Learn more about background checks on registered sex offenders:

Department of Justice National Sex Offender Reigstry:
http://www.nsopw.gov/Core/Conditions.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

New York State Sex Offender Registry:
http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/nsor/ 

California State Sex Offender Registry:
http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/disclaimer.aspx

Find helpful consumer information about air duct cleaning companies and better business practices in general:

Better Business Bureau:
http://www.bbb.org/

National Air Duct Cleaners Association:
http://nadca.com

Dan Slepian, Dateline producer, writes:

You've probably seen the ads in the newspaper or in your mailbox: a huge, frightening-looking dust mite accompanied by warnings that your health could suffer from dirty, moldy air ducts. But have no fear: for a low price, like $49.95, you can have them cleaned -- you might even get a 10% discount if you're a senior citizen.

According to the Better Business Bureau, it's a scam called a "bait and switch", and they say it's happening all across the country. In fact, the BBB claims that dozens of connected companies are involved in the airduct cleaning scam, systematically ripping off homeowners for more than a decade to the tune of millions of dollars.

Over the years, hundreds of homeowners have logged complaints with the BBB, all sounding similar: once inside a customer's home, technicians routinely mislead them into paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for additional work. Many were told they had dangerous mold. Others had their homes unnecessarily flooded with noxious chemicals. Some said they were afraid of the workmen. All said they were duped into paying hundreds more than the promised $49.99 advertised price.

It sounded like a story for the Hansen Files, so we began our own investigation.

We found senior citizen volunteers who allowed us to wire their homes with hidden cameras to see what would happen when we responded to one of the ads. Even we were stunned by what we saw. Not only did our cameras catch the technicians scam nearly $500 from our volunteer, they actually left the house in worse condition than before they arrived.

A few weeks later, we asked our volunteer to make another appointment, this time to have her furnace cleaned. And this time, Chris Hansen was there to let the technicians know our cameras had recorded their scam, and to see what they had to say.

Early on, we learned reporting this story wouldn't be easy. We began by digging into one company, and then another, and then the histories of some of the people behind them. We found many of the businesses opened up shop only to disappear within a matter of months, but would then appear again under a different name. Sometimes, it was even hard to determine exactly who owned many of them. The paper trail left behind was limited and sometimes inaccurate. One business was registered using the name of the real owner's dead stepbrother. Another was registered in the name of an owner's bodyguard. Several to convicted felons, one a killer.

But our reporting led us to one revealing fact: dozens of the rogue businesses all across the country were run by a rotating list of the same individuals who kept popping up over and over again.

As we began to connect the dots, we saw that some Attorneys General and judges have ordered these companies shut down, forbidden their owners from doing business in their states, and ordered them to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. But most of the time, the scammers simply took off to set up shop in another state.

Bottom line: if you think you need your air ducts cleaned, check with both the Better Business Bureau and the National Air Duct Cleaners Association before answering the cheap ad in the newspaper.

...

For more information on The Hansen Files, please email producer Dan Slepian: daniel.slepian@nbcuni.com 

In a compelling new "Dateline" franchise, "The Hansen Files," Chris Hansen and "Dateline's" hidden cameras uncover secrets and scams-- from a practicing psychotherapist with a dark secret, to fortune tellers who convince people to part with cash, and a look into a scam involving air duct cleaning companies.

A Michigan family is torn apart when a mother and father are found dead on the floor of their garage. Dennis Murphy reports on the various challenges and missing pieces of the investigation, and why detectives suspected someone within the family.  Join us this Friday, Jan. 28, at 9pm/8c for Written in Blood.

This Sunday at 7pm/6c, Dateline delivers exclusive updates on the latest newsmakers:

For decades he's been one of Hollywood's most coveted leading men. Now, it seems his -own- story just might have a Hollywood ending. The news was alarming five months ago, when actor Michael Douglas announced he'd been diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer. But this month, he announced that he's tumor-free. In his first in-depth interview since his treatment, he shares the latest with Matt Lauer -- on his battle, and his blessings.

Also:  As Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others injured in the Tucson, Arizona attack recuperate, there is one wound from that day which may take longer to heal than any other.  Brian Williams sits down with Tucson shooting victim Suzi Hileman, the woman who brought 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green to meet Congresswoman Giffords.

Plus: The planes roared out over the desert before dawn 20 years ago this week. The U.S.-led assault in the first Gulf War launched the drive to liberate Kuwait from the invading forces of Iraq's Saddam Hussein. To mark the anniversary, Brian Williams also sits downs for an exclusive interview with former president George H.W. Bush, and a rare gathering of the team that made the historic decisions of Operation Desert Storm.

And:  She appeared poised, lively, and prepared to step into her new role-- wife of the future King of England. Reaction to Kate Middleton and Prince William's engagement announcement has been overwhelmingly positive, even in the often-critical British press. Now, though, the tone of the tabloid scrutiny is changing -- the sniping has started. Kate Snow brings us the latest on the Royal Wedding.

Join us Sunday at 7pm/6c Central for a new Dateline report.

When a "dog trainer to the stars" disappears, his friends and co-workers fear the worst. Keith Morrison follows all the twists and turns in the case as investigators track down the suspect with the help of two witnesses who were in the right place at the right time.  The two-hour report The Man Who Talked to Dogs airs Friday, Jan. 21 at 9pm/8c.

Watch a preview below:

Welcome to the new Dateline NBC website!

So what’s new?

In general, we wanted to make the site a lot easier to find what you’re looking for from Dateline NBC. 

