- NEW YORK (Reuters)
-- Simple misrepresentation of facts on a CV is passe. Lying convincingly
is in.
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- As companies, via background searches, try to call the
bluff of less-than-honest job seekers, candidates are resorting to more
complex, sometimes hi-tech means to hoodwink potential employers.
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- Some applicants are providing employers with phone numbers,
which are answered by operators of Web sites that not only offer phoney
academic degrees, but also "verify" a job seeker's education.
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- And, in an effort to put more credibility into embellishing
their resume, some candidates are paying hackers to plug their names into
a class list database of a university they claim to have attended.
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- "Candidates are allegedly breaking the law to get
a particular job or promotion, and that is pretty much going to the full
extent of the limit," said Scott Pustizzi, vice president at The Human
Equation, Florida-based human resources consultants.
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- People could be charged with a felony for hacking into
a university's database, according to criminal lawyers. And if a false
degree leads to higher pay for a job candidate, he or she could be accused
of criminal fraud by the employer.
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- While the uncertain employment market is pushing job
hunters to such convoluted extremes, inadequate security for database systems
and a long list of Web sites offering fake degrees only serve to facilitate
resume fraud.
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- The background search firm ADP Screening and Selection
Services, in a 2003 study, found that more than 50 percent of the people
on whom it conducted employment and education checks had submitted false
information, compared with about 40 percent in 2002.
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- This has prompted an increasing number of companies to
do more thorough background checks of candidates.
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- A 2003 survey of more than 200 companies by Virginia-based
Society for Human Resource Management revealed that 80 percent of them
made reference and criminal checks on their employees.
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- Still, some applicants continue to get smarter and slicker
at defrauding employers and are crossing legal limits to snatch jobs away
from otherwise equally qualified honest candidates.
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- TRANSCRIPTS -- COMING SOON
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- Companies seeking to get a clearer picture of a candidate's
qualifications via background checks are uncovering other new forms of
deception.
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- "In the past, people just lied," said Charles
Wardell, managing director at executive search firm Korn/Ferry International.
"Now, what they are doing is they are hacking into a class of a university
and putting their name on the class list."
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- Wardell said he has come across cases where some candidates
are paying hackers to break into the databases of universities. If recruiting
firms called the university to check the candidate's degree, the school
would confirm it because the applicant's name would indeed appear on the
list.
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- Breaking into a database is relatively easy because most
database servers are not password protected, said Alfred Huger, director
of engineering at anti-virus company Symantec.
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- So, Korn/Ferry has started requesting degrees and, in
some cases, even grades from potential candidates as proof of their academic
claims.
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- But as corporate investigations company Kroll Inc. points
out, documents such as scholastic degrees and grades can also be concocted
with the help of numerous Web sites that provide such services.
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- Web sites such as http://www.fakedegrees.com help job
hunters cook the facts and even lists out-service enhancements. "Transcripts
-- Coming Soon" says one promotion on that site.
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- Other sites such as http://easydiploma.com go a step
further and offer verification service.
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- "You can select the parchment paper, the insignia
and the type of degree," said Bob Schlossnagle, president of Kroll's
background screening division. "And one of the things they (Web sites)
are now doing to enhance their service is they will give you a 1-800 number
to give your potential employer. And when employers call they will actually
confirm the degree."
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- Background search firms admit their job is getting harder
with the increasing level of sophistication in resume fraud.
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- "A good liar understands that you have to have some
basis and facts to pull off a scam," said Lester Rosen, president
of California-based Employment Screening Resources. "But it's even
more dangerous when employers unknowingly hire a fraud, thief or a crook."
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