Resume fraud is often explained away by the offending jobseeker as a little white lie, but the reality is that such fraud can cost companies millions of dollars; in fact, falsifying employment materials is illegal in some states. And in today’s economy, resume fraud is a growing problem for HR professionals.

According to CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace:

Three out of ten people lie on their resumes — according to experts. In a tight economy, with unemployment close to ten percent, more job seekers may be feeling desperate enough to stretch the truth. “We have seen a substantial increase in resume fraud over the last 12 to 24 months,” said Greg Slamowitz, [whose] firm [Ambrose Employment Group] counsels businesses on the importance of screening resumes.

Resume fraud is certainly not a new problem. United Press International offers up this worrying anecdote from 20 years ago:

Caught in the act: In the late 1980s, the Port Authority of New York took out want ads soliciting resumes from electricians with experience using Sontag conductors. Nearly a third of the respondents said they had experience using Sontags. The problem: There was no such thing as a Sontag conductor.

A couple of the more well-publicized resume fraud cases of recent years include:

• Newly hired Notre Dame football coach George O’Leary lost his job in 2001 — mere days after taking the post — when it was revealed that there were serious inaccuracies on his resume, including a master’s degree from a non-existent institution.
• Marilee Jones was dean of admissions at MIT for 28 years, until it was discovered that she had falsified educational information. Jones was forced to resign.

Statistics and estimates from security and background-checking forms, as well as human resources studies, seem to indicate that anywhere between 15 percent and 40 percent of all resumes received contain an intentional misrepresentation. The very prevalence of the practice can cause some jobseekers to think, “Well, if everyone else is doing it…”

This is an especially tempting mentality in today’s economy. “In an economic downturn, the temptation to pad CVs is strong,” writes Prachi Patel in “Experts Expect Resume Fraud to Rise” for the IEEE. Her expert sources in the article indicate that they believe resume fraud stats will go up quite sharply when they tabulate 2009 as compared to 2008.

However, there is another school of thought, which is that the base statistics for resume falsification remain pretty consistent. Some assert that new technology and the threat of background checks keep people cautious and have kept fraud rates relatively consistent.

According to the IEEE article:

High-profile cases—such as former RadioShack Corp. CEO David Edmondson, who resigned after the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported he made up two degrees he never earned—may make it seem that resume fraud is already on the rise. Yet rates of academic fraud on resumes—people misstating their educational background—have hovered between 20 and 30 percent over the past five decades, says Peter LeVine, a background checker in Delray Beach, Fla.

One reason fraud rates haven’t risen might be the very real fear of getting caught. More employers are now doing stricter background checks on their potential employees, particularly for candidates who received their education or work experience abroad and for those applying for IT positions with access to confidential data. Executive and managerial level resumes also face tougher scrutiny.

Some sources say that the most common misrepresentation is falsifying educational credentials, but other studies claim that inflating a past title or job accomplishments are the most likely areas for candidates to embellish.

There are lots of different techniques to prevent and detect resume fraud, but all require an investment in some way: either the increased labor and attention of HR staff, or outsourcing to some kind of background check company. HR pros acting on their own can start by raising their own internal levels of skepticism, looking for inconsistencies, and demanding large amounts of verification from the candidate.

Other worthy suggestions from the Wall Street Journal article “How to Spot Resume Fraud” are:

• Confirm the circumstances of every change in employment — whether voluntary or involuntary — with a candidate’s previous employers.
• Don’t call only the references provided by a candidate. Seek additional references, such as former colleagues, supervisors or direct reports.
• Don’t assume candidates provided by an executive search firm are well-vetted.

The consequences of resume fraud differ from state to state. Of course, most employees can expect to be terminated if a case of fraud comes to light. A few states even have criminal codes on the books to punish falsifying resume information, but most do not.

In any event, most HR professionals are less concerned with punishments than with preventing dishonest individuals from ever entering their organization and exposing it to risk.

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