Have bad references? A gap in employment? New service gives you fake background

Posted on by Chere Estrin

J0178845 That's right.  I was sure it would happen eventually.  And sure enough!  According to a CNN Living article, William Schmidt of CareerExcuse.com  can phony up a past for you to cover gaps, bad references, getting fired and more.

How does he do it? He fabricates job references to cover up a candidate's sordid past.  He's even been doing it since 2009.

Schmidt is the founder of CareerExcuse.com, a Web site that says it will fill any gap on your résumé by acting as your past employer. It will go as far as creating a new company with an accompanying phone number, logo, Web site and LinkedIn profile. He says the site is designed to "help our subscribers meet the needs of the modern day job market."

Gosh, I hadn't realized it changed that much……

But lordy, lordy, lordy.  The website promises you:

(Direct from their website:)

"Bad Reference? Resume Weak? Fired?

 
WE CAN HELP!
We will act as your past employer and have our operators standing by to give you that "great" reference that you need to any inquirer's. Join now and you will be able to create a career with a work history and pay range as you see fit. To find out more, click here.."
Furthermore, it goes on to claim that you'll have a job within 60 days or they'll give you $50.00 back.  The website also claims that:
 
75.3% of our clients are called for interviews within just 10.2 days of sending out their resumes with our JOB REFERENCES!

91% of our clients are HIRED within 72 hours of reference inquiry.
 
* You Choose Your Career History!

* You Pick Your Start and End Date!
* You Choose your Salary!
* We Provide a Real Company Just for You!
* We Provide a Real Address For That Company!
* We Provide a Real Website For That Company!
* We Provide a Real "800" Phone Number!
* We Will Have our Operators Standing By!
* We Will E-mail you Every Time Someone Calls!
 
However, CareerExcuse.com is quite clear that it will not give out information for loans.  Well, thank goodness…..they do have some ethical and moral reasoning…….
 
So, what they're saying is that no one checks further than a phone call?  Potential employers will accept a phony website and not realize they've been scammed?  Hmmm…I'm wondering if the entire website of CareerExcuses.com is actually fake and people have been taken in.  Is that possible?
 
My opinion?  If this is real and you use it, you're going to get caught.  Eventually, you will trip up or get found out.  And even if you are already working on the job when you are found out,  it's basis for firing.  I thought that what I had witnessed over the years was something but this makes what I've seen to be very mild. 

Now that I think of it, I've run across many resumes where the candidate has changed the dates of employment, left out the months so that it looks like they were employed for a year, have said that their position was eliminated when they were fired, have given false supervisors – it's really a friend, not a supervisor and more. Oh yes! There was that fellow who said he was a federal librarian for 8 years. Turns out he was of sorts. He was in federal prison for murdering his girl friend.

Then there are the people who lie about their education. I've had people put down that they received a "Batchelor's" degree…….Good god……..I recently had a fellow put down that he received a bachelors degree from a school that is a two-year college. He even got hired at a top ten major law firm. (I think….maybe that wasn't true either.)  I guess he thought I wouldn't notice you can't get a four-year degree from a two-year college. 

And yes, people even put down that they have J.D. when they don't even know what the J.D. stands for and that they have paralegal certificates from schools that don't exist anymore – how convenient.  We've had some candidates claim they were attorneys when it turns out they barely finished high school and we've had attorneys whose licenses were suspended but failed to mention that little fact as well.

I've had people put down their parents names as references because their last name is different and oh yes! There was a fellow who walked in years ago from the Billion Dollar Boys Club if anyone remembers that scam.

Here's the thing: Employers can check your references -where you worked, what dates you were employed, salary information and whether you are eligible for rehire. They don't have to ask for the person that you gave as a reference.  They don't have to call the phone numbers you give them and they may avoid an 800 number of a past employer, if given one.

 

 
They don't have to accept written reference letters and they sure don't mind asking you for a W2 or proof of income from your last job.

Futhermore, they will check LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and any and all social media. But they also now check things like BeenVerified. Some states even require a credit check that is likely to show your real employers and dates.

If you think for some reason that you are exempt from all of that – think again! Make sure your real LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and no one has written nasties on your Facebook page – especially your Aunt Minnie and Uncle Vinnie who sounded off when you failed to come over for the  holidays.

It may be a different world out there and more difficult to get a job.  But believe me, faking whole employers, websites, salaries, supervisors, references, phone numbers, and more is not the way to go.

One Reply to “Have bad references? A gap in employment? New service gives you fake background”

  1. Lord, have mercy me, I’m right in there with you, Miz Chere. Maybe I’m just old or old-fashioned, but darned if I see the point in trying to be so doggoned devious. It’s just too much WORK!

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