Faking a pay stub can be an easy way for a scammer to bypass a company’s safeguards and
infiltrate a system or secure a loan they never plan to pay back. If you deal with applicants
having to verify their eligibility by presenting their recent pay stub, there’s a chance that
you see fake paycheck stubs every day without even noticing. Here’s how to recognize if a pay
stub has been faked.
Every company has security measures that are meant to keep it safe. Maybe your company needs
to ensure an applicant provides a valid proof of income and an accurate employee pay stub? The
problem is that now anyone can create pay stubs online easily, sometimes in as little as a few
clicks. Due to increased risks, companies have to become more vigilant and enhance their
verification methods, especially regarding Fair Labor Standards Act compliance.
While professional scammers take the time to make their pay stub documents look orderly, often
identifying if a person has used a pay stub generator is easier than you think. Here are
several signs of a fake pay stub:
precise in their style, wording, and especially numbers. If you notice discrepancies in net
pay rates, pay period, gross pay, or employment dates, pay attention. It can be a sign that
the document was created by a pay stub online generator.
mean it simply doesn’t look professional due to irregular fonts or inconsistent alignment.
Sometimes, you won’t be able to put your finger on why the document doesn’t look right. But
even a hunch can be a sign that something’s off.{‘ ‘}
address, and contact information. If some of these details are missing, or they’re outdated,
you’re probably looking at a fake pay stub.{‘ ‘}
real. They tend to make the amounts listed perfectly rounded, which rarely happens in the
real world.{‘ ‘}
documents, such as payment information, should look. Deviations from the standard paycheck
stub format is a clear sign that the document was not created by the company.{‘ ‘}
{‘ ‘}
Just like technology exists that helps generate pay stubs, it can also help you recognize the
fake ones. For example, OCR (optical character technology) software can extract data from a
pay stub and compare it to known formats. Another type of software that can detect fraud in
pay stubs is software that relies on pattern recognition. It checks the pay stub information
and looks for differences based on known patterns such as payment amounts or employee details.
Today, the popularity of machine learning and AI software will likely enhance this
cat-and-mouse chase, making generating pay stubs easier, while also improving the software
designed to analyze and verify the validity of pay stubs.
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Here are some examples of how fake pay stubs are used to plan and execute cyberattacks:{‘ ‘}
spear phishing and{‘ ‘} social engineering
, cybercriminals use fraudulent records
such as fake pay stubs to make their requests look more legitimate and trick the victim into
revealing sensitive information.{‘ ‘}
institution. They fill out the application for a loan or a credit card and provide a fake
stub.{‘ ‘}
claim deductions and refunds.{‘ ‘}
use fake pay stubs to mask financial irregularities.
taking the time to convert payroll records into a digital format. Digitized records make
scams harder, not to mention that additional measures such as encryption can be used to
secure them.{‘ ‘}
with real-time employment data and can confirm the accuracy of an applicant’s employment and
income information with ease.{‘ ‘}
pay period, you can cross-reference that information by asking a tax report or a bank
report. Cross-referencing can be time consuming but it helps ensure that you’re looking at
the correct information.{‘ ‘}
fraudulent documents from the real ones, and knowing proper channels to report fraud is a
sure way to to maintain the integrity of your financial records.
can prevent{‘ ‘} hacker attacks designed
to modify payment data inside your databases.{‘ ‘}
The post How to spot fake pay stubs in the digital era first appeared on NordVPN.
