Introducing the Reference Fraud Check

Verifications are at the heart of what we do, but we also recognise your processes don’t start or end there. That’s why we’re starting to build in additional checks to help you shape your end-to-end referencing and verification strategy. Our Reference Fraud Check is the first of its kind and is a leap forward in protecting businesses from fraudulent employment and income references.

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Why now

Reference fraud is on the rise and is a pressing issue for any organisation seeking to verify the employment or income of individuals. According to HR Magazine, fraudulent references can lead to severe reputational, regulatory, and monetary consequences. Applicants often use fake references to cover employment gaps, falsify experience, or hide adverse reasons for leaving previous jobs. This deception can put organisations at risk of hiring or providing products and services to dishonest end-users or leading to potential insider threats and legal liabilities.

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The BBC has also reported numerous real-world instances of reference fraud recently, with sophisticated schemes involving fraudulent reference houses that provide fake references for a fee. Likewise, Recruiter highlights the rise of hiring fraud, urging HR professionals to adopt robust verification processes to identify falsified activities. With job scams almost quadrupling since 2022, it’s clear that the recruitment landscape is fraught with risks that require proactive measures to address.

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How our check works

Our Reference Fraud Check leans on our Employer Database, which now includes flags on over 100 suspicious organisations. Each of these organisations has been reported to be associated with reference fraud and has been vetted by professional screening businesses or our verification process. This dynamic database is continually updated to provide the most accurate information, ensuring that our users are always a step ahead in identifying and mitigating risks associated with fraudulent references.

When you see an alert from our Reference Fraud Check, you should take extra care when confirming the employment period - especially if it hasn’t been verified through an authoritative source via Konfir. 

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Get started

There are dozens of businesses already benefiting from our Reference Fraud Check, contributing to and utilising this powerful tool to safeguard their referencing or verification processes when determining affordability for a financial product or property, or verifying work history for a new role. By joining this network, you play an active role in enhancing the integrity of the verification market, ensuring hires for your organisation and others are based on truthful and verified information.

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Organisations that have already contributed to this database will find the Reference Fraud Check automatically enabled. For those who haven’t, enabling this feature is straightforward:

- Contribute to the Database: It's not too late to participate. By contributing suspicious organisation names, you'll gain immediate access to the Reference Fraud Check
- Contact us: Contact our sales team at sales@konfir.com