Is Intelius Legit? Who Owns It, What’s Free and What to Watch For

Yes, Intelius is a legitimate people-search service in the PeopleConnect group. PeopleConnect’s own website names TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate, Intelius and US Search as its people-search brands. PeopleConnect’s site also says Intelius was founded in 2003. Intelius sells reports and subscriptions built from public and commercial records. Legit doesn’t mean every report is accurate, and its reports can’t be used for tenant, job, credit or insurance decisions.

This Intelius review is for people considering paying for a search and for people who’ve found their own details on it. It draws on PeopleConnect’s own pages, the Intelius Search App Store listing and ftc.gov, as of September 2026. One limit: intelius.com returned a “forbidden” error to our standard requests, so we couldn’t read its current pricing, help center or terms directly. Where something isn’t confirmed, we say so. Check current terms before you act.

Is Intelius a real company?

Yes. PeopleConnect’s own website names TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate, Intelius and US Search as its people-search brands. Its people-search page says, “Founded in 2003, Intelius is one of the oldest People Search engines available online,” offering searches for people, phone numbers, addresses, background checks and criminal records.

PeopleConnect’s terms of use (last revised November 24, 2025) are an agreement with The Control Group Media Company LLC, doing business as PeopleConnect, and its affiliated companies. On Apple’s App Store, the Intelius Search app is sold by Pubrec, LLC. PeopleConnect’s privacy policy (last revised June 30, 2026) says Intelius manages its own privacy policy and lists privacy@intelius.com as its privacy contact.

What Intelius does

Intelius assembles records about a person into a report. Its App Store listing describes searching by address, phone number or email address, reverse phone lookups that “could find an owner’s name, possible images, location history, social media profiles, and more,” and property searches covering value, ownership history and possible neighbors.

People-search reports are built by matching records on names, addresses and dates of birth. That’s why they can go wrong:

• Mixed identities. Two people with the same name in the same area can end up in one report.
• Stale details. An address you left or a number you gave up years ago can still appear.
• Missing context. A record may show a court case without its outcome.

Use a report as a lead to check against original sources, not as a verified fact.

Is Intelius free?

Not for reports. The Intelius Search app is free to download, but its App Store listing shows in-app purchases, including a phone profile, a full profile, single background checks, a three-check bundle, a premium data bundle, an “All Inclusive” option and an “Intelius Premier Subscription.” So you can pay once for a single report or take a recurring subscription, and the difference matters when you want to stop paying.

What we couldn’t confirm, because intelius.com blocked our checks: what a free search on the website shows today, website prices, whether a trial is offered and what it turns into, and refund rules. Before you pay, read the price, whether it’s one-time or recurring, and the renewal wording on the checkout screen, and screenshot it.

If you’ve already bought a subscription, our guide on how to cancel Intelius covers website and app purchases. A one-time report has nothing to cancel.

Suppressing your own record is separate from buying anything. It runs through a PeopleConnect tool whose terms don’t mention any charge. More on that below.

What Intelius can’t be used for

The Intelius app listing says Intelius “does not provide ‘consumer reports’ and is not a ‘consumer reporting agency’ as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).” It adds: “You may not use the products or services of Intelius to determine one’s eligibility for credit, housing, insurance, employment, or any other purpose subject to the FCRA.” PeopleConnect’s terms say the same for its affiliated sites and list further purposes, such as education and licensing.

So don’t use Intelius to screen a tenant, hire someone or decide on credit. Use a background screening company that operates under the FCRA, which gives the person the right to see and dispute the report. If you’re curious what an employer’s check might show about you, see our guide to running a background check on yourself.

Has the FTC taken action against Intelius?

When we searched ftc.gov’s press releases and case listings for “Intelius” in September 2026, we found no FTC enforcement action naming Intelius. That was a limited search. It doesn’t cover state actions or private lawsuits, and it isn’t a clean bill of health. It’s simply what the official record showed when we looked.

It’s fair to know about one related case. On September 11, 2023, the FTC announced that TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate, Intelius’s sister brands, would pay $5.8 million to settle charges that they “deceived consumers about whether consumers had criminal records” and violated the FCRA by operating as consumer reporting agencies without meeting its requirements. The FTC’s case page lists the defendants as Instant Checkmate, LLC, TruthFinder, LLC, The Control Group Media Company, LLC, Intelicare Direct, LLC and PubRec, LLC.

