Broker profile

Check Secrets

A US people-search and background-report site operated by Truth Now LLC out of Glendale, California - confirmed via data broker registration #542880 (approved 2021-07-14). It is also one of the 15 brands researcher JayeLTee found mapped inside the MC2 Data, LLC backend, the Florida operation whose passwordless database exposed 106 million Americans' records in August 2024. The web-form opt-out is gated behind the same broken-CAPTCHA dark pattern as sister site BackgroundCheckers.net - California residents can route a deletion through the state DROP platform, and everyone else is left with a CCPA written request that nobody has recorded being answered.

Manual removal guide Visit checksecrets.com

Check Secrets overview

At a glance

Quick facts

Privacy Risk

LimitedModerateSubstantialExtensive

Data published: Extensive
Re-listing frequency: Recurring
Complaint record: Mixed
Opt-out friction: Severe
Operator opacity: Mostly disclosed
Prior data incidents: Major breach

Each broker is scored 1 to 4 across the six dimensions above; higher means more exposure, and the overall gauge is their average.

A confirmed prior data leak holds the overall rating at Substantial or higher; a major or repeat breach forces Extensive, regardless of the other five dimensions.

What each dimension means

Data published: how much and how sensitive the personal data they put out.
Re-listing frequency: how quickly you reappear after opting out.
Complaint record: the volume and pattern of complaints across BBB, Trustpilot, and Sitejabber. No listing, or a listing with no reviews, counts against the broker.
Opt-out friction: how hard the removal process is to complete.
Operator opacity: how hidden the operating company and its principals are.
Prior data incidents: history of breaches or leaks of the data they hold.

Category: People-search / background reports
Legal operator: Truth Now LLC
CA AG data broker reg.: #542880
Backend infrastructure: MC2 Data, LLC
BBB ratings (two filings): A- (Truth Now LLC) · B
Business started: Apr 20, 2017
Opt-out status: Broken
Network size: 15 brands · 5 LLC fronts
2024 data leak: 106M records exposed

Background

Site history

CheckSecrets.com is operated by Truth Now LLC, a California entity registered as a data broker with the California Attorney General (registration #542880, approved July 14, 2021). The site was also one of 15 brands researcher JayeLTee found running on the MC2 Data, LLC backend - a Florida-based company whose passwordless database exposed 106 million Americans' records in August 2024.

Legal operator: Truth Now LLC
CA AG data broker reg.: #542880 (approved 2021-07-14)
Backend infrastructure: MC2 Data, LLC
Backend principal: Mark Chin
Business started: Apr 20, 2017
Sister flagship: privaterecords.net (Private Records LLC)

The Glendale, California address on file - 3746 Foothill Blvd #7060 - is a UPS Store mail-drop. The mailbox serves two BBB-registered names at the same suite: "Truth Now LLC" (the CA-registered legal entity, BBB rating A-) and "Checksecrets" (a separate BBB filing for the same operation, rating B). Two filings, one address, one phone number, one operator.

The connection between CheckSecrets and the MC2 Data backend became publicly documented in September 2024, when a misconfigured database surfaced holding 106,316,633 consumer records and 2.3 million subscriber accounts. Researcher JayeLTee found every user record carried a brand ID mapping to one of 15 websites, and cross-brand admin accounts under @mc2data.com - CheckSecrets.com among them, per DataBreaches.net's list. Three class actions followed in the Southern District of Florida against MC2 Data, LLC, and were dismissed in February 2025 (see Litigation below). The relationship between Truth Now LLC (the consumer-facing California entity) and MC2 Data, LLC (the Florida backend) is not publicly disclosed - the cleanest read of the public record is that Truth Now LLC is the consumer-facing legal wrapper for CheckSecrets while MC2 Data runs the shared backend across all 15 brands.

