The fraud scourge marches on
EDITORIAL
The application said she worked at a donut shop and her stated income was $10,000 a month. I’m in the wrong business I joked before stipulating the $35,000 auto loan for proof of income, residence, etc. and expecting to just shut it down. The joke was on me when the dealer submitted the paystub and I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised when anyone can go online and create a paystub in less than a minute for $5. And here’s another website that does just that.
Last year I showed everyone a website called “ThePayStubs.” This company claimed to be a California based national accounting that touted their ability to create realistic looking pays stubs for the claimed purposes of helping their customers keep track of their finances, secure bank loans, obtain credit cards and create paystubs as proof of income for strong work references. What made this one funny, was that they were as brazen as providing a video titled “8 Tips For How To Make Fake Pay Stubs.“
Now, we have “Real Paycheck Stubs.” This “Fraud Farm” pretends that it is for business owners that have problems making paystubs for their staff and that it’s even more difficult when dealing with hundreds of employees. These companies have been proliferating for years now and they’re only getting worse.
Careerexcuse.com, of Columbus, OH is a company who claims to be in the service of helping prospective employees overcome issues of good references, gaps in employment or lack of experience. To aid their prospective fraudsters, I mean customers, they can create a five-page company website as well as email addresses of a fictitious company, answer calls from a local area provided phone number in the companies name with customized scripts and even help beef up a resume to appear more appealing to employer application tracking systems (ATS.)
These programs are offered for as little as $100 with a “Pro Plan” at $395.
For enough money, Career Excuse can basically turn the hiring or loan stipulation process into an alternate reality game, with prospective employers or lenders as the “Marks.”
As if this wasn’t problem enough, there are companies that sell fake tradelines that can be rented through one of the many companies like “Business Tradelines.net” a Santa Ana, California company that welcomes walk in consultations. Then there’s “Boost Credit 101.com” where you can literally buy and sell authorized user access to boost credit scores.
All of this is readily available on the internet and while “Big Brother” government scours over our tax filings for discrepancies, they let these industries go on. At some point, fraud losses are going to start taking down many smaller community banks and credit unions and they are already having an impact. In the meanwhile, rather than driving myself nuts over it all, perhaps I should quit trying to beat them and just join them!
Of course, I say that in jest. People like me who’ve spent their entire careers in lending and collections, never get away with this stuff. Instead, perhaps I should pursue a new career in the lucrative field of donut manufacture and marketing.
Photo credit by: Epic10.com
Fake paystubs making loan stipulations worthless
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