Starting at the top, we want you to know what’s being featured on Dateline each week, watch our 'Sneak Peek' previews,  and follow regular updates from producers on our ‘Inside Dateline’ blog.

You’ll also notice that we have a new video player that will let you watch the latest Dateline episodes and web exclusive videos, or read full transcripts after each show airs on television.  Just be sure to download the latest version of Flash player. 

We also have a new interactive schedule, which is a quick and easy way to find Dateline stories that aired a long time ago or even what’s coming up next week.

As we  begin to have more and more fun with our Facebook community, nearly 70,000 strong and growing, we want you to be able to see all of our latest Facebook posts right on our site and in real time too.   You can also follow us on Twitter now since we like to tweet just as much as Dateline’s Ann Curry!

Finally, we know that the Dateline correspondents are the people you all love to hear tell Dateline stories each week.  We want you to be able to not only learn more about them as journalists, but as people too, especially as they begin to engage more directly online with viewers like you.

We’re excited about our new site and hope you are too.  It’ll only get better, but feel free to drop us a line of feedback below.

You can visit the new site here:

http://datelinenbc.com

Thanks,

The Dateline Team

NBC News

Producer Dan Slepian prepares to interview admitted killer Michael Lane.

Dan Slepian, Dateline producer, writes:

Had you met him in any other setting, you would probably believe Michael Lane was all that he claimed to be: a compassionate spiritual healer to whom people gravitated for guidance and comfort.

But on the day I met Michael Lane last spring, we were in a windowless cement room at the Clark County Detention Center and he was inmate #02735758 -- accused of an unspeakable crime, among the most heinous Las Vegas has ever seen.

It all started five months earlier, when 44-year-old Ginger Candela was reported missing by her daughter, Tabatha. She told police she had been receiving text messages from her mom, but hadn't been able to reach her by phone for two weeks, and now that it was Thanksgiving, Tabatha was even more concerned by the silence.

Missing persons detectives went to Ginger's house and made a gruesome discovery in her garage: a 96-gallon trash can filled with bleach, cement, and a dismembered body. They immediately called homicide detectives. Joel Kisner and Dolphis Boucher were now responsible for finding out what happened and who did it -- before anyone else became a victim of the same fate.

Chris Hansen and I were in Las Vegas, shooting another show, "Vegas Undercover," when Detectives Kisner and Boucher began their investigation. For nearly four days, Kisner and Boucher worked tirelessly, sleeping just a few hours each night, if that.

Our cameras followed the detectives each step of the way -- from the crime scene to the coroner's office to the interrogation room. In the end, you'll see how old-fashioned, smart, shoe-leather detective work solved this crime. Within 72 hours of getting the call, Kisner and Boucher had their suspect, Michael Lane, in an interrogation room confessing.

Lane said he had met Ginger just a few weeks earlier in Anaheim, California at a new-age, self-help conference. He said Ginger was looking for spirtual guidance, asked for his help, and invited him to stay with her in Las Vegas.  But within a week of arriving, Lane said something went terribly wrong.

He told the detectives that he and Ginger were in her bedroom, trying an unconventional meditation technique: he was compressing her carotid artery in an effort to help her reach a "deeper state," when "something came over" him. He went into the kitchen, grabbed a frying pan from a drawer, and "whacked" Ginger over the head with it "several times." When he saw she was still clinging to life, he said, he got an electrical cord, wrapped it around her neck, and choked her.

He said he lived with her body for two days. Then, he said, he went shopping at a Home Depot where surveillance video confirms he bought many gallons of bleach, a plastic tarp, a hatchet, and the 96-gallon trash can in which Ginger's body was found.

Lane described how he remembered, from watching TV, that "dismembering things make them fit better" and how "bleach was a good skin dissolver."
In vivid detail, Lane calmly explained how he dismembered Ginger, stuffed her body in the can, and filled it with bleach and cement.

He also admitted that after he killed Ginger, he stole her phone and texted her daughter to make it appear Ginger was still alive. He also admitted that he met a transgender woman on Craigslist and brought her back to Ginger's house while Ginger was in the trashcan in the garage.

As I was heading into the jail to meet Lane, I couldn't help but think of Tabatha, and how painful, senseless and random all this must be for her.

I thought of Detectives Kisner and Boucher, who work case after case with the daunting task of finding justice for victims and their loved ones, all the while separated from their own families.

And as Michael Lane entered the room, I shook his hand and couldn't help thinking about what he said those hands had done to Ginger Candela.

...

Watch a web exclusive of Michael Lane's interrogation:

Chris Hansen gives viewers a rare, behind-the-scenes look inside undercover police operations in Sin City. Dateline's hidden cameras are granted unprecedented and exclusive access to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department investigations, including the ability to follow homicide detectives around the clock to capture events as they unfold in real time. Airing Friday, January 14th, this unique production offers a revealing look into the physical and emotional challenges of protecting a city where over 110 murders happen each year.

Beginning at 9pm/8c, Chris Hansen returns to Vegas for a third edition of "Vegas Undercover," following investigators from the Repeat Offenders Program, and the intelligence and homicide units as they search for clues, suspects and justice.

Following at 10pm/9c, Hansen takes crime reporting to a whole new level as Dateline hidden cameras follow the scene from the moment the police receive a call to investigate a high-profile murder, to the discovery of the body in a Vegas suburb, and the ultimate capture of the killer— with all the twists and turns along the way.

Watch a preview of 'Vegas Undercover' below: