Background checks: what 3,104 federal complaints show
When a background check costs you your account, the report came from a company most workers have never heard of: Checkr, First Advantage, Sterling, or HireRight. Every complaint filed against them with the federal consumer agency (CFPB) is public. We pulled all of them since July 2022 and read what they show.
- The CFPB's public consumer complaint database, pulled July 10, 2026 (data through July 8).
- A complaint is one person's account, not a verdict. And the response label (“relief”, “explanation”) is chosen by the company itself, so differences between companies can partly be labeling habits.
- Only people who know the CFPB exists file complaints. These counts are floors, not totals of how many people had the problem.
- The CFPB redacts platform names from published complaint stories, so almost no complaint shows which app the person worked for.
It is an accuracy problem
Of the 3,104 complaints, 1,824 (59%) are about wrong information on the report. The most common versions: public records that are not current, wrong personal details, and reports carrying someone else's information.
What a complaint gets you
The companies respond on time almost every time (96% overall). But an answer is not a fix: 90% of complaints close with an explanation. Here is what each company marked as closed with relief (money or a correction):
| Company | Complaints | Closed with relief | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checkr | 1,281 | 1 | 0.1% |
| First Advantage | 1,316 | 265 | 20.1% |
| Sterling | 258 | 0 | 0% |
| HireRight | 247 | 0 | 0% |
| Yardstik | 2 | 0 | too few complaints |
The practical takeaway: a CFPB complaint builds a paper trail, but the legal lever is the written dispute sent directly to the screening company under the FCRA. That dispute starts a 30 day clock the company has to meet.
Complaints are climbing
Complaints received per year against these five companies:
Why you rarely see platform names
Only 15 published stories name a platform. The reason is structural: just 1,148 of the 3,104 complaints publish a story at all, and the CFPB redacts names. In Checkr's stories, 36.1% describe gig work (driving, deliveries, deactivation) even with the name blacked out. That is why nobody can pull honest per-platform counts from this data, us included.
If a check cost you your account
Get the full report free from the company that made it (the law gives you that right). Read it line by line.
If anything is wrong, dispute it in writing with that company. That starts the legal 30 day clock. Our guide walks through it: how to dispute a background check. And tell the platform, in writing, that the report is under dispute.
Sources: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (consumerfinance.gov), queried July 10, 2026. Companies: Checkr, First Advantage (two entities), Sterling, HireRight, and Yardstik. Persona Identities does not appear in the database. Related data: arbitration outcomes.