update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . september 2013 intelius type privately held company industry information commerce genre electronic commerce founded january 2003 founder naveen jain and others headquarters bellevue washington united states area served united states key people prakash kondepudi ceo services people search background checks number of employees 63 website http www.intelius.com intelius inc. is a public records business headquartered in bellevue washington united states . 1 it provides information services including background checks and identity theft protection and post transaction marketing . 2 intelius founded by former infospace executives was started in 2003 . concerns from consumer groups between 2008 and 2010 have drawn negative attention to intelius . contents 1 history 2 information services 3 class action lawsuits 4 consumer complaints 5 references history edit intelius was founded in 2003 3 by six former infospace executives naveen jain kevin marcus niraj shah ed petersen chandan chauhan and john arnold . 4 intelius submitted plans for an initial public offering on january 10 2008 5 but withdrew in october 2010 . 6 on december 5 2006 intelius acquired bothell washington based intellisense corporation a background check fingerprinting and drug screening company . the acquisition of intellisense eventually became talentwise . talentwise was then spun off to intelius stockholders in may 2013 . 7 on april 30 2009 intelius acquired spock a people oriented search engine . 8 in november 2011 intelius purchased the facebook genealogy app family builder . 9 in 2012 intelius was renamed inome to serve as the corporate umbrella and the intelius name was given to the division focusingon background checks . 10 by 2015 inome was doing business once again as intelius . on july 1 2015 intelius was acquired by private equity firm h.i.g. capital . as part of the transaction prakash kondepudi replaced jain as the company s ceo . citation needed information services edit intelius provides background checks and verification of identity under the intelisign brand . it targets consumers with an interest in dating especially online dating . 11 industry experts say the advertising campaign s relies on scare tactics . 1 12 intelius has created an application for mobile devices that allows users to do a quick background check on a potential date . 13 class action lawsuits edit on september 30 2009 before the u.s. district court for the central district of california a class action lawsuit was filed alleging that intelius automatically enrolled california consumers into programs of its partner adaptive marketing without permission . 14 the complaint showed evidence as to how the defendants allegedly automatically charged california consumers credit cards for memberships and intentionally frustrated the victims abilities to dispute the charges . 15 on october 19 2009 in the federal court in seattle intelius was accused of violating washington s consumer protection act . 16 in the class action lawsuit lee v. intelius inc. filed by ohio resident donovon lee and washington resident bruce keithly it was alleged that after purchasing background reports through intelius the plaintiffs were each charged recurring 19.95 monthly fees for multiple subscription services which were not requested from both intelius and its partner adaptive marketing . plaintiffs sought damages for the class alleging deceptive practices against intelius . on march 7 2013 the united states district court ruled in favor of the plaintiff class . intelius appealed to the us court of appeals 9th cir . which on december 16 2013 also ruled in lee s et al. favor for the class as follows we hold that lee did not enter into a contract with adaptive to purchase the family safety report and did not enter into a contract with adaptive to arbitrate . we therefore affirm the district court . 17 after losing this appeal intelius sought arbitration with the plaintiffs and subsequently agreed to two 2 settlements of this lawsuit in favor of the class one for mr. lee and one for mr. keithly on different case merits resulting in a combined 10.5 million settlement for class plaintiffs . 18 consumer complaints edit in 2008 the company discontinued its phone directory services after legal threats and negative press attention focused on allegations that the opt out process was unreasonably difficult . 19 19 20 among other things it was also criticized for providing private cell phone numbers . 21 on september 30 2009 before the u.s. district court for the central district of california a class action lawsuit was filed alleging that intelius automatically enrolled california consumers into programs of its partner adaptive marketing without permission . 14 the complaint showed evidence as to how the defendants allegedly automatically charged california consumers credit cards for memberships and intentionally frustrated the victims abilities to dispute the charges . 22 on october 19 2009 in the federal court in seattle intelius was accused of violating washington s consumer protection act . 23 intelius received thousands of consumer complaints regarding post transaction marketing practices and allegedly deceptive credit card charges . the washington attorney general sued intelius and a 1.3 million settlement was reached in august 2010 . 24 in november 2011 the company announced the inclusion of truerep to its services . this program allows consumers to provide explanations for any indiscretions on their records . 25 references edit a b nina shapiro 2007 . intelius says it s capable of conducting a full background check on anyone . seattle weekly . retrieved 2007 04 13 . john swartz ; byron acohido 2007 04 02 . who s guarding your data in the cybervault . usa today . retrieved 2007 04 07 . duryee tricia aug 13 2007 . cellphone directory grabs your number . the seattle times . retrieved jul 10 2015 . david heath and sharon pian chan 2005 03 07 . dot con job how infospace took its investors for a ride part 2 cashing out . seattle times . retrieved 2009 01 08 . julie vorman 2008 01 10 . intelius plans ipo of up to 143.75 mln sec filing . reuters . retrieved 2008 01 10 . intelius withdraws plans for ipo . the seattle times . 2010 10 15 . retrieved 2011 08 24 . john cook 2013 . talentwise spins off from naveen jain s inome with 25m from mysterious backer . geekwire . retrieved 2013 06 11 . lisa hoover 2009 . spock sale sparks privacy concerns . computerworld . retrieved 2010 02 17 . john cook 2011 10 25 . intelius quietly buys facebook genealogy app family builder . geekwire.com . retrieved 2011 11 09 . cook john 2012 06 10 . meet inome the latest thing to sprout from naveen jain . geekwire . retrieved 2013 09 18 . sara kehaulani goo 2007 . dinner movie background check for online daters . the washington post . retrieved 2007 04 17 . mandy stadtmiller 2006 . check mate more women paying to investigate dates . the new york post . archived from the original on 2007 02 27 . retrieved 2007 04 17 . ubergizmo 2010 . intelius datecheck software . ubergizmo . retrieved 2010 02 17 . a b michael arrington 2008 . naveen jain s latest scam intelius . techcrunch . retrieved 2008 11 29 . cite error invalid ref tag ; name scam defined multiple times with different content see the help page . nina shapiro 2009 . internet wizard loses his magic intelius hit with two class action suits . seattle weekly . retrieved 2010 02 17 . intelius hit with another lawsuit as it alters marketing tactics http cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov datastore opinions 2013 12 16 11 35810.pdf 1 a b suzanne choney 2008 . company shuts down cell phone directory . msnbc . retrieved 2008 02 29 . svensson peter february 4 2008 . cell phone directory assistance closing . usa today . retrieved 2009 05 01 . alex johnson 2008 . cell phone directory rings alarm bells . msnbc . retrieved 2008 02 29 . nina shapiro 2009 . internet wizard loses his magic intelius hit with two class action suits . seattle weekly . retrieved 2010 02 17 . intelius hit with another lawsuit as it alters marketing tactics techflash.com ; accessed june 8 2016 . chris grygiel 2010 08 09 . deceptive intelius cheated thousands of people . seattle post intelligencer . retrieved 2010 08 10 . greg lamm 2011 11 15 . got a blotch on your record intelius lets you explain . puget sound business journal . retrieved 2011 11 20 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title intelius & oldid 738570493 categories companies established in 2003online person databasescompanies based in bellevue washingtonprivately held companies based in washington state hidden categories pages with reference errorspages with duplicate reference nameswikipedia articles in need of updating from september 2013all wikipedia articles in need of updatingpages using infobox company with unsupported parametersall articles with unsourced statementsarticles 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