[jstarfish]

> Ps some states have laws against asking if you're a felon. Cali and Colo might be

If you've been convicted of anything in the last 10-15 years, every script-kiddie docket scraper will attribute the conviction to you.

This is only useful to people willing/able to compartmentalize their past under a deadname. Then applicants can mislead the employer into running background checks on a synthetic identity that comes back clean.

[Exoristos]

When I changed my name, the court required extensive proof I had no convictions, no major debts, etc. etc. This was quite a while ago. Are you saying requirements have been loosened?

[jstarfish]

Great question. No changes to requirements that I'm aware of when legally changing your name, but that's not the step I'm talking about...the exploitable mechanic here is in socially-engineering the hiring manager.

Two approaches:

The more confusing you make the results of your background check, the less apparent relevance the criminal conviction for Jimmy Deere will have for Jane Doe. The hiring manager isn't the county clerk or a private investigator. He doesn't have time to unfuck your fuckary.

So when changing your name, pick one from the local obituaries or the name of a former resident of your home. Even better is if you share a name with another known criminal. Your background check will "erroneously" include information about a random dude named Jimmy with a criminal conviction, suggest you are currently incarcerated for manslaughter and DUI, and that you died last year at age 89, but you also died a decade ago at 72. With any luck, he'll distrust the results enough to hire you.

The other course I've seen is the squeaky-clean route. Adopt the name of an overseas CEO who works in the same industry you do. Then act like an expert in that field without ever explicitly claiming to be that person. It sounds insane. It fucking works. Any negative data will be glossed over by all the positive sentiment associated with your "victim." (Just don't attend the same trade shows!)

The yarn-graphing I had to do to disambiguate one individual's skinwalked identities had my colleagues calling me Pepe Silvia for months. The guy was using disparate sets of foreign-and-domestically-issued papers to establish toy companies all over the place and at one point "adopted" the identity and address of his onetime AirBNB host, who himself was a retired industry executive. It was the wildest case I've ever worked.

Synthetic identity fraud: fun for everyone!