Background check: know before you commit

Written by Guillaume Pouillier, CNAPS-licensed private detective, licence no. AGD 095-2024-03-06-20190240581 · Last updated: July 12, 2026

A background check confronts what a person says about themselves with what the facts show: identity, career, actual situation, reputation. It is conducted by our CNAPS-licensed detectives (art. L621-1 of the French Internal Security Code), from open sources, public data and observation in public space, in compliance with the GDPR. This page explains when it is justified, what it verifies, what we never do, and what it costs. If you are reading it because something feels off about someone entering your life or your business, that instinct alone is worth a free, confidential conversation: half of our role is simply telling you whether your doubt deserves an investigation at all.

When should you have someone verified?

Before any commitment that is hard to undo: marriage or moving in together, a business partnership, hiring a domestic employee, a relationship born online, a new figure around a vulnerable relative. The right moment is always before the signature, the move or the transfer, never after.

• Before a marriage or a life together: actual background, apparent financial situation, a possible double life, see also the premarital investigation
• Online encounters: the real identity behind the profile, inconsistencies, romance-scam patterns
• A future associate or financial partner: business antecedents, published proceedings, related companies, extended by due diligence
• Domestic employees (childcare, care of an elderly person): actual reliability and references before entrusting what matters most
• The entourage of a vulnerable relative: an insistent new relationship, a “man of trust”, budding undue influence

What does the investigation actually verify?

Four axes: the declared identity and career (apparent civil status, education, positions), the apparent professional and financial situation, the digital reputation in open sources, and the actual lifestyle observed in the field. All of it cross-checked, dated and sourced.

The exact scope is set with you at scoping: one does not vet a future nanny the way one vets a future associate. Collection stays minimal and proportionate, a condition of legality as much as of effectiveness.

Can the person find out?

No. The investigation is strictly discreet: no revealing contact, no intrusion, no visible trace. Your own steps are covered by professional secrecy (art. 226-13 of the French Criminal Code), the person verified will never learn of the enquiry, nor of your name.

Discretion is not a comfort, it is a condition of the result: a person who knows they are being watched smooths their behaviour, and the verification loses its value. Our investigators therefore work exclusively from open sources, public data and observation from public space, without ever approaching the person under a fabricated pretext.

That rigour also protects your relationship: if the enquiry vindicates the person, the most frequent outcome, nothing will have been damaged, and you commit with a clear mind.

What do we never do: and why is that your protection?

No access to criminal records, police files, banking or medical data: such access is illegal, and anyone promising it puts you at risk. The strength of a background check lies in the methodical cross-checking of what is lawful, not in transgression.

The parallel market of “verification” thrives on that confusion: stolen databases, exotic providers, promises of impossible access. Beyond the illegality, which can be imputed to you as the instructing party, such data is unverifiable and often wrong. A CNAPS-licensed investigator’s report takes the opposite path: every finding is dated, sourced and reproducible.

That is also what makes the report usable: should the situation ever reach a court (annulment, complaint, divorce), a fairly built file keeps its full value, where a single unlawful exhibit would contaminate everything.

How does the investigation unfold, step by step?

A free confidential consultation, written scoping (scope, budget, deadline), a documentary and open-source phase, field observation if necessary, and a final report delivered in person or through a secure channel. Allow one to three weeks depending on the depth requested.

1. Confidential consultation. You set out the situation and what worries you; we tell you honestly what an investigation can, and cannot, establish.

2. Written scoping. The mandate documents your legitimate interest, the scope and the flat fee. Nothing starts without your validation.

3. Verification. Documentary work, open sources, then proportionate fieldwork. A checkpoint if a major element emerges along the way.

4. Report. Sourced findings, a clear summary, uncertainty zones flagged. You alone receive it.

Online dating: how does the romance scam work?

Always the same mechanism: a seductive profile built to measure, an accelerated intimacy, then the “accident”, a hospitalisation, a customs problem, an investment opportunity, justifying a request for money. Early verification breaks the script before the first transfer.

Romance scammers do not target the naive: they target committed, sincere people, often after a bereavement or a divorce, and their script is professional. Photos stolen from third parties, an unverifiable professional activity “abroad”, meetings forever postponed, then the first request, modest, testing consent before the serious amounts.

Three signals should trigger verification: the persistent impossibility of meeting in person, an unverifiable professional activity, and any request for money or “joint investment”, whatever the pretext. At that stage, a few days of documentary enquiry are usually enough to establish whether the person exists as presented, and our OSINT unit knows how to trace the real origin of photos and profiles.

Two typical situations, anonymised

An online match with a too-perfect profile, whose “widowhood” and Mediterranean villa turned out to be borrowed from a third party; a providential home carer whose references were written by herself, set aside before the hire, without drama.

The widower with the villa. After eight months of online relationship, a “widowed businessman” presses his partner to co-invest in a Mediterranean residence. Verification reveals a partly borrowed identity: married, no company, villa photos lifted from a rental listing. The relationship stops before the transfer, €60,000 preserved. The client’s only regret, in her own words: not having asked three months earlier, when the first small inconsistencies had already caught her eye and been talked away.

The circular references. A family is about to entrust its children to a carer recommended by “three families”. Checks show the testimonials come from the same IP address and that the previous job ended in a dispute never mentioned. The family chooses someone else, the candidate never knew a thing, no accusation was ever made, and the hiring process simply took its course with a safer short-list.

How much does it cost?

The background check falls under administrative enquiries: from €350 (excl. VAT) for a documentary and open-source verification. A field module (observation, source-level checks) is invoiced at €85/hour (excl. VAT): free written quote and a flat fee agreed before any assignment.

The first consultation, free and confidential, exists precisely to calibrate: many situations are resolved with the documentary module alone, a few hundred euros, the price of serenity before a commitment that has no price.

See the full price list.

Frequently asked questions