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Intelius, Inc. is a public records business with headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, United States. They provide information and offer services to consumers and businesses that includes background checks and identity theft protection. A majority of Intelius' revenue comes from selling background reports.

History

In March 1996, former Microsoft employee Naveen Jain founded InfoSpace, an early online search engine and directory, where he served as CEO. In December 2002, Naveen Jain was removed as CEO by the board of directors, after which he started Intelius with co-worker Kevin Marcus. Jain was then sued by InfoSpace for allegedly violating noncompete agreements, mishandling business-specific secrets and interfering with InfoSpace's customer relationships. The judge ruled in favor of Jain, citing a lack of "clear and convincing evidence" that there was a violation of noncompete agreements.

In late 2006, Chief Financial Officer Paul Cook suggested that the company was considering an Initial Public Offering. Intelius filed a registration statement on January 10, 2008 for an initial public offering to raise up to $143.75 million.

Market

Background checks for dating

Intelius targets marketing for consumers with an interest in dating, especially online dating. It provides background checks for potential relationships and verification of identity under the InteliSign branding. Industry experts point out the advertising campaign's reliance on "scare tactics".

Employer background checks

On December 5, 2006, Intelius enlarged its employment screening market with its acquisition of Bothell, Washington's IntelliSense Corporation, integrating an infrastructure capable of international background information, fingerprinting, and drug screening, and complementing its previous capabilities for small and medium businesses.

On April 30, 2009, Intelius acquired Spock, a people-oriented search engine .

Lawsuits

Class Action Lawsuits

On September 30, 2009 before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California a class action lawsuit was filed alleging that Bellevue, Washington-based Intelius automatically enrolled California consumers into programs of its affiliate, Adaptive Marketing, improperly and without consent. The complaint describes how the defendants allegedly automatically billed California consumers' credit cards for these unrequested "memberships" and intentionally frustrated victims' ability to recognize and dispute these charges.

On October 19, 2009, in Federal Court in Seattle, Intelius was slapped with another class action lawsuit, with this one alleging that the Bellevue provider of online background checks violated Washington state's Consumer Protection Act. It alleges that Intelius engaged in "misleading sign-up" messages on its Web site. Those messages allegedly led consumers to unknowingly receive credit card charges on their statements from a third-party partner by the name of Adaptive Marketing. This suit -- filed by Washington resident Bruce Keithly and Ohio residents Donovon Lee and Edith Anna Cramer comes as Intelius looks to diminish the role that Adaptive Marketing plays in its business. Keithly, Lee and Cramer claim in their lawsuit that after purchasing background reports through Intelius they were each charged $19.95 for a subscription service called "Identity Protect" that they didn't know about and didn't want.

Cellular phone directory

In early 2008, Intelius came under scrutiny for providing access to private cellular phone numbers culled from a variety of sources. In response, Verizon threatened a lawsuit over posting consumer phone numbers without consent. A few days later, on February 1, 2008, the cellular phone directory was taken down.

Post-Transaction Marketing

Washington State Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau received over 900 complaints about Intelius as of March 2009 according to the Seattle Weekly website. Most involved the practice of "Post-Transaction Marketing." Partly because of concerns about Intelius, Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna requested legislation this session aimed at stopping what he calls "deceptive" Internet marketing.

Opt-out policy

There has been criticisms for the difficult nature of "opting out" of being listed on Intelius. The firm's Web site states, "Intelius does not usually offer individuals the opportunity to permanently remove their publicly available information from our public records databases." The site states, "as a courtesy," that personal information may be suppressed by a user's request, provided they mail or fax a notarized letter and a copy of their driver's license, in order to confirm the person's identity.

Automatic enrollment

Numerous customers have complained that after using Intelius services, their credit or debit cards are, without authorization, automatically charged each month for services they had not requested under various merchant names, linked to Adaptive Marketing, an affiliate company.

Consumer complaints

The Better Business Bureau of Alaska, Oregon, and Western Washington has catalogued numerous complaints about customer service, including a continual refusal to provide refunds to customers who claim not to have requested or received the services they paid for. Additional complaints have been made about misleading advertising, and that background information provided by the company is inaccurate or has not been updated. According to the BBB, the company is not a member, and does not always respond when contacted by them.

References

1. ^ Nina Shapiro (2007). "Intelius Says it's Capable of Conducting a Full Background Check on Anyone". Seattle Weekly. Retrieved 2007-04-13. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
2. John Swartz (2007). "Who's guarding your data in the cybervault?". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-04-07. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
3. Tim Mullaney (2006). "Intelius, Founded by InfoSpace's Jain, Considers Going Public". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 2007-04-17. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
4. ^ Sara Kehaulani Goo (2007). "Dinner, Movie, Background Check for Online Daters". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-04-17. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
5. "Kevin Marcus Executive Profile". American City Business Journals. Retrieved 2008-11-29. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
6. David Heath and Sharon Pian Chan (2005). "Dot-con job: How InfoSpace took its investors for a ride Part 2 - Cashing Out". Seattle Times. Retrieved 2009-01-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
7. Sharon Pian Chan (2003). "Judge denies bid to bar Jain from work at InfoSpace rival". Seattle Times. Retrieved 2009-01-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
8. John Cook (2003). "InfoSpace founder wins round". Seattle PI. Retrieved 2009-01-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
9. Julie Vorman (2008). "Intelius plans IPO of up to $143.75 mln - SEC filing". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-01-10. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
10. Mandy Stadtmiller (2006). "Check Mate - More Women Paying To Investigate Dates". The New York Post. Retrieved 2007-04-17. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
11. Intelius buys Spock
12. Alex Johnson (2008). "Cell phone directory rings alarm bells". MSNBC. Retrieved 2008-02-29. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
13. "Verizon Wireless Calls For Halt To Data Mining Of Wireless Phone Numbers". Verizon. 2008-01-29. Retrieved 2009-05-01. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
14. ^ Suzanne Choney (2008). "Company shuts down cell phone directory". MSNBC. Retrieved 2008-02-29. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
15. Svensson, Peter (2/4/2008). "Cell-phone directory assistance closing". USA Today. Retrieved 2009-05-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
16. "Intelius Shuts Down Controversial Cell Phone Directory". realtechnews. February 2nd, 2008. Retrieved 2009-05-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
17. "Intelius and the Dubious Art of "Post-Transaction Marketing"". Seattle Weekly. March 17th, 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
18. "How can I remove my information from the Intelius public records databases?". Intelius. Retrieved 2008-02-29. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
19. Michael Arrington (2008). "Naveen Jain's Latest Scam: Intelius,". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2008-11-29. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
20. Seattle Weekly: Intelius and the Dubious Art of “Post-Transaction Marketing”, retrieved 2009-03-19
21. "BBB Reliability Report for Intelius Inc". Better Business Bureau. Retrieved 2008-11-30. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

• Misplaced Pages articles with possible conflicts of interest from August 2009
• Companies established in 2003
• Online person databases
• Companies based in Bellevue, Washington
• Privately held companies of the United States