Lying to cover up a criminal history

Background Check Porkie of the Month – The Creative “Confirmation Letter of Employment” Candidate

PeopleCheck Porkie of the Month – May 2017
The Creative “Confirmation Letter of Employment” Candidate

A recent case involving falsified documentation highlighted the lengths candidates can go to in order to cover up lies on their resume.  A candidate within the insurance industry attempted to deceive PeopleCheck and their potential employer with a fake ‘confirmation letter of employment’.

Upon attempts to verify the candidate’s employment with the HR Department of the company, PeopleCheck were advised that a previous employee must contact the company directly and obtain a confirmation letter of employment. The candidate advised they had already done so and thus provided their letter of employment to PeopleCheck.

PeopleCheck provided the confirmation letter of employment to the company for verification and were advised there were many inconsistencies with the letter such as:

  • The company logo located on the letter was outdated for the period of time the candidate was employed; and
  • The letter indicated that the People Connect Team had issued the letter; however; the company advised that the People Connect Team do not issue such documents.

As a result of the above findings and the fact that the company could not find any record of the candidate ever being employed with their organisation, PeopleCheck requested a payslip and employee ID number from the candidate to assist with verifying their employment to which the candidate claimed the information could not be located. Needless to say, the client advised us to cease further enquiries and the candidate’s employment offer was withdrawn.

This case study emphasises the importance of verifying information directly with the Human Resource/Payroll Department in order to obtain factual details of a candidate’s employment. It also stresses the importance of not relying on documentation provided by a candidate, as in this day and age it could very well be fake.

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