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White Paper - Application Fraud

We have all heard about job applicants that falsify information on their resumes. There are myriad surveys and statistics that point to the excessive abuse of resume fraud. What about , however, the percentage of applicants that falsify personal identifiers on their job applications? This piece will review the ramifications from a possibly overlooked and increasing trend of job applicants falsifying personal identifiable information on job applications to circumvent the identification of criminal records. Consider this, a recent survey by Morgan & Banks found that seventeen percent of male and seven percent of female respondents admitted to lying on their resume, and eighty percent of Silicon Valley employees admit to having lied on their resumes. Nevertheless, eighty-two percent of responding job seekers say they think companies are aware of resume padding and believe that companies perform background checks on the following: Resumes, however, are not legal documents. There is not much an employer can do if an applicant embellishes their resume. Moreover, if the employer does not discover the job seeker has lied on their resume, then it is highly likely the job seeker will follow suit on their job application too. Comparatively, employment applications are legal documents. If it comes out later that an applicant lied on their job application, the employer has the right to terminate the employee. While an employer may expect applicants to embellish their resume a bit and tailor it for specific jobs, employers may not be cognizant that applicants are falsifying personal identifiers such as social security numbers and date of birth. The implications of a job applicant falsifying their social security number are likely to first appear straightforward to an employer. False or inaccurate social security numbers may impose criminal and civil liability to an employer from a work eligibility and tax reporting perspective. What employers may not realize, however, is that false or inaccurate social security numbers may indirectly subject an employer to risk from a pre-employment screening perspective. From a pre-employment screening perspective, an incorrect social security number may lead to erroneous results or prohibit the request from processing altogether and obtaining accurate completion. If a pre-employment screening service is prohibited from completion, then the results should be evident to the employer and pre-employment screening company immediately. The employer and pre-employment screening company can simply ask the applicant to verify their social security number against what the applicant previously provided on the employment application. After, the pre-employment screening services can simply be re-run based on the updated social security number from the job applicant. This type of scenario may arise when an employer is performing work history verifications (where the social security number is usually required), education verifications, credit history reports, and similar services requiring a social security number. Additionally, pre-employment screening companies can typically provide a social security verification services. The social security verification service can determine whether the social security number is valid, the state of issuance, and year of issuance. Nevertheless, verifying the social security number does not necessarily indicate whether the social security number belongs to the applicant. The real paramount issue and the focus of this document"s next section though, is the verification or reasonable identification of the applicant"s date of birth. Why is the date of birth so important? Obtaining the job applicants correct date of birth is imperative because there are State and Federal laws in place regarding when an individual"s Social Security number may or may not be used, stored, or saved by a government agency. More specifically, government agencies such as State and Federal Courts, Criminal Repositories, and Department of Corrections have made policy decisions for the "non-use" of the

132-S-720.1 training materials

132-S-720.1 Exam