered concrete, reputational harm; the 6,332 whose files were never disseminated had not shown concrete harm for a damages suit. The Ninth Circuit was reversed and the case remanded.
Why it matters to you: A name match is not an identity match, and harm becomes concrete when a wrong record reaches a decision-maker.
📄 Court document: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/20-297 (the Supreme Court's opinion, via Cornell's Legal Information Institute)

The law itself — read the real words

15 U.S.C. § 1681b (U.S. Code) — permissible purposes for consumer reports, and in subsection (b) the employment rules, including the § 1681b(b)(3) pre-adverse-action → waiting → adverse-action sequence. Read it: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2010-title15/html/USCODE-2010-title15-chap41-subchapIII-sec1681b.htm
18 U.S.C. § 1039 (U.S. Code) — a federal crime to obtain, sell, or buy confidential phone records by pretexting. Read it: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2010-title18/html/USCODE-2010-title18-partI-chap47-sec1039.htm
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276, § 100A (Massachusetts General Laws) — sealing: 3 years (misdemeanor), 7 years (felony), the "no record" answer. Read it: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/mass-general-laws-c276-ss-100a
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 151B, § 4(9½) (Massachusetts General Laws) — "ban the box": no criminal-history request on the initial written application, with narrow exceptions. Read it: https://codes.findlaw.com/ma/part-i-administration-of-the-government-ch-1-182/ma-gen-laws-ch-151b-sect-4/

Where to read the real thing, free: CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com); the U.S. Code at uscode.house.gov and govinfo.gov; Massachusetts law at malegislature.gov and mass.gov; regulations at ecfr.gov.

Try this — Background Checks: Know Your Own Record

☐ Order my FBI Identity History Summary at fbi.gov and file it with its date.
☐ Pull my CORI through iCORI, request my free self-audit, and note when the next free one is due.
☐ Pull my three credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com and pick, from the CFPB's list, the specialty reports that match my life.
☐ Search my name in MassCourts or PACER, a license lookup, and a search engine; note anything that is not me.
☐ Write from memory: the lawful purposes for pulling someone else's consumer report, and the sources anyone may check publicly.

Resources to keep — Background Checks: Know Your Own Record

fbi.gov — Identity History Summary Checks: the $18 request, eDO, and approved channelers.
mass.gov — DCJIS and iCORI (CORI, self-audit, waivers), the RMV, and Trial Court case access.
annualcreditreport.com — the only federally authorized source for free reports from the three bureaus.
consumerfinance.gov — the CFPB: the list of consumer reporting companies and dispute guidance.
identitytheft.gov — the FTC recovery plan, including when a record problem is identity theft.
ftc.gov — guidance on background checks and permissible purposes.
Free Pathways Guide — this school's guide to turning free study into real credentials at no cost (in the Topic Library).
911 — if you are in danger right now.

What you earned / what's next — Background Checks: Know Your Own Record

✅ Background Checks: Know Your Own Record complete (quiz score 80% or higher): You can map every official record kept about you, request and read your FBI summary and CORI, audit your credit and specialty files, tell sealing from expungement, work the criminal-identity-theft correction procedure, and state when checking another person is lawful — and when it is a federal violation.

Your certificate

Minister Destiny Testimony Schools Certificate of Completion — Background Checks: Know Your Own Record

This certificate is presented by Muslim Ordained Minister Destiny Marie Morgan

Awarded to: ______________________________ (write your name here after you download — your name is never collected or stored by this school)

Date completed: ______________

Congratulations. Your record introduces you before you enter the room — and now you have read the introduction, know how to correct it, and know the law that guards everyone else's. — Minister Destiny Marie Morgan

This is a certificate of educational completion from Minister Destiny Testimony Schools. It is not a state license, a government certification, or legal training for representing anyone.

What's next: Return to the Topic Library for your next Year 1 Foundations unit.

Sources

Federal Bureau of Investigation (fbi.gov) — "Identity History Summary Checks": the $18 fee, eDO and mail requests, channelers and their limits.
28 C.F.R. §§ 16.30–16.34 (Code of Federal Regulations) — obtaining your FBI record and challenging an entry through the contributing agency.
Massachusetts Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (mass.gov) — CORI pages: the $25 request and indigency waiver, the self-audit, and the access levels.
Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov) — "Your Source for a Truly Free Credit Report? AnnualCreditReport.com" (https://www.ftc.gov/media/79865).
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (consumerfinance.gov) — specialty consumer reporting agencies and the CFPB's list of consumer reporting companies (https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/what-are-specialty-consumer-reporting-agencies-and-what-types-of-information-do-they-collect-en-1813/).
Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (mass.gov) — "Request a driving record"; United States Courts (uscourts.gov) — PACER; Massachusetts Trial Court case access (MassCourts) via mass.gov.
TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190 (U.S. Supreme Court 2021) — name-only OFAC matching and concrete harm on dissemination.
15 U.S.C. § 1681b (U.S. Code) — permissible purposes; § 1681b(b) employment conditions. 15 U.S.C. § 1681n — willful-noncompliance liability. 15 U.S.C. § 1681q — false pretenses. 15 U.S.C. §§ 6821–6827 — Gramm-Leach-Bliley pretext prohibitions. 18 U.S.C. § 1039 — phone records by fraud. 18 U.S.C. §§ 2721–2725 — Driver's Privacy Protection Act.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276, § 100A — sealing; waiting periods; "no record" answer. § 100C — non-conviction sealing. §§ 100F–100K — expungement: petitions, eligibility (§ 100I), exclusions (§ 100J), false identification/error/fraud (§ 100K). Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 151B, § 4(9½) — ban the box.

Your Progress — On Your Device Only — Background Checks: Know Your Own Record

Learning outcomes: On completing this unit, the student can:

list the official records kept about a person and the source for each;
request an FBI summary and a CORI, state each fee, and explain a missing disposition;
explain CORI access levels and obtain a free self-audit;
obtain free credit reports from the only authorized source, identify specialty reports from the CFPB's list, and outline the dispute process;
distinguish sealing from expungement — § 100A periods, § 100C sealing, §§ 100F–100K routes;
work the criminal-identity-theft correction procedure from police report to court, repository, and FBI correction;
state the permissible-purpose rule, the employment screening sequence, CORI acknowledgment and ban-the-box rules, and the pretexting prohibitions.

Study time: Approximately 1 hour — an estimate covering reading, activities, and the test. Students move at their own pace.
Assessment: A 10-question test drawn only from this unit's lesson. 80% or higher passes and earns the unit certificate. Answers are not shown; your score is saved only in your own browser on this device, and retakes are allowed.
Level: Topic Library — Year 1 (Foundations) · Adult school · working rank on completion path: Freshman → Sophomore.
Version: Version 1.0 — October 2026.

Minister Destiny Testimony Schools — Adult. Educational information only, not legal advice. Help lines: 911 for emergencies · 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call/text 988).

Ready to test? This course's test is given at the Testing Center. Answers are never shown; score at least 80% to earn your certificate of completion. You may retake the test as many times as you need — each retake presents the questions in a different order, with the answer choices in a different order too.