Job fraud

Not to be confused with Employment fraud.

Job fraud refers to fraudulent or deceptive activity or representation on the part of an employee or prospective employee toward an employer. It is not to be confused with employment fraud, where an employer scams job seekers or fails to pay wages for work performed. There are several types of job frauds that employees or potential employees commit against employers. While some may be illegal under jurisdictional laws, others do not violate law but may be held by the employer against the employee or applicant.

Résumé fraud

Résumé fraud or application fraud refers to any act that involves providing fictitious, exaggerated, or otherwise misleading information on a job application or résumé in hopes of persuading a potential employer to hire an applicant for a job for which they may be unqualified or less qualified than other applicants. Depending on the nature of the offense, the type of job, and the jurisdiction where it occurs, such an act may or may not be a violation of criminal law. In any case, knowingly providing inaccurate information to an employer or potential employer, if discovered by the employer, is almost always grounds for immediate dismissal from the job or else denial of that job.

Trends

A number of annual reports, including BDO Hayward's Fraudtrack 4 and CIFAS, the UK's fraud prevention service, has shown a rising level of major discrepancies and embellishments on curriculum vitae (CV) over previous years.

Recent research released by Powerchex has confirmed this trend. Having measured 3,876 applicants to the UK financial sector over the past year, they found that 17% of potential candidates embellished their CV, and found a trend between a graduate's choice of university and their likelihood to lie on their CV.

Effects

Almost half (48%) of organizations with fewer than 100 staff experienced problems with vetted employees.

39% of UK organizations have experienced a situation where their vetting procedures have allowed an employee to be hired who was later found to have lied or misrepresented themselves in their application.

Demographics

Younger, more junior people are more likely to have a discrepancy on their CV. Someone in a junior administrative position is 23% more likely to have a discrepancy on their CV than in a managerial role. An applicant aged under 20 is 26% more likely to have a discrepancy than a 51- to 60-year-old.

Women are marginally more likely to have a discrepancy on their CV: 13% of applications submitted by women have a discrepancy compared to only 10% of those for men.

Graduates have marginally fewer discrepancies: 13% of their CVs contain a discrepancy compared to 17% of non-graduates.

Further reading

• McConnell, Charles R. (2004-09-28). "Watching Out for Resume Fraud". National Federation of Independent Business. Retrieved 2007-07-26.