Fake Employment Verification: Techniques & Defenses

Fake employment verification involves falsifying information on a loan, credit card, lease, or job application to increase the odds for approval or hire.

Fibbing on a resume or loan application is common practice, but recording fake employment information can cost companies financially. It can also be a liability issue for an individual. Fake employment verification methods are serious types of fraud.

Employment verification services can help to determine if someone is inputting fake employment information on important documents. These services double check documents and their sources, and spot potential red flags, often by using a third-party verification of employment.

Recognising fake employment verification is an important fraud defense mechanism to protect companies and organisations.

Fake employment verification defined

Fake employment verification is a type of fraud that usually involves forged documents.

Faking employment information can include providing incorrect data about the following:

• Job history
• Employer
• Rate of pay
• Job title and duties
• Reason for leaving the job
• Dates of employment
• References

When getting a new job, loan, credit card, or leasing a property, your employment information is verified. Fake employment verification forges this information for personal gain.

Why people do this

Individuals can tell what seem to be little white lies to increase their value by adding to their job duties, inflating job titles, or hedging on the real reason they left a job. Document forgery also occurs to try and obtain property and services as well as employment.

As many as one out of five loan applications has false claims of income or even uses fake pay stubs for verification purposes.

Some of the common reasons people fake employment or income information include:

• To obtain loans or lines of credit.
• For approval on a credit card application. 
• To rent an apartment, house, or property.
• For job opportunities.

People often try to say they have a higher income than they do, so they can appear able to manage payments on a new loan, credit card, or lease. Fake employment information can be detrimental not only to the company being defrauded but also to the person perpetrating the fraud.

How people fake employment information

There are a number of websites out there that will create fake pay stubs. These forgeries are easy and quick to make. They can usually be done for a marginal fee and printed out at home.

Mortgage lenders often ask for pay stubs to verify proof of income. Individuals looking to be approved for a loan so they can buy a house or property may forge this information.

There are also many fictitious companies and employers that can be used as a supposed place of employment on a loan application. One of the major lenders in the United States, Fannie Mae, issued a fraud alert listing 63 potential fake employers in California that were used on loan applications. These employers were found not to exist.

There are also companies that provide fake employment verification services, such as falsified information on job duties, work performance, or past work experience. People can also be paid to lie about job history or provide false references.

Fake pay stubs and fake employment information can be very believable. Many fake employers are even listed in online directories, such as yellowpages.com, and have active phone numbers or automated call centres. These s