Non-intuitive hack to reference check hires quickly

These are good (albeit mostly intuitive) reference checking tips. What amazes is me is how rarely anyone bothers to check references. I've been listed as a reference many times, but estimate I've been called much less than 10% of the time. That's probably because it's a pain to do this, and many companies won't give you helpful responses (and it may be that no one cares what I think), but all this suggests to me that the most important reference checking tip is to do it.