Broker profile

Instant Checkmate

One of the four PeopleConnect people-search brands, run by Instant Checkmate LLC from the family's San Diego suite. Its reports carry criminal and traffic records, address and employment history, photos, and social profiles behind a subscription that starts at $35.47 a month. It shares the FTC's $5.8 million 2023 order with TruthFinder, and it shared the 2019 backup leak that exposed 20.2 million customer accounts across both brands. One request at PeopleConnect's Suppression Center clears it and three sister sites at once.

Manual removal guide Visit instantcheckmate.com

Instant Checkmate overview

At a glance

Quick facts

Privacy Risk

LimitedModerateSubstantialExtensive

Data published: Extensive
Re-listing frequency: Recurring
Complaint record: Pattern of complaints
Opt-out friction: Moderate
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: volume and pattern of complaints across BBB, Trustpilot, and Sitejabber; no findable review presence 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: Background checks · people search · reverse phone
Operating entity: Instant Checkmate LLC · San Diego, CA
Family: PeopleConnect · TruthFinder · Intelius · US Search
Pricing: $35.47/mo · $28.38/mo on a 3-month term · phone reports $5.99/mo
CA registration: Instant Checkmate LLC · four domains
2024 deletion requests: 24,499 received · 1,255 denied · one-day median
FTC order: $5.8M · Sept 2023, shared with TruthFinder
Opt-out: suppression.peopleconnect.us · covers four sites
FCRA covered?: No · disclaimed on its own pricing page

Background

PeopleConnect's second flagship

Instant Checkmate sells subscription background reports, and it's the sibling brand to TruthFinder inside the PeopleConnect family. Type a name and the site walks you through a loading sequence before landing you at a paywall. What sits behind that paywall is the full people-search dossier, and Instant Checkmate is unusually forthcoming about it — its own pricing page lists birth information, photos, phone numbers, social profiles, email addresses, address history, employment and educational history, business ownership, assets, and criminal, traffic and court records.

Registrant: Instant Checkmate LLC
Registered address: 375 Camino De La Reina, Ste. 400 San Diego, CA 92108
Filed domains: instantcheckmate.com · cellphonedirectory.com · cheaterslie.com · freepeople-search.com
Business started (BBB): June 17, 2010
Data sources (its own answer): "Federal, state, and county public record databases, along with other public record sources such as social media sites"

The corporate placement is settled by the filing rather than inferred. Instant Checkmate LLC registers with California as a data broker in its own name, from the same San Diego suite as Intelius, LLC and TruthFinder, LLC, and the contact address on its filing is a peopleconnect.us one — which is the paper trail tying the brand back to the parent that sells nothing itself.

The filing covers four domains, and only one of them is a search product. CellPhoneDirectory.com and FreePeople-Search.com are front-ends that hand searches to Instant Checkmate. CheatersLie.com isn't a search site at all — it's a relationship blog, an SEO funnel that feeds the paid product.

Two things on the record cut against the marketing. In September 2023 the FTC announced a $5.8 million order against Instant Checkmate and TruthFinder over background-report accuracy claims and FCRA violations. And in February 2023 PeopleConnect confirmed that a backup database dated April 2019 had leaked, exposing 20.2 million Instant Checkmate and TruthFinder customer accounts created between 2011 and 2019. Those exposed were the people buying reports, not the people written about in them.

Know what a charge from this company looks like. Instant Checkmate publishes the descriptors its charges appear under, and they don't say "Instant Checkmate" in full — they start with chkmate*, including chkmate*phoneservices, which names no brand at all. If you're trying to work out what an unrecognized subscription charge is, that prefix is the thread to pull.

A denial rate worth knowing before you submit. Instant Checkmate's 2024 filing reports 24,499 requests to delete, of which 23,244 were granted in full and 1,255 were denied — roughly one in twenty. The median response was one day, so a request that's going to be refused is refused quickly. Check that your listing is actually gone rather than assuming.

Data Published

Data types

Its own list

These categories come from Instant Checkmate's own pricing page, which sets out what a person report and a phone report may contain.

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

Person reports:

Birth informationSensitive
PhotosSensitive
Phone numbers and email addressesSensitive
Address historySensitive
Social media profiles
Employment and educational history
Business ownership and assetsSensitive
Criminal, traffic, and court recordsSensitive

Phone reports:

Owner's name and addressSensitive
PhotosSensitive
Address historySensitive
Possible associatesSensitive
Social media profiles

The FTC found the accuracy claims didn't hold. The 2023 case covered marketing that implied people had criminal records when the underlying record could be a traffic ticket. If a report about you is wrong, the practical remedy is suppression rather than correction — the site isn't a consumer reporting agency, so the FCRA dispute process doesn't apply to it.

Contact

Contacts & links

Documented channels

Operating entity: Instant Checkmate LLC
Address: 375 Camino De La Reina, Ste. 400 San Diego, CA 92108
Registered phone: (877) 564-3003 (on the California filing)
Customer Care hours: Mon-Fri, 7:00am to 4:00pm PT
Privacy center: instantcheckmate.com/privacy-center
Suppression Center: suppression.peopleconnect.us

Key links

California data broker registrycppa.ca.gov/data_broker_registry FTC press release (Sept 2023)ftc.gov · TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate order Pricing pageinstantcheckmate.com/pricing

Network

Sister brands

Four filed domains, one family

Instant Checkmate LLC files for four domains. Only instantcheckmate.com is a search product — the other three feed it. Above that sits PeopleConnect, whose Suppression Center covers this site plus three sister brands.

