Dating-safety watchdog
BeenVerified
by The Lifetime Value Co. (LTV)
One of the biggest people-search sites — a data-broker lookup people reach for to "check" a match, sold as a monthly membership whose price you only see after you’ve run a search.
Can you legally use it?
no legal screeningThe question the affiliate reviews skip — and the most important one for a “background check.”
Legal status — No legal screening
BeenVerified states it is NOT a consumer reporting agency. By its own terms of use you may not use its reports for employment, tenant, credit or insurance decisions — i.e. for the exact "vetting" most people assume a background check is for.
Regulator action
No BeenVerified-specific FTC penalty, but it sits squarely in the people-search category the FTC has repeatedly acted against for FCRA violations (see Spokeo, TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate).
FTC sourceHow accurate is it?
Data quality: Unverified.
Reports are stitched together from public records and web data the company does not verify. Common, well-documented failure modes: data merged from a different person with the same name, long-outdated addresses, and "possible" records flagged with no confirmation.
sourceWhat BeenVerified costs
Observed 2026-06-08. Where a price is gated behind a search, trial-anchored or discount-tested we say so — we never guess.
| What you pay for | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1-month membership Price is gated — only revealed after you run a search and reach checkout. Auto-renews until cancelled (by phone or email). | ≈$36.89/month(gated) | source |
| 3-month membership Marketed as "save 35%" vs monthly — the longer commitment is the discount anchor. | ≈$23.98/month (billed ≈$71.94/quarter)(gated) | source |
How it works: You enter a name, phone, email or address; it aggregates public records and web data into a "report" (addresses, phones, relatives, possible criminal/court records). The price is not shown up front — you go through a search, then a paywall, then an auto-renewing membership.
The privacy trade — both ways
high data riskWho you expose
The person you look up — usually with no notice or consent to them. You are running surveillance on a near-stranger from a profile they never agreed to.
⚠ The service is itself a data broker that sells personal data
Getting your own record removed
BeenVerified offers an opt-out, but the same underlying data resurfaces on sister LTV brands (PeopleLooker, NeighborWho, Ownerly…), each of which must be opted out of separately.
Claims vs evidence
What it promises — and whether anything backs it up.
“Run unlimited background reports.”
Contested"Unlimited" applies within a paid, auto-renewing membership — and a report is an aggregation of unverified public records, not a vetted background check you can legally act on.
Flags
Red = a serious, documented issue (an FTC finding, a deceptive teaser, a hard auto-renew trap) · amber = a pricing / accuracy / privacy concern · green = something notably honest.
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Price hidden until after you search
The membership price is not shown up front — it appears only once you have run a search and are at the payment screen, the moment you are most invested in seeing the result.
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Auto-renewing membership, cancel by phone/email
Memberships auto-renew until you actively cancel, which the company routes through a support line or email rather than a one-click toggle.
source - 🔴
Not legal to use for screening
By its own terms it is not a consumer reporting agency — using its data to decide on a tenant, employee or similar is an FCRA violation regardless of the on-site disclaimer.
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It profits from selling personal data — including yours
BeenVerified and its sister LTV brands are data brokers; your own profile is part of the inventory unless you opt out of each one.
Who's behind BeenVerified?
Founded in 2007 by Josh Levy and Ross Cohen; BeenVerified is the flagship brand of The Lifetime Value Company (LTV), a New York holding company whose portfolio includes the overlapping people-search brands PeopleLooker, NeighborWho, Ownerly, NumberGuru and PeopleSmart — so "deleting yourself from BeenVerified" rarely removes you from the family.
The verdict
A polished front-end on the same unverified public-records data everyone in this category resells, sold as an auto-renewing membership whose price you only see once you are committed. It cannot legally be used to "vet" anyone, and what it shows you may be wrong. For checking a date, a free reverse-image search plus the relevant county court portal usually covers what matters — at $0 and without joining a data broker.
Same lens, the whole industry
We decode dating apps, coaches, matchmakers, courses, AI tools and profile services the same way — what it costs, who's behind it, and what the claims are worth. No affiliate money, anywhere.
Keep digging
We take no money from The Lifetime Value Co. (LTV) or any safety service, and we run none of their affiliate links. Figures observed 2026-06-08from the provider's own page, a dated review where the price is gated, or a primary FTC notice; gated and undisclosed details are recorded as such, never guessed. See methodology.