Resume Fraud

Lying On Your Resume Is Not Good For Your Career

April 19, 2011 By Chris Miller

resume

Another highly visible executive lied on his resume about his educational credentials.

Unfortunately this is a very common occurrence. Studies show that over 50% of applicants lie about their job and educational history. Resume lies include falsifying academic credentials, padding dates to mask employment gaps, exaggerating job titles, embellishing job responsibilities and achievements, claiming sole responsibility for team efforts and even making up fictitious employers.

A thorough background check will usually detect these lies and save your company precious time, money and embarrassment.

City puts brakes on hiring Smithsonian fleet manager after he flunks background check

(Source: nydailynews.com) New York’s plan to put one person in charge of its 26,000 vehicles sputtered to a halt when he flunked a city background check, sources told the Daily News. Bill Griffiths, the fleet manager at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, had been picked as New York’s first Citywide Chief Fleet Management Officer.

When the Department of Investigation checked his résumé, however, it found he claimed an educational credential he hadn’t really earned, three sources said. The sources would not say what the credential was, but the offer was rescinded for the post – which would have paid up to $185,000 a year.

Best Employee Screening Articles For August & September 2009

October 1, 2009 By Chris Miller

In case you missed any of our employee screening articles for August and September, here’s a quick recap of our most popular:

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Truth and Lies On Resumes

September 3, 2009 By Chris Miller

Katie Couric reports on Andrea Stanfield, a woman who not only lied on her resume and was making over $100,000, she wrote a book about it, called “Phony! How I Faked My Way Through Life.”

“When we started working on a story about resume fraud and whether more people were lying on their resumes now because the job market is so tight, our biggest challenge was finding someone who would admit he or she lied on their resume. No easy task.

Andrea Stanfield said it’s not like she sat down and formulated a plan to lie. Locked in a battle for custody of her young daughter, she was desperate for a well-paying job but every position said “bachelor’s degree required, bachelor’s degree required,” she repeated during an interview outside her St. Petersburg, Florida home. So the Ohio native added “B.A. Business Administration/Akron University” to her resume when she only had a high school diploma. The college is actually called the University of Akron.

Ultimately, when her boss was accused of embezzling millions from the company and an investigation was likely, she quit because she feared she might get caught and could no longer handle living the lie. Her husband at the time was shocked by the revelation, she says, and their marriage, this her second, quickly came to an end. ”

A simple background check could have prevented all this.

Andrea has plenty of advice for anyone who might consider lying to get a job in the tight labor market: “Don’t do it.”

Read the entire story “Faking Your Resume” here.

Never, Never Lie On Your Resume

July 20, 2009 By Chris Miller

Secretsofthejobhunt.com has a good article titled ” Should I lie on my résumé?” by Ginger Korljan.

“Today I learned about a new website which for a fee, will fabricate job history, degrees, and references for a résumé. Their justification? “A résumé is not a legal document.” They even provide an answering service if a potential employer wants to follow up with a phone call. I was astonished that any company would be so brazen to attempt this outright illegal activity, and even more astonished that people are actually buying it!

Read the rest of the article here.

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The Importance Of Accurate Background Checks

July 14, 2009 By Chris Miller

Last week I reported how a Post-Hire Background Check could have prevented a terrible crime.

On the front page of this morning’s Dispatch I read…

Rape suspect got 2nd job because of faulty vetting

Weapons charges should have disqualified caregiver

It looks like this suspect was able to get a second job with Goodwill Columbus because of two errors with his background check:

Goodwill ran a background check through the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI) which incorrectly showed a weapons charges against him had been dismissed. Actually, the suspect pleaded guilty in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to reduced misdemeanor charges of carrying a concealed weapon and improper handling of a firearm in 2008 — convictions considered to be disqualifying offenses for working among people with developmental disabilities.That information was not on the BCI report, said Margie Pizzuti, president of Goodwill Columbus.
Goodwill ran an additional background check through an online records-search service (I don’t know which company), but that report was confusing and Goodwill staff members apparently did not see that Quintero had been convicted, Pizzuti said.”This instructs us to be even more vigilant in finding out what’s in these reports and making sure we understand them,” she said. “If we had seen that and understood clearly, it probably would have been at least a red flag.”

Read the article here.

CONCLUSION

A manual on-site search at the county courthouse by an experienced researcher is often the most accurate, and up-to-date criminal search available. Goodwill ran a BCI check which is the authorized central repository for all felony records for the state of Ohio. The bureau relies on police departments, sheriff’s offices, and courts of record to submit arrest and court conviction data to the bureau for record updates. The bureau did not have the most current information in this case.

Your background screening provider needs to provide you with an easy to read report so there is absolutely no question about the status of the person being screened.

FYI Screening, Inc. is a leading global provider of employee screening solutions to corporations, government agencies, healthcare systems and educational institutions.

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