How to Identify Fake

Profiles in Recruitment?
(This Document/Information will be
helpful for Both Domestic and US
Recruiters – Please kindly share this
document to as much as you can and
share to maximum recruiters)
This is a very important question for the current staffing industry. I am
sharing some helpful information to identify fake profiles.

With candidates becoming smarter in faking profiles, organisations

need to identify these imposters right at the recruitment stage. A good
background check is the best way to detect misleading or fake
information, which will also save the company's hiring cost.

The information that candidates most often falsify in their resumes

includes employment history, education records and salary details.
There could also be exaggerated claims and accomplishments
mentioned.

Laxminarayana Bupathi
Senior Staffing Consultant for US Process,
Professionals Trainer for US Staffing & Resume Builder
Story Writer at Telugu Film Industry
Reach me at [email protected]
Key things one could consider while screening resumes

Fabricated Education Credentials: Fake candidates tend to skip

educational qualifications or try to hide year of passing out. His/her
highest academic qualification generally falls in the category of
showing fake/more experience than he really possesses. Many
universities/institutions as well as organisations provide fake
degree/diploma/ certifications/experience letters. So one can judge the
authenticity by keeping a check on such institutions mentioned on
resumes.

Scant Employment History: Some people provide negligible

information in their CVs, such as, 6 years work experience in IT sector
(not mentioning the roles/positions handled). One can also cross check
whether the company name and location provided by him really match.
At times the company may exist, but not the location and vice-versa.

Use of words: A genuine candidate would explain about himself in the

very beginning of his profile and mention his career objective in own
style. Whereas, a fake candidate would use tailor made words in his
profile. A fake resume would be very generic and flowery without
giving away any specific operational details.

Social Network: Authenticity could also be checked by checking the

candidate's profiles on social networking sites. This is also gaining
importance as a new way of doing background checks which includes
assessing and comparing people's social media accounts to their
resumes.

Double Check: The perfect way to judge a resume will always be

having a candid conversation with the candidate and cross verifying the
details on the resume at the screening level.

Laxminarayana Bupathi
Senior Staffing Consultant for US Process,
Professionals Trainer for US Staffing & Resume Builder
Story Writer at Telugu Film Industry
Reach me at [email protected]
Spotting lies in a resume is not a rocket science; all it takes is a little bit
of common sense, attentiveness and an eye for details. A recruiter
should also be reasonable and logical. If there is any doubt or
discrepancy in the information shared by the candidate, give the person
an opportunity to explain and also validate it at your end. Finally, trust
your instinct and rely on experience.

How to Identify Fake Candidates via Phone Screening?

Tip 1: Name of the candidate

Most of the fake candidates will not mention their full name in their
resume. Forget about the Last name, they will hide their complete first
name itself.
For example: If you come across a resume with the candidate’s name
being Kiran. Do not skip it. Ask the candidate about his full name. It
would be something like Kiran Kumar or Kiran Chowdhary.
Fake candidates don’t flash their full name in the CV, since the full
name could easily locate a candidate. They would have applied for a job
somewhere and they would have got caught for faking the employment.
To ensure they don’t get caught in those eyes again, they refuse to
mention their full name. In many cases, they even change their mail id
and phone number.

Tip 2: Ask the whereabouts of the companies worked

Though the candidates normally mention their Current & previous
companies in the resume, please have a practice to ask them where they
are currently working. At times, you might get interesting answers.
Without memorising their resume properly, certain fakers used to tell
their previous company as the current one.
Ask where their company is located. Once they say it, cross-check if the
mentioned location is right in the company’s website.
Ask the candidate to spell their current company’s URL. Even here, you
might get some interesting answers. Somebody working for an

Laxminarayana Bupathi
Senior Staffing Consultant for US Process,
Professionals Trainer for US Staffing & Resume Builder
Story Writer at Telugu Film Industry
Reach me at [email protected]
organisation genuinely will not forget the company’s URL right. But,
most of the fake candidates do not even know their company’s URL.
Tip 3: Validate the Entry / Exit dates of the recent 2 employments
Beware if a candidate has worked in two companies as a Contractor
under the payroll of the same Contracting company.

