Check out our latest communities fighting
AI scams on Reddit and Facebook
On SmartCustomer, businesses may not offer incentives or pay to remove reviews. Learn more about our Review Guidelines.
InstantCheckmate has a rating of 1.6 stars from 345 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with InstantCheckmate most frequently mention credit card, phone number and email address. InstantCheckmate ranks 84th among Government Records sites.
We monitor reviews for authenticity
If you dont cancel them they will bill you monthly for years... and I mean that literally. Avoid them at all costs... checkmate is a rip off
Then i found this... story of my life! Make sure you call to cancel because they will have it autopay monthly. I'm on the phone with my cc company right now. Because they won't give me refunds. They claim it a 'public database search' so they can get away with scamming people out of their money but advertising 'background checks' which should be actual background check. FALSE ADVERTISEMENT! STAY AWAY
I did a checkmate on my self and found untrue charges pended against me causing me to loose my jobs over the past few years. I've never been arrested in my life and always held
Down good jobs. A friend of mine directed me to google my self and checkmate came up.
I've contacted the FBI to investigate this false act against me. The FBI did a real record check on me world wide and found no criminal history at all I was like a ghost to there system as of comiting crimes. I would suggest all viewers to do your checks with the FBI especially
The employers. If the employers uses this site against employees rest a sure both parties will be sued and the case will be brought to the public and news.
Nothing was "free" and they promised they had phone numbers I needed, even with the area codes showing with the rest hidden with *** but they had no useful information at all. Nothing that you couldn't get just by Googling someone's name. After my card was debited I spent 30 minutes arguing with some robotic person reading a script to me on the phone. I finally threatened to call my credit card company and dispute the sale as goods ordered, but not delivered. Then the silly woman on the other end finally caved in and refunded my charges.
HOW DOES THIS COMPANY STAY IN BUSINESS?
I Am livid as I just wasted 23$ I could've gotten some junk food or bought my baby a new shirt or some pampers. I knew there would be risks but I couldn't find these reviews until after I had already been scammed. They don't provide any information that you can't find on google. Every step is long and drawn out and asks for more money to access more information. I plan to unsucribe immediately BY PHONE give me my money back bc I can't see anyone texts or call log. I had a feeling that was a bunch of bull$#*! You can't mysteriously access someone's private text log gtfoh
I went to their site and tried the free lookup which seemed to be pretty complete. So I subscribed to the 30 day plan for $28.85 which for any other web site would be a standalone purchase with no contingencies. After careful reading of the fine print I discovered that they were going to charge my account the same amount every month until I canceled the agreement. I immediately deleted the continuing transaction from PayPal. I try to download the information the Ap has discovered about and find that I will be charged $1.99 for each download. I skip that and try looking up somebody else. While the information was very complete on the sample lookup, this time it is not nearly as complete and if I want that additional information, you guessed it, there is another charge in the $20.00 range. RIPOFF!
The original small fee, I saw as to do a complete fee with updates so I would be covered knowing that IF this was a good company, this would be a valuable service. In retrospect, I would of never went down that road but being I did... here is how I handled getting my $$ back. I had paid via PayPal & told them I would put a stop to the claim & contact BBB immediately because they had flat out lied about the services they provide. It took less than 24 hours to have all my money returned to my account. I urge anyone thinking about trying their service to do one thing & one thing only! RUN!
Out of ten people only two accurate addresses and one phone number that hasn't been disconnected. One person was listed as still running a business that closed five years ago. If you want old, old, old info this is the place for you.
I used this company to try to find a deadbeat. All of the information they provided on the report was typical White-Pages stuff. What's worse, I used a private email address for my account on September 30th 2015. Since that time, my previously-private inbox has been flooded with daily solicitations from Publishers Clearinghouse, Asian Dating, House-flipping scams, instant-money offers... Instant Checkmate is an obvious reseller of email addresses and they don't really provide what I would consider to be a useful service.
Second doesn't even give you anything to prove they aren't after credit card number. Do they even have a legitimate address the feds can pick them up. Like the other guy said, they don't need to do background checks on criminals could likely start at home.
Instant Checkmate should be put out of business. Instead of revealing the criminal history of others, the criminal history of Checkmate should be exposed. Everything they do is designed to separate the visitor from his or her money. It's deceptive, a sham, and a joke.
When you sign for the five day membership you get no real report. You are required to spend more money for each piece of information you would receive. They make it impossible for you to reach them to cancel. Do not use this site.
