INTRODUCTION

The career-driven era commands a rat race, wherein frauds are one of the neglected crimes recurring in the corporate culture. In the broad arena of this culture, many companies are victims of poor onboarding rules and regulations.

While catering to one of our MNC clients, Stern Screening came across an intriguing scenario where the candidate pushed the investigation from pillar to post by furnishing forged employment documents.

BACKGROUND

The client was an American company having operational base in India.

PROBLEM

After conducting a detailed investigation of the candidate’s employment history, reports revealed the hidden facts. It entailed the issue of affirming the physical existence of the subject’s former company in Western Region of India. However, the professional documents furnished by the subject to our client company lacked credibility.

CHALLENGE

The investigation team had their first challenge to check the credibility of subject’s former company which was in complete fallacy. Despite several attempts to learn about the employment history of the subject, company’s physical existence could not be established. Rather the subject tried hard to forge his previous job tenure, but gradual site visits, repetitive cross-verifications and subsequent observations unfolded the truth.

PROPOSED SOLUTION

Upon searching third party and government portals, the company was found to be registered. When the investigation rolled further to desktop searches, it revealed the absence of any such company. Even the telephone number provided on the company letterhead was identified to be incorrect. To arrive at conclusive evidence, multiple enquiries were made along with company site visits; wherein it was discovered that the address provided on the company letterhead was incomplete.

Following which, the client company provided the investigation team with the telephone number of the referee responsible for verification. When the referee was called, the team received a new address from him. Gradual site visits and cross examinations helped to draw the conclusion that the company under scrutiny did not have a physical existence. Instead, another company was found to be operational at the same address. When the team tried extracting the facts from the employees of the otherwise-found-company, they denied the alleged company’s existence in the near vicinity for the past eight years.

Thereafter, the client suggested for yet another investigative interrogation with the referee regarding the subject’s employment history. A call was placed to him, asking for the correct address. To steer clear of the false claims, he stated that there had been a merger between the company under investigation and the otherwise-found company. However, the site visits and reports did not find any connection between the two companies. After desktop searches, a call was placed to the otherwise-found company to confirm the statement. Subsequently, the call was connected to the HR Official who dismissed the false claim.

Since there was a chain of contradictory statements from the referee, a check was initiated on his credibility. To which it was discovered that the referee worked with the above-mentioned firm as a mere consultant assisting the top management and would not be aware of any decision about a merger.

To draw an ending line to the course of the investigation, through Internet Identity verification his number was discovered to be as that of a restaurant’s – highlighting the misleading and wrongful attempts of the candidate and referee. Accordingly, to stand up to the search result, one of our professionals telephoned the referee pretending as a customer. For that enquiry, the concerned person behind the phone call stated that the restaurant is undergoing renovations. Following which, he was asked to disclose his identity, to which he denied and stopped responding to subsequent telephone calls.

Citing the discrepant findings, the case was concluded to be fallacious. It is an explicit situation of deceit where the existence of the former organisation had been forged.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Concluding with the case study the following statements can be drawn about background screening:-

  • The candidate’s former company must verify the official documents like the service letters, pay slips, etc.
  • For site visit of the previous organisation, the applicant must provide with the accurate current address of the former company.
  • All previous employment documents must have an authentic and authorised signature of the HR personnel.
  • While running open source intelligence to authenticate the concerned company’s existence, one should also search for relevant presence of the concerned referee on online media to ascertain their identity.

The kind of dubious means that were undertaken by the subject misled the client company, but a little precaution boosted a secure tomorrow. In this era of increasing theft and deceit, nobody is satisfied by a mere word-of-mouth, but a background check is a staple for companies across the board.