Nov 11, 2009

Crock Stars – the new business of background embellishment

Posted by Wendy Weber

Crock Stars: www.nypost.com/p/news/business/jobs/crock_stars_DDs8jHF62x6BegfSnBnhcP

In a recent article in The New York Post called “Crock Stars”, Virginia Backaitis brings to light a shocking practice for job seekers.

An industry has sprung up designed to help obfuscating job seekers. These organizations will provide phony reference services that, for a fee, will pose as your former employer (or its employment verification service) and corroborate your claims. The article reveals an organization that provides an 800 number with “operators standing by” to answer calls from reference checkers, and will even set up a phony Web site for your invented employer!

Screening firms polled by @work reported that anywhere from 45 to 70 percent of the job seekers on whom they’d run background checks had supplied incorrect data or told outright lies on their resumes, job applications or both. The discrepancies range from fudging employment dates and job tities to falsifying information about their education to citing employers they’d never actually worked for.

In