Two of those defendants are connected to Intelius: PubRec, LLC sells the Intelius Search app on the App Store, and The Control Group Media Company LLC is the company PeopleConnect’s terms say does business as PeopleConnect. Even so, the FTC’s release describes TruthFinder’s and Instant Checkmate’s conduct. It does not describe Intelius’s conduct. The release also notes that the Commission files a complaint when it has “reason to believe” the named defendant is violating or is about to violate the law. The case was resolved by a stipulated order rather than a trial, so the complaint’s charges are allegations. Our guide to whether TruthFinder is legit covers that case in detail.

Is Intelius safe to use?

For buyers, the practical risks are paying for more than you meant to and trusting a report too much. Some simple checks:

• Go to the real site or app. Type intelius.com yourself, or check that the app’s seller is Pubrec, LLC.
• Know whether you’re buying once or subscribing. The app offers both. Read the checkout screen carefully.
• Cancel where you paid. App store subscriptions are canceled in the store, not on the website, and deleting the app doesn’t cancel them.
• Check serious findings. Confirm anything like a criminal record with the court or agency that holds the original.

What to do if you’re on Intelius

You can ask to hide your record through PeopleConnect. Its terms describe a Suppression Tool for people-search sites in the PeopleConnect family, which “currently include TruthFinder.com, InstantCheckmate.com, Intelius.com, USSearch.com, as well as additional affiliated websites.” If you suppress your background report, the terms say “it will not be available on the people search sites.”

• You’ll need to verify at least one email address or phone number, which also consents to emails or texts from PeopleConnect. A separate email address for privacy requests keeps your main inbox clear.
• Suppressing your record doesn’t cancel a subscription, and canceling doesn’t hide your record.
• It doesn’t remove the original public records that reports are built from.

Our Intelius opt-out guide walks through the steps and the limits, and our PeopleConnect opt-out guide covers the sister sites together. To ask about deleting account data, PeopleConnect’s privacy policy lists privacy@intelius.com.

A worked example

This is an illustrative scenario, not a real client.

Graham, a retired teacher, bought a single Intelius report through the app to find an old colleague’s phone number. A month later he sees another charge and wonders whether he’s been signed up for something.

1. He checks the receipt in his Apple purchase history and finds he chose a subscription, not a single report.
2. He cancels in his Apple subscription settings, since Apple bills him, and screenshots the end date.
3. He searches his own name out of curiosity and finds an Intelius listing with his home address.
4. He uses PeopleConnect’s Suppression Tool with a new email address and later checks TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate too, since the tool covers the same family of sites.

Had he only canceled, his listing would still be public. Had he only suppressed it, the subscription would still be billing him.

Common mistakes

• Assuming a single report is a one-off without checking. The app sells both single reports and subscriptions.
• Deleting the app to stop billing. Cancel in the app store instead.
• Using a report for tenant or job screening. Intelius forbids FCRA uses.
• Believing a report without checking. Legit and accurate are different things.
• Paying someone to hide your own record before trying PeopleConnect’s own Suppression Tool yourself.
• Stopping at one site. People-search sites share data sources, so your details are probably on others too.

Where to go from here

Because intelius.com blocked our checks, this Intelius review doesn’t score its prices or reports. Our data broker opt-out list ranks where to go after Intelius, and our guide to removing yourself from people-search sites covers the full process. We don’t sell people searches or background checks. Our free Reputation Scanner, launching soon, is a self-search tool that will find harmful results about you, rank the top 10 negative results by seriousness, and draft removal requests you review and send yourself, with no account and no billing. If a listing is part of a wider problem with what people find when they search your name, our personal reputation management team can look at it through a free audit.

Frequently asked questions

Is Intelius legit or a scam?

Intelius is a legitimate people-search service in the PeopleConnect group, and PeopleConnect’s site says it was founded in 2003. Its app is sold by Pubrec, LLC. That doesn’t make every report accurate, so verify anything important against the original record.

Is Intelius free?

The app is free to download, but reports cost money. Its App Store listing shows single reports, bundles and an Intelius Premier Subscription as in-app purchases. Suppressing your own record is a separate PeopleConnect tool, and its terms don’t mention a charge for it.

Is Intelius safe to use?

It’s a real service, but buy carefully: use intelius.com or the app sold by Pubrec, LLC, check whether you’re buying one report or a subscription, and confirm anything serious against the original record before acting on it.

Can I use Intelius for a background check on a tenant or employee?

No. Intelius says it isn’t a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA and forbids using its services to decide credit, housing, insurance, employment or other FCRA purposes. Use an FCRA-compliant screening company.

How do I remove myself from Intelius?

Use PeopleConnect’s Suppression Tool, which its terms say covers Intelius, TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate and US Search. You’ll need to verify an email address or phone number. Our Intelius opt-out guide has the steps.