If a reporter went bankrupt four years ago, does that mean she won't coverher stories well? If a nurse runs late on her credit card payments, will sheforget how to administer shots? Not one person this writer spoke with hadany evidence to prove that good credit reports predict good job performance.Regarding employees who handle money, Experian's Marty Dee calls it ``moreof an intuitive situation, where if someone has a huge amount of debt, theymight be susceptible to bribery or theft.'' But even if that's reasonable,what about the rest?

Are employers just curious, or were they sold on this peekaboo game by thefirms that peddle credit reports? ``We have found in our privacy surveysthat employees want their potential co-worker checked out,'' says DaveMooney, spokesperson for Equifax in Atlanta, the largest firm that doespre-employment screening. He adds that the reports submitted on jobapplicants don't show age or marital status, which aren't supposed to beconsidered in the hiring decision.

But there's always the risk that your credit report might contain an error -maybe listing a bankruptcy for someone with a name similar to yours. Thecredit-reporting firms piously say that they warn employers not to use thereports alone, when judging a job applicant. But what will a personnelofficer think if he or she sees a bankruptcy on your record - whether it'scorrect or not.

At present, a potential employer doesn't even have to tell you that yourcredit report will be pulled. A new federal law effective in October changesthat.

Buying death kits for insurance claim
Within three months of his arrival in America, Oleg Popov was playing thebig shot. Only 29, he leased a $1.6-million Beverly Hills spread and cruisedthe streets in an array of flashy cars. He even bought himself a$1.5-million life insurance policy, says Los Angeles Times.

One year later, in 1994, Popov was reported shot dead in St. Petersburg,Russia's old imperial capital. Popov's ex-wife filed a claim for theinsurance proceeds, but Prudential Insurance Co. delayed payment for morethan two years while it dug into the case. Among other concerns, Prudentialworried that Popov wasn't really dead. The insurer found he was the targetof criminal inquiries in three countries, leading some investigators tospeculate privately that he had faked his death to throw authorities off histrail.

But Prudential found no evidence he was alive, and the ex-wife finally suedto collect. After a drawn-out court battle, the insurer agreed last month topay her and her son a multimillion-dollar settlement that included theinsurance proceeds and additional compensation.

Prudential's decision to pay up is the latest example of how death claimsfrom abroad are sending a chill up the spine of the life insurance industry.Even as they push into developing nations to sell policies, insurers arefinding it tough to determine the truth when a policyholder is reported deadoutside the US.

The vast majority of death claims are legitimate, but thousands filed eachyear appear not to be. Often the cost of conducting an international inquirymakes it cheaper to pay a claim than to find out for sure. An estimated 15per cent of fake claims result in payouts, according to the CoalitionAgainst Insurance Fraud. ``I've seen far too many situations where it boilsdown to a business decision'' to pay the claim, said Phillip Stano, formergeneral counsel of the American Council of Life Insurers. ``And that'sregrettable, because that's just encouraging the next fraudulent claim.''

In 1998, America's top 25 life insurers were fighting payment on more than$85.5 million worth of allegedly fraudulent death claims, regulatory filingsshow. Some major life insurers report that their claims departments runacross 1,000 suspicious claims per year. One industry organisation estimatesthat the claims are flowing in by the tens of thousands. Fake claims arepushing up life insurance premiums at least 2 per cent per year, industryexperts say.

California regulators received reports of nearly 100 fake death claims inthe last two years. One major life insurer said it reported 15 cases ofsuspected false claims to New York state authorities alone last year, 12 ofwhich involved foreign deaths. One year earlier, it reported 10 cases in NewYork, eight of which involved foreign deaths.

In a typical scheme, the beneficiary of a life policy files phony documentsfrom another country claiming the insured person died suddenly-usually in anauto accident or natural disaster. Frequently the documents come fromunstable countries with shoddy record-keeping and minimal standards forverifying death.

Faced with such a claim, the insurance companies might elect to spend alarge sum to investigate. But often they don't because the chances ofsuccess are so slim. And if the result is merely to delay payment, thecompany can expose itself to pricey lawsuits and massive damage awards.

In countries such as Haiti, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, bogusdeaths are becoming a cottage industry. Policyholders can buy ``deathkits''-packets of false documents that typically include a deathcertificate, photograph, police reports and burial records-for less than$1,000. Some have even tried to back up their claims with videos of stagedfunerals or stand-in corpses.