Case:
Software Engineer in TCS from Feb 2015 to till date
Software Engineer in CTS from Aug 2013 to Jan 2015
Pay roll company - xyz consultancy
In the above case, the candidate has worked in 2 companies under the
payroll of the same Contracting company. If you crosscheck about
their exit date from CTS and entry date in TCS, you will be surprised
to see that the candidate would have joined the day next to his/her date
of exit in TCS. The simple question is how will the contracting
company be able to place a contractor in the next assignment, the very
next date of exit from the deputed organisation.
Let’s take a practical example. Even full-time employees in a Big
conglomerate like TCS, they take a buffer time of 1 or 2 weeks to
allocate an employee in the next project. The employee once out of the
project will be put in bench for a few days or even months in some
cases, before allocating them in the next project.
And moreover, except for a few big contracting companies like
Artech, Magna, Dynpro, none of the contracting companies have the
enough budget or practice to hold the contractors by holding them in
bench.
That’s a real good reason to doubt someone’s candidature.

Tip 4: Timesheet process followed in the Contractual employment

Timesheet process is the name of the attendance process followed in
the Contractual employments. If someone doesn’t even know about
the Timesheet process, then he/she is faking.

Laxminarayana Bupathi
Senior Staffing Consultant for US Process,
Professionals Trainer for US Staffing & Resume Builder
Story Writer at Telugu Film Industry
Reach me at [email protected]
Well established corporates usually have an online tool to track the
Timesheet of the Contractors.
From our above case, We can check with the candidate about the name
of the software he/she follow in TCS, in which you enter your
timesheet daily.
If you get “Ultimatix” as the answer, then that’s a genuine case. If you
don’t get the relevant answers, then our subject is faking.
TCS uses Ultimatix for maintaining the Business Associate track
records.
CTS uses a tool called VLC
And similarly many Corporates which have a huge amount of
contractors onboard, they will have a software with them to track the
contractors’ workflow.
Certain companies do not have any software for timesheet
maintenance, but they will definitely have the Timesheet practice been
followed Manually.
So, if a candidate says he/she doesn’t know what a Timesheet process
is, then that’s a clear indicator that our subject is a Fake candidate.

Tip 5: Ask how they got placed in their first employment.

Predominantly we are talking about the ones who are faking with the
experiences of 2 to 4 years. So, asking the aforementioned question is
not an absurd question, coz they are still juniors in the career ladder.
If you come across people who work in some 'costly to learn'
technologies as a contractor from the beginning of their career, ask
how they got this job.
Normally, companies will not be keen to train the contractors in some
of the niche technologies like Documentum, Filenet, Tibco,
Visionplus, etc… If someone claims to have started their career as a
contractor in Technologies similar to the above quoted ones, and the
candidate continues to give irrelevant answers, then that’s another
indicator that our guy is a Fake.

Laxminarayana Bupathi
Senior Staffing Consultant for US Process,
Professionals Trainer for US Staffing & Resume Builder
Story Writer at Telugu Film Industry
Reach me at [email protected]
This tip is not applicable for the ones who are been Contracted by a
Training cum Placement company. Coz, those Training cum
Placement firms normally train the candidates in the above mentioned
‘Costly to learn’ technologies and place them in their client locations
as Contractors.

Tip 6: Propose a F2F Interview

Normally, the fake candidates do not volunteer for a F2F interview,
rather they would want a telephonic interview always.
The reason being, someone else will take up the interview on the
candidate’s behalf. Inviting them for F2F will ruin their entire
operating model. Even if they say yes for the F2F interview request,
they never turn up.
In case of certain Mega walk-in interviews, instead of the fake
candidates, the proxy ones will appear for the F2F interview directly.
When asked to submit the photograph before the interview start, they
submit the fake candidate’s photo without hesitation. Coz, they have a
confidence that due to heavy crowd at the premises, the HR
coordinators may not compare the submitted photo to that of the
person who is actually attending the interview. The proxy ones will
finish off the interview and the fake ones will join the organisation
directly.
As a HR, one must be very careful in examining the photograph and
the interviewee properly before even the interview starts.

