You may have learned about catfishing from the famous TV program Catfish. On the show, the hosts help people figure out if their online love interests are who they claim to be. Needless to say, it can be devastating to discover that the wealthy supermodel they thought they were dating is, in reality, a con artist serving 5 to 10 for defrauding their own grandmother. Still, at least the catfished person gets to the truth.

Corporate Catfishing and the Hiring Process
So what has this got to do with your business? It turns out that job seekers have also been catfishing employers, meaning that they’ve been pretending to be something they’re not to lure the employer into an employment relationship. The end goal could either be to get a job they’re not qualified for or defraud the employer (more about this later).

Trends like the Great Resignation and the Great Retirement, along with increased employee turnover, mean that businesses are scrambling to find the right employees in a candidate’s market. Hiring managers have their hands full replacing staff who have left, leaving them exhausted. All of this can lead to hasty employment offers without the usual background checks. The COVID pandemic exacerbates the problem: most interviews are now handled virtually, making it more challenging to assess fit, and for some parts of the screening process, such as technical tests, the candidate might have a friend stand in for them.

Catfish candidates will pad their resumes, lie about their previous employment, and provide fake references. It’s also become common for candidates to “ghost” potential employers by failing to show up for interviews. While hiring managers are pursuing these “too good to be true” candidates, other potential employees are getting snapped up by competitors.

Catfish Hackers
Underqualified candidates are not the only catfishing problems companies face. Some hackers aim to plant malware or ransomware on a business’s network by submitting resumes with harmful code embedded in them. Once the hiring manager downloads the resume, the damage has been done. You can help protect your business from this type of catfishing by refusing file formats that can be used in this way or by not accepting attachments at all. However, companies need to be aware of this threat to defend against it; and information is key.

Dealing with Catfish Candidates
Busy HR departments trying to meet organizational demands for staff can quickly become overwhelmed sorting through applications and screening candidates. A few things they can do to screen for apparent problems are:

Look for Employment Gaps or Too Many Short-Term Jobs

  • Check the candidate’s LinkedIn profile for their connections, which should correspond with their stated experience. For example, someone who claims to have 20 years of graphic design experience should have many connections in the design field.
  • Conduct reference checks, including backdoor checks with people they know at the candidate’s previous employers.
  • Perform social media and Google searches for anything that does not correspond with the candidate’s on-paper profile.

These steps can screen many potential candidates, but a skilled catfish will tailor their online persona to conceal these issues. That’s when hiring a private investigator can prevent you from falling prey to candidate catfishing.

How a Private Investigator Can Help Screen Candidates
Interviewing and assessing job candidates is costly, and the expenses rise considerably if the wrong person gets hired. A background check conducted by an experienced private investigator can save your business time and money and ease the strain on hiring managers and HR departments. Here’s how we can help:

  • Conducting thorough searches of your candidate’s addresses (current and past), employment history, credit history, criminal record, educational history, vehicle ownership and driving record, professional licenses and memberships, lawsuits and judgements against them.
  • Searching for their social media profiles and posts for anything that doesn’t align with their stated identity and history.
  • Interviewing people who know the candidate or whom the candidate claims to know.
  • Focusing exclusively on the background checks you request while your HR department handles other tasks.

Conducting Surveillance of the Candidate if Needed
In theory, most of these things can be done internally, but private investigators have the resources to do this thoroughly and quickly. As Toronto’s leading corporate investigations company, SQPI has built a rock-solid reputation for protecting clients from harm. We have decades of experience in corporate investigations and a dedicated team of knowledgeable and skilled private investigators who can start on your backgrounds checks right away. Now is the time to invest in employee selection and set your business up for growth. Talk to us today about how our background check services can help you accelerate your success!