Why You Should Consider Doing a Background Check on the Person You're Dating

When you think of a private investigator, many images come to mind, a loner who smokes cigarettes during the day and stays out all night following someone doing something with someone that they probably shouldn't, maybe three sexy women who take orders from a guy behind a speaker box, or even a married couple who take on cases and spy in their spare time--but no matter what image you create, the next question is, "Who hires a private investigator in real life?"

You might be surprised to hear the answer. Skipp, a private investigator for Sherlock Investigations, Inc, located in New York City, the majority of his clients are gay males doing background checks on the men they're dating. His second highest demographic if clients are women in the middle of a nasty divorce. But what would motivate someone to hire a private-eye?

Here are the three tops reasons.

1. People with previous bad judgment when dating someone new. Some call it instinct while others call it intuition, but no matter what you refer to it as, some people don't have the ability to objectively judge another person's character when it comes to love. And it's not that a person is faulty or wired wrong, but certain people have gotten good at lying and have the ability to deceive others quite well. According to Skipp, people should do a background check on the person they're dating before it gets too serious or they consider walking down the isle together. Many factors may come into the light after a background check, like a person's credit history, criminal record and sex offender status. These are serious elements that can break a union if your partner isn't open and honest at the start.

2. People who think their spouse is cheating. Have you started getting hangups after you answer your partner's cell phone? What about late night texts from a mysterious new number? Is he coming home late and has no other response than, "I was working late." Then you might want to follow your hunch a little closer. This is not to say that people don't actually work late or have other business to tend to outside of work but Skipp reports that women who think their spouses are cheating are right 90 percent of the time, while men are wrong 50 percent of the time.

3. People who's spouse have cheated and they need it verified. If you have a prenuptial agreement with your spouse, there's probably a clause in there that covers extra marital affairs and you are not allowed any more if the settlement unless you can prove your spouse was having an affair. And that's when a private investigator steps in. A private-eye will do all the dirty work for you, like doing a bug sweep--where he makes sure no one is planting listening devices on your cell phone or in your home and he or she will also follow someone until the proper evidence is collected. You might not like the result, but a private detective is thorough.

No matter what the situation, a good private investigator is always prepared and ready for his next case which might include putting himself in harms way to collect the goods. And as far as his clients, they are real people with real life scenarios--and that's something no TV character ever had.