Tip 7: Search the Company in Job Boards

If someone claims that he/she is working as a Permanent employee is
a company which has got no name in the market.
Google the company’s name, you might finds complaints or any fake
history registered by somebody in the past.
If not, go to Job boards like Naukri.com, feed the company’s name in
the ‘Employers' tab and set the ‘Active In’ option as ‘All resumes’ and
‘Search’. Whether you search the ‘Recent 1 year’ or ‘All resumes’, the

Laxminarayana Bupathi
Senior Staffing Consultant for US Process,
Professionals Trainer for US Staffing & Resume Builder
Story Writer at Telugu Film Industry
Reach me at [email protected]
amount of resumes listed will be the same. Coz, Any fake company
will not have a history of more than a year.
The fake contracting companies keep changing their company names
regularly and you will not find the same fake contracting companies’
history for more than a year.

Tip 8: Do a mock call

Call the candidate as if you are a fresher. Do not use your English
communication skills here. Coz, you are talking like a fresher who is
going to fake his/her experience. And you have reached him to take
his advice for faking your experience. Well! this has worked out for
me a few times.

Tip 9: Offer a Fresher opportunity with an attractive CTC

This is like throwing a fishing needle with an attractive prey to the
fish. After all the above examination, still if you are not convinced that
the candidate is a fake. Use this at last.
Tell them that you have a job opportunity for Freshers for a full-time
position and you can offer upto 5 Lacs. And also, probe them if they
wanna try it.
Normally, the fakes we are targeting are of the salary range between 3
to 5 Lacs. So, the above offer should be appetising for them, coz that’s
an opportunity to have a good career beginning and a chance for them
to wipe out their fake history.
So, the fake ones desperate for a job offer would say a big ‘YES’ to
this. That’s it. Our job is done.

Tip 10: Crosscheck the Education details

I’ve come across a case where the candidate was a B.Sc., graduate
with 3 years of experience in ‘Oracle DBA’. I did all the examinations
and had a doubt that he is fake. He revealed himself when I used the
'Tip 9’ of offering a fresher opportunity.

Laxminarayana Bupathi
Senior Staffing Consultant for US Process,
Professionals Trainer for US Staffing & Resume Builder
Story Writer at Telugu Film Industry
Reach me at [email protected]
Actually he was a MCA fresher. By hiding his 3 years MCA course,
he has brought in a 3 years of fake experience. How about that?

Final Tip: Drop the profile

If all the above mentioned metrics are showing positive results, why
risk your time by processing such a candidate. It’s always better to
drop such profiles and look for a better one.
If anyone has any other tip than the above listed ones, feel free to add
them in the comments below.

How to Identify Fake Resumes?

1. OPT Students (Foreign Students who complete their Masters in
United States and are eligible for full time work authorization because
of Optional Practical Training)

2. H1B Candidates (These folks are either OPTs who are recently
converted to H1B in last 2 years or folks who travelled from offshore
with a H1B with 2-3 years of experience or none. You never know.)

What is the pattern of the fake resume?

1. Resume with no Last Name
2. Resume includes employer’s phone number not the candidate's
number
3. A Bachelor’s Degree without year of graduation
4. Resume includes 6-8 years’ of experience with first 3-4 years’ of
experience in offshore and the rest in United States.
5. The offshore companies they put up in the resume are either banks
or some companies with factious names
6. The project timelines are lengthy typically 1.5 to 2 years
7. Roles and responsibilities look very similar in almost all the
projects pattern is as follows in case of a recent H1B or someone
with 2-3 years’ experience,

Laxminarayana Bupathi
Senior Staffing Consultant for US Process,
Professionals Trainer for US Staffing & Resume Builder
Story Writer at Telugu Film Industry
Reach me at [email protected]
8. Resume includes 9-12 years’ of experience with first 4-5 years’ of
experience in offshore and the rest in United States.
9. First 2-3 projects look OK but after that the projects follow a very
similar pattern
What do they claim when they speak to you?
1. They say they travelled to United States on a L1 or H1BVisa
2. They claim they are currently on H1B or an extension
3. Their availability for a phone call is typically after 2:00 PM Mon-
Fri or 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. But, if you arrange an interview with
short notice they won’t take it because their PROXY might not be
available at the time.
4. They say they can provide references but these references include
consultants working for their employer at a client site or who has
some relation with candidate’s firm.
5. Few claim they started working full time when they were in the 3rd
year of their college, just to make sure the experience adds up to 7-
8 years (as mentioned in resume).