I wish I had seen these reviews before I signed up and wasted some money! The system jerks one around with one misleading screen after another and when you finally do get your results, no big deal--doesn't include all info or has false information in the files from other people. A mess. Don't fall for their come-ons like I did. What a waste.
I subscribed to this service without first checking it out. My bad. Like the other reviews said, information is less than you can get yourself by just doing your own internet scan. They did not even have current addresses for the few people I checked on. After having the service less than 12 hours I called them this morning to cancel and get a refund. At first I was told that was done on a case by case basis. After listing my complaints I was told I could get 1/2 my money back and still have the service for 3 months. After asking to talk to someone else since that was not acceptable by me, the rep, Terri, said she would give me a full "courtesy" refund of $44.58 and that it would be 3 to 5 days. She also said I would get a confirmation email although that has not happened yet but it has only been 20 minutes since I got off the phone with her.
Yet another dissatisfied customer with "Instant Checkmate." this membership service does NOT provide services as advertised on their website- at least for the initial price paid. To get more detailed information, a paid member is informed and required to pay additional membership fees. Information that is initially provided by the service is very basic.As of 10/25/15 there is no "Trial Membership" as printed in the terms and conditions. This service/membership, based on my experience, is at best- a waste of money.
And another thing! That website for that giggle ball for dogs is a rip off. If you order the two, they send you for and charge you. If you complain, they tell u to give the other balls to a friend. Finally they tell you they will refund the shipping fee but only if u return the balls at your expense. So. How is that a refund? Total $28 lost. These sites get away with this! Total rip off of the people's money. Also the balls are hard plastic. All the dog can do is nudge it with his nose. Dog on the infomercial appears to be playing with a replica that is pliable. Sucks!
This started as a free search and then a 1 month sign up which turned into a 10 month auto charge at 22.86 per month! You must call to cancel, I happen to notice this recurrent charge on my CC way to late. Instant Checkmate should be required to notify it's customers of this recurrent charge especially when they can see that the customer did not use the services for months. Simply bad business and preying on the consumer. I did not want the recurring service at all after seeing the results for my initial searches as you can get the majority of the information free these days with some simple searches. So basically Instant Checkmate you are one big deception and con and will burn in hell appropriately, don't forget your sunscreen ;) ,,!,,
Charges to open an account/any relevant information charges extra all under the guise you are already paying for the reports you then have to pay for! Customer service refunded my money and cancelled my account though when I complained. Basic info didn't even have my current address/I've been licensed current address 10 years and have had police contact (although they did show a traffic tkt that was dropped as a "criminal traffic violation.").
Lucky for you nobody with money has shut you down. You have a license to steal and then to add insult you throw another 20 on there. Thank Bush and associate for deregulation or a few of you would be in jail
They suck you in by saying it is only $2.99. Then when you pay, it says you must sign up (for a minimum of $23) to get your results. They must make a bundle off of that $2.99 with so many people buying into the line of crap!
Answer: No, you can't see anyone's call log or texts. At first it was 1.98 to receive access to the report. Then once I paid the 1.98 I selected "access report" (again) then I was promoted to select a membership Lowest being 22$. Most options tell you that you're paying that amount the same day but the cheapest membership didn't say you would be paying the same day but you are. So roughly 24$ to see what you could've found on Google. When you get to the phone log part it says "you're stuck" or some bull crap probably pay more money which is unreal as you have selected a membership already. This is a rip off there's just now around it smh
Answer: Contact your credit card company, tell them that InstantCheckmate is making unauthorized charges to your card; have your credit card company cancel your card and issue you a new one. I know, it sucks. That's what I had to do. For several months I got "declined payment" indicators listed in my online credit statement, which was good, because InstantCheckmate couldn't get their fraudulent charge to go through. The police, the FBI, or FTC or somebody needs to crack down on InstantCheckmate. I guess maybe it'll take a class action lawsuit against them. But really, the wisest thing to do is to cancel your credit card, have a new one issued -- and be extremely cautious and careful from now on to whom and where you use and give your credit card number. I know, it's a pain in the a##! Good luck. Cheers.
Answer: Absolutely not worth the money they give you incomplete answers and keep charging you for additional answers. Incorrect &/or incomplete reports. Stay far away!
Answer: Appears to be feedback manipulation on consumeraffairs.com to me. Notice all of the replies from Instant Checkmate. They had no current or correct info for me other than my childrens names, which I can find easily anyplace.
Answer: I recommend watching your credit card statement for additional charges for a few months. This company is notorious for not cancelling accounts.
The Leading Background Search and People Search tool on the internet. Enter a name and state to start your people search and run a background check.

