My dad actually got involved in something like this. He got rejected from a job after a background check company confused HIM (a 59-year-old white guy) with another guy (a black 32-year-old man) who happened to share the same name, in the same city, and provided the contracting company with information that stated my father was wanted for felony larceny. I think we wound up getting something like $700 from a small class-action against the background check provider, and it got settled out of court because someone blew it up with the local news.