One request covers four sites, and the company says which four. PeopleConnect's Suppression Center names TruthFinder.com, InstantCheckmate.com, Intelius.com and USSearch.com explicitly. Most "family opt-out" claims in this directory are inferred from a shared backend — this one is written on the company's own page.

Owned or operated by Instant Checkmate LLC38 entities in this network · H.I.G. Capital (Private equity) at the topExplore the full map

truthfinder.com

intelius.com

ussearch.com

cellphonedirectory.com

freepeople-search.com

cheaterslie.com

Reputation

Trust signals

An A+ and a federal order

Instant Checkmate's homepage advertises its BBB grade, and that grade is real. It sits alongside a $5.8 million FTC order over the accuracy of the product itself, which is the more useful signal.

Better Business BureauAccredited since Jan 21, 2014 · San Diego, CAA+As of 2026-08View profile ↗

FTC enforcementShared $5.8M order with TruthFinder over accuracy claims and FCRA violationsSept 2023As of 2026-08Read the FTC release ↗

TrustpilotTrustpilot blocks automated reading, so we haven't graded this oneNot readAs of 2026-08

Recurring charges after cancellation, the family's dominant grievance
Charges appearing under a chkmate* descriptor that names no brand
Report contents that don't match the person searched

Litigation

Litigation history

Federal order, shared

The enforcement record here belongs jointly to Instant Checkmate and TruthFinder, which the FTC named together.

FTC v. TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate

Order · Sept 2023

Federal Trade Commission · FCRA and deception claims · 2023

Amount: $5.8 million
Named: TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate · not PeopleConnect, Inc.

The FTC said the two brands deceived users about the accuracy of background reports and violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Note who is named — the order runs against the brands, not against the parent whose suppression tool you'd use to opt out. That matters if you ever need to escalate, because the registrant and the respondent are the brand.

FTC press release →

The fuller treatment is on the TruthFinder profile.

2019 backup leak, confirmed February 2023

Confirmed incident

PeopleConnect · disclosed Feb 2023

Scope: 20.2 million customer accounts, 2011-2019
Who was exposed: Customers of the two brands, not report subjects

PeopleConnect confirmed that an April 2019 backup database was posted to a hacking forum, carrying email addresses, hashed passwords, names and phone numbers for 20.2 million Instant Checkmate and TruthFinder accounts. The company said it found no evidence its network was compromised.

If you ever bought a report from either brand, this incident is about you rather than about the people you searched for.

We found no state Attorney General action naming Instant Checkmate LLC on its own as of the last-updated date below.

FAQ

Q & A

Common questions

Who owns Instant Checkmate?

Instant Checkmate LLC, which files with California as a data broker in its own name from PeopleConnect's San Diego suite. PeopleConnect is the family operator behind TruthFinder, Intelius, US Search and Classmates, and the contact address on Instant Checkmate's filing is a peopleconnect.us one. PeopleConnect itself isn't on the California registry — its brands file individually.

How do I remove my information from Instant Checkmate?

Use PeopleConnect's Suppression Center at suppression.peopleconnect.us. The flow verifies your email, asks for your date of birth and full legal name, then has you complete a partially masked email or phone number from your own record before it will let you suppress the listing. Suppression is its own final screen - set Desired Behavior to Suppressed and save. One completed request covers Instant Checkmate, TruthFinder, Intelius and US Search. Our Instant Checkmate removal guide walks through it.

How much does Instant Checkmate cost?

Person reports run $35.47 a month, or $28.38 a month on a three-month term billed at $85.13 up front. Phone reports are a separate $5.99 a month. Downloadable PDF reports are a $3.99 one-time add-on and Dark Web Monitoring is $1.99 a month. Prices read from the company's own pricing page in August 2026.

Why is there a charge on my card from CHKMATE?

That's Instant Checkmate. The company lists its own billing descriptors, and they all begin with chkmate* — including chkmate*phoneservices, which doesn't name the brand. Cancel through your account or Customer Care, open 7:00am to 4:00pm PT on weekdays, and dispute a post-cancellation charge with your card issuer.

Does the Suppression Center cover cheaterslie.com and the other filed domains?

The Suppression Center names four sites, and the three sister domains on Instant Checkmate's filing aren't among them. In practice those three publish nothing themselves — they hand searches to Instant Checkmate — so suppressing your Instant Checkmate record is what clears what they surface. Spot-check afterwards rather than assuming.

Is Instant Checkmate covered by the FCRA?

No. It disclaims consumer-reporting-agency status on its own pricing page, and its California filing answers no to FCRA regulation. Its reports can't lawfully be used for employment, credit, insurance, or housing decisions. The FTC's 2023 case found it violated the FCRA anyway.

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Last updated:

August 5, 2026 · Drafted from the California data-broker registry CSV (downloaded and read directly), Instant Checkmate's own pricing page and homepage, PeopleConnect's Suppression Center, the FTC's 2023 press release, and the BBB profile read the same day.