Why the CA AG registration matters. Most people-search brokers in the MC2 Data cluster operate behind privacy-protected WHOIS and Florida-based LLCs the BBB lists as out of business. Truth Now LLC is the rare exception - it's actively registered under California's pre-2024 data broker law and has filed a public CCPA registration with the AG. That registration is what gives a California resident's opt-out request a real statutory footing, with a 45-day response window that can be extended once to 90. See the removal guide's escalation section for how to use this in practice.

The web-form opt-out is broken. Despite the CA AG registration, CheckSecrets's "Do Not Sell Or Share My Personal Info" form is gated behind the same unsolvable scribble CAPTCHA that sister site BackgroundCheckers.net uses. The form submits no data and exists only to satisfy the surface requirement of having an opt-out link. Once the form refuses you, California residents can go through the state DROP platform and the CCPA written-request channel (email, postal mail) is what remains otherwise - see the removal guide.

$1 trial billing pattern. The Checksecrets BBB filing's six complaints concentrate on the same trial-to-paid trap that recurs across this operator family: a $1 7-day membership trial that auto-enrolls into a monthly subscription unless cancelled before the trial expires. The disclosure is technically present on the order page but is small and easy to miss.

Data Published

Data types

11 categories

Sensitive: elevated identity-theft, doxxing, or safety riskStandard public-record field

Full names, including aliases and prior names
Approximate age and date of birthSensitive
Names of likely relatives, household members, and known associatesSensitive
Current and previous home addresses (street-level)Sensitive
Phone numbers (landline and mobile)
Marriage and divorce records
Education background
Bankruptcy filings
Criminal records, court records, and arrest records (when the site's scraper has found matches in court systems)Sensitive
Names of neighbors
Linked social media profiles when discoverable from indexed sources

Data sources: US public records (voter rolls, property, court), commercial data aggregators, and indexed social data. Records are not verified against the actual subject and may be stale, mismatched, or attributable to the wrong person. The site frames itself as a "look up your date" / "background check on a stranger" tool, which means accuracy is presented as secondary to volume.

Sealed and expunged records risk. If CheckSecrets is publishing arrest or court data that should be sealed, expunged, or vacated under state law, the same FCRA theory applied to Confi-Chek in Garza v. Confi-Chek (2018) would apply here. Document any such listing with a screenshot before opting out - the timestamped evidence is what makes a state-AG or CFPB complaint actionable later if removal stalls.

Contact

Contacts & links

From BBB filings

BBB-registered entity: Checksecrets
Linked Florida entities (shared template + support line): MC2 Data, LLC · Private Records LLC
Principal (Private Records LLC, per BBB): Mark Chin, VP of Private Records LLC
Customer service: Lisa Richter, Customer Support Manager
BBB-listed address: 3746 Foothill Blvd #7060 Glendale, CA 91214
Address (Private Records LLC): 1317 Edgewater Dr # 1255 Orlando, FL 32804-6350
Address (MC2 Data, LLC): 7154 N University Dr # 70 Tamarac, FL 33321-2916
Customer phone (CheckSecrets): +1 (855) 754-7951 · Sun-Sat 8 am - 11 pm ET
Sister-brand phone: +1 (877) 503-0705 · shared by Private Records LLC + MC2 Data, LLC
Site support email: support@checksecrets.com
Website: https://www.checksecrets.com/
BBB profile: Glendale, CA · B rating · 6 complaints (1 unresolved)

Three addresses, one template family. The BBB-listed Glendale, CA address is a private mailbox at a UPS Store; the addresses for the linked Florida LLCs are in Orlando and Tamarac. The two Florida-based LLCs are flagged "out of business" with BBB while the CA filing is still active with a B rating - one shared template and support line, different shell status across states. No filing documents formal common ownership.

