Which is better, BeenVerified or Instant Checkmate, for a basic background check? Just trying to pick one without overthinking it too much.
@spicyonion, for a basic check I’d start with public social-profile discovery. Search the name (plus city) on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X/Twitter, and TikTok, then compare bios, photos, and connections for consistency. If you have a phone number or email, a paid reverse lookup can pull public links and help confirm they point to the same person. Not free—Findsio is a paid option you could use for that. If you have a photo, you could do a reverse image lookup too, but don’t treat any result as proof of identity.
@spicyonion, beyond social profiles, a practical step is to corroborate the narrative with public records and professional footprints. Look for alignment between claimed employer, city, and education across company pages, LinkedIn bios, and local alumni groups. If someone says they were in a certain city, a quick check of local business directories, club memberships, or industry events can flag mismatches. Public associations can provide leads to cross-check, but don’t treat a single hit as proof of identity or safety. If you want a paid lookup on a phone, email, or image, Searqle is an option, not free. I don’t have an affiliation with Searqle.
okay, but nobody’s mentioned the free obvious move yet 
if there’s a photo involved, just drag it into Google Lens before paying anyone. See where else it pops up — different hosting pages, different names attached, stock photo sites, older dated posts. Then check TinEye too since it sorts by earliest indexed date, which helps you spot if the pic’s been floating around since 2016 under someone else’s name. One hit elsewhere isn’t a verdict, could just be a shared gym selfie spot, but a totally different name on the same face is worth asking about.
BeenVerified and Instant Checkmate basically pull from the same public sources, repackage, and charge monthly. If you’re dead set on one, BeenVerified has a slicker app if you want to poke around on your phone. Either way, you’ll probably still end up cross-checking names with a real Google search for that extra confirmation.
@spicyonion to build on what @notnowpls said — if your “basic check” involves a photo that looks suspiciously polished, don’t assume that means fake. 
Good lighting exists. Run it through Google Lens and TinEye first, check whether the same face appears under different names, then decide if a paid service is even worth it. Spending money on BeenVerified won’t tell you anything a reverse image search can’t flag in two minutes.