How to weed out these fake profiles?

➢ Start with the resume word document properties, check for the name
of the author, if it isn’t candidates’ name then something is fishy
➢ Look out for typical resume formats and responses mentioned above
➢ Check their online presence, primarily LinkedIn (this might not
work all the time). Most of the candidates with fake resumes doesn't
have any online presence (Facebook, Linked, Twitter, Instagram)
➢ Ask the names of the project managers they are currently working
for and look up their names on LinkedIn (This holds good for OPT
candidates but not for the recent H1B candidates)
➢ Ask for the copy of highest degree
➢ Ask for candidate's 1-797 copy (when first applied) and make a note
of the receipt number. Cross check I-797 status from official website
using USCIS Official website

Laxminarayana Bupathi
Senior Staffing Consultant for US Process,
Professionals Trainer for US Staffing & Resume Builder
Story Writer at Telugu Film Industry
Reach me at [email protected]
➢ Plug in the receipt number to find the date of approval and is fool
proof since the information obtained is directly from USCIS.
➢ Check and Verify I-94 information using
➢ https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/request.html You need to get the
passport copy and the consent from the candidate. This is again fool
proof since the information obtained is directly from Department of
Homeland Security.
➢ There have been a lot of cases of immigrant workers/students
involved in furnishing fudged I-797 documents. While we still don’t
know of a fool proof method to validate the authenticity of each
document we can only cross check I-797 status using:
https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus/landing.do
➢ Key in the receipt number to find the date of approval/decision
➢ Verify I-94 information using: I94 - Official Website -
https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home You need to get the passport
copy and the consent from the candidate.
➢ Ensure the candidate’s education is listed on their resume, to include
the college/university name
➢ Google the candidate (using different combinations of their names
and college/university name, location, their technical skills etc.) and
see what comes up
➢ Look for social media profiles and see if any information regarding
their background comes up – sometimes they don’t mention their
Master’s Degree on their resume (to falsely claim more number of
years’ experience) but may have it mentioned on their Facebook
profile.
➢ This is a fool proof way, since the information obtained is directly
from Department of Homeland Security.
➢ If you feel a particular document (I 797, Green Card, EAD Card,
etc.) the candidate has furnished is probably fake then request them
to take a fresh photograph of that document and send it to you again.
➢ Verify Divers License or any photo ID and Finally, cross check dates
from each document.

Laxminarayana Bupathi
Senior Staffing Consultant for US Process,
Professionals Trainer for US Staffing & Resume Builder
Story Writer at Telugu Film Industry
Reach me at [email protected]
➢ Look-up/ask for a LinkedIn profile. If the candidate does not have a
LinkedIn profile, ask for a reason.
➢ Ask for references from previous jobs, to include the name of the
Project Lead/Manager. From here, verify the references on
LinkedIn.

To verify if the candidate resume is fake or genuine in US IT

Staffing which is mostly the case with Students who are on
OPT/CPT. These are the following hints to verify a resume is
forged or altered for the marketing or getting the project.

➢ Difference in experience vs Education vs Date of birth

➢ If its a student resume marketed by companies having a phone
number of an employer picking up the phone is or could be a resume
altered profile subjective to visa status
➢ Social & Professional media profiles and identity
➢ Reference checks on the previous projects
➢ Payment / Salary slips
➢ Difference in the documentations (I 797, Green Card, EAD Card,
etc.)
➢ A lot of professionals who are employer dependent needs to market
their resumes through agencies who are their employer so it does not
mean any resume coming from an agency is a fake or altered. Like
it is said its most likely happy with candidates who are students.

THANKS
Laxminarayana Bupathi
Senior Staffing Consultant for US Process,
Professionals Trainer for US Staffing & Resume Builder
Story Writer at Telugu Film Industry
Reach me at [email protected]
 Laxminarayana Bupathi
Senior Staffing Consultant for US Process,
Professionals Trainer for US Staffing & Resume Builder
Story Writer at Telugu Film Industry
Reach me at [email protected]