Network

Sister brands

15 brands, five fronts

CheckSecrets sits on Truth Now LLC's California filing beside SealedRecords.net and PeopleSearchUSA.org, and the cards below show the wider network it shares a backend with rather than that filing alone. The wider MC2 Data network runs 15 brands through five LLC fronts - Truth Now, The People Searchers, Private Records, We Inform, and Infomatics - all identified on one shared backend in the 2024 leak. privaterecords.net is the flagship and the most feature-complete; backgroundcheckers.net uses an identical template and dataset.

Opt-out propagation likely shared - but verify each. If the entire cluster runs on one MC2 Data backend, suppression on one brand may propagate to the others. The operator has not published this either way. Until confirmed, treat each brand as requiring its own opt-out request.

Related broker network: MC2 Data network. Check Secrets is one of the 15 brands researcher JayeLTee found running on the shared MC2 Data backend, which exposed 106,316,633 records across roughly 2.2TB in 2024. Opting out of Check Secrets does not automatically remove you from the sister brands listed below; each requires its own opt-out request.

Owned or operated by Truth Now LLC22 entities in this network · Glendale, CAExplore the full map

sealedrecords.net

peoplesearchusa.org

backgroundcheckers.net

inmatessearcher.com

mugshotlook.com

peoplesearch123.com

Reputation

Trust signals

B rating; thin reviews

CheckSecrets has the most visible BBB footprint of any brand in its template family - which is itself a clue that the Glendale, CA shell is the only piece of the operation that's actively engaging with consumer-protection venues. Six complaints, one unresolved, all clustered around the same $1-trial-to-monthly billing pattern. The Trustpilot and SmartCustomer footprints are negligible.

TrustpilotNo listing surfaced for checksecrets.comNo listingAs of Verify manuallyCheck Trustpilot ↗

BBB (Truth Now LLC)La Crescenta, CA · not accredited · 5 complaints in last 3yrA- ratingAs of 2026-08View profile ↗

BBB (Checksecrets DBA)Glendale, CA · not accredited · 6 complaints (1 unresolved)B ratingAs of 2026-05View profile ↗

SmartCustomer (formerly Sitejabber)No listing surfaced for checksecrets.comNo listingAs of Verify manuallyCheck SmartCustomer ↗

$1 7-day trial silently converts to a recurring monthly subscription unless cancelled before the trial expires
Reports returning "nothing found" after the $1 charge, with no refund offered
Difficulty cancelling subscriptions and disputing recurring charges
The trial-conversion disclosure is technically present but easy to miss

Common complaint themes (per BBB filings):

The B rating is misleading. BBB letter grades reward complaint responsiveness, not satisfaction. The Glendale, CA "Checksecrets" entity responds to BBB complaints (which is how the rating stays at B despite the pattern), but the underlying issue - the same $1-trial trap that runs across the brand family - keeps generating new complaints. Read the complaint themes, not the letter grade.

Litigation

Litigation history

Settled suit, dismissed breach cases

No case names CheckSecrets.com as a defendant, but its registered operator has been sued. Truth Now LLC was taken to Illinois federal court in Gaul v. Truth Now LLC over the free-preview search these brands all run on, and the case ended in a 2023 settlement, with the full docket laid out on the People Search USA profile. The rest of the litigation here is about the backend rather than the brand, because the 2024 MC2 Data breach pulled the records CheckSecrets serves into three class actions.

Bujok, Jones & Smart v. MC2 Data, LLC

Dismissed Feb 6, 2025 · no class certified

S.D. Florida · Three class actions, consolidated Nov 2024 · Filed October 2024

Dockets: 0:24-cv-61864 · 0:24-cv-61978 · 0:24-cv-62006
Filed: Oct 7 · Oct 22 · Oct 25, 2024
Court: S.D. Florida
Defendant: MC2 Data, LLC
Records exposed: 106,316,633 + 2.3M subscribers
Database size: 2.2 TB

On August 7, 2024, Cybernews researchers discovered a passwordless 2.2TB MC2 Data database accessible to anyone on the internet. The exposed records included names, emails, IP addresses, encrypted passwords, partial payment information, home addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, property records, legal records, family / relative / neighbor data, and employment history. The cause was human error (misconfigured database, no authentication) rather than a hack. Researcher JayeLTee found every user record carried a brand ID mapping to one of 15 people-search sites - CheckSecrets.com among them - with cross-brand admin accounts under @mc2data.com emails. Three class actions were filed in S.D. Florida in October 2024 alleging breach of contract and related claims, namely Bujok, Smart and Jones. The court consolidated them under Bujok on November 20, 2024, but no consolidated complaint was ever filed. After the plaintiffs gave notice of a settlement, the case was dismissed on February 6, 2025 - with prejudice as to the named plaintiffs' own claims and without prejudice as to the putative class claims. No class was certified, so there's no classwide settlement to claim from.

We have not found a Federal Trade Commission enforcement action, state Attorney General consent decree, or California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) Delete Act settlement against CheckSecrets.com, the Glendale "Checksecrets" entity, Truth Now LLC, or MC2 Data, LLC as of the last-updated date below. The Gaul settlement above was private litigation rather than a regulator action.

FAQ

Q & A

Common questions

Is Check Secrets a data broker?

Yes. CheckSecrets.com is a US people-search and background-report site publishing names, ages, relatives, addresses, phones, marriage and divorce records, education, bankruptcy filings, criminal records, neighbors, and linked social-media profiles. It is registered as a data broker under Truth Now LLC (registration #542880, approved July 14, 2021) and was one of the 15 brands identified on the MC2 Data backend exposed in 2024.

Who owns Check Secrets?

CheckSecrets.com is operated by Truth Now LLC out of Glendale, California (a UPS Store mail-drop at 3746 Foothill Blvd #7060). The same site shares backend infrastructure with MC2 Data, LLC and Private Records LLC in Florida, tied to principal Mark Chin. Lisa Richter is Customer Support Manager. The Truth Now CA filing is active, while the BBB lists the Florida-based LLCs as out of business.

What information does Check Secrets publish?

The eleven categories Check Secrets publishes are full names with aliases and prior names, approximate age and date of birth, names of likely relatives and associates, current and previous street-level addresses, landline and mobile phone numbers, marriage and divorce records, education background, bankruptcy filings, criminal records and court and arrest records, names of neighbors, and linked social-media profiles.

Can I remove myself from Check Secrets?

Technically yes, but the web-form opt-out at checksecrets.com/api/helper/optOutLight/search is gated behind the same unsolvable scribble CAPTCHA used by sister site BackgroundCheckers.net, so it does not complete. What is left is a CCPA written request to support@checksecrets.com or to the Glendale CA address, which carries statutory force for California residents under Truth Now LLC's CPPA registration, and is a voluntary request for everyone else. See our Check Secrets removal guide for step-by-step instructions.

How long does Check Secrets take to remove information?

That depends where you live. CheckSecrets publishes no timescale of its own and its on-site form does not work, so the CCPA channel is the only thing carrying a deadline. If you are a California resident, Truth Now LLC has 45 calendar days to answer a written request, and it can take a further 45 if it tells you it is doing so, which makes 90 at the outside. Readers elsewhere have no such deadline to hold them to, though the request is still worth sending.

Is Check Secrets covered by FCRA?

Not by its operator's account. Truth Now LLC answers no to FCRA regulation on its California registry filing, and the platform's terms bar using reports for FCRA-covered decisions. That's a self-description, not a ruling - whether the FCRA applies depends on how a report gets used, so a report used against you in a job, rental or credit decision can still bring the act into play. The relevant litigation is the data-breach litigation against MC2 Data, LLC in the Southern District of Florida arising from the August 2024 exposure - Cybernews reported that a misconfigured MC2 Data database exposed 106,316,633 records across roughly 2.2TB of data - not FCRA enforcement.

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Last updated:

August 4, 2026