How many impostors are working for you?
A recent press release from DGA Detectives
People sometimes aren’t what they say they are, and the
results are often disastrous and costly.
The reputation of the Washington Post has suffered
after the recent discovery that Jason Blair was plagiarizing and making-up
stories. It seems the Post has a short memory. About fifteen years
ago another one of their young, "star" reporters almost destroyed the
Post in a similar situation.
Janet Cooke was hired in large part because of the impressive academic
credentials she claimed, but which the newspaper never verified. Only after the
newspaper had won a Pulitzer Prize for Cooke’s story about the "life on
the street struggle of a 9-year-old heroin addict" did it discover that
both the story itself and her claims of college degrees were fabricated.
The credibility that the Washington
Post had spent a century to build was lost. Circulation took a nose dive and the
estimated value of the publication dipped to almost half of what it once was.
Although this happened more than ten years ago, Janet Cooke and her made up
story are inevitably mentioned when the topic of conversation is the Washington
Post. The damage to the Post’s reputation can’t be accurately measured, but
it is estimated that the monetary loss to be in the millions of dollars.
 Like many employers, the Washington
Post failed to do anything more than an interview when they hired Janet Cooke. A
check of her identity, references and experience by a skilled investigator would
have quickly revealed her fraud and prevented the Washington Post disaster.
Authorities say that this type of
fraud is on the increase. Far too often impostors slip through the crack to land
jobs for which they are not qualified. Sometimes the consequences are
disastrous. Here are some recent instances:
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The City of Lancaster in the
Antelope Valley considered itself fortunate to have obtained such a
talented, experienced, and successful City Planner. He was on the job for
two years during one of the biggest job and population booms that the
Antelope Valley had ever seen, but virtually all the programs he was working
on never seemed to take shape. An Auto Mall, a Shopping Mall and an
Industrial Center were lost to neighboring Palmdale. But still no one
suspected that this talented planner was at fault; it was just bad luck. No
one suspected a thing until a L.A. Sheriff’s Deputy, recently transferred
from the County Jail to the Lancaster Sub Station, had a chance meeting with
this man and recognized him as a former inmate. A background check revealed
that the City Planner was really a convicted felon and con-artist who was
systematically draining funds from the city treasury.
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For 13 months, George Allen seemed
to be a meticulous, capable chief of medical services for the Tennessee
Prison system. Then, acting on an anonymous tip, authorities discovered that
Allen, a former bartender, held no medical degree. To land the job he had
assumed the identity of a retired Navy surgeon. Allen still works for the
Tennessee Prison system, but now he’s on the other side of the bars.
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An ex-Army medic and high school
dropout, using credentials "borrowed" from his cousin,
successfully masqueraded as a doctor and treated newborn infants for three
years at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco. His
ruse was only discovered when he had applied for a full time faculty
position.
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A woman described as "bright,
articulate and having all the answers" was hired as deputy
budget director for the city of Aspen, Colorado. A personnel shortage
deterred city officials from checking her references. After a month on the
job, the woman had already diverted $2,900 to her personal account without
being detected. An alert book keeper suspected that her lack of knowledge in
certain aspects of accounting was a danger signal and convinced a city
official to hire a private investigator to conduct a background check.
Besides exaggerating her education and experience on her resume, the check
revealed that she had been previously convicted of check fraud and forgery
in New Mexico.
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An Ohio man was hired as a vault
custodian for Purolator Armored, in Denver, after passing a polygraph exam
and a reference check on his previous job as a mine driller. On night, while
working alone, he absconded with one million dollars in cash from the vault.
The FBI later discovered that the man had assumed the identity of a
childhood friend, complete with phony birth certificate. He is still at
large.
While most incidents are not as costly
or dramatic as these examples, there are many thousands of instances each year
of persons using phony credentials in order to get jobs. Falsifications range
from an exaggeration of college grades or previous job duties to outright lies
about past jobs held, schools attended and degrees earned.
"More than thirty percent of
the resumes we’ve checked have some type of misrepresentation that the
employer should know about," explains Dale Gustafson, Private
Investigator and Owner of DGA Detectives in Simi Valley, California.
"Most
cases involve stretching the truth, but it’s not uncommon to find someone who
lies about their education. Occasionally we will even discover that someone has
lied about their identity."
At the Harvard University
registrar’s office, Suzanne Asselin says she gets two or three calls a week
about job applicants who claim to have attended the university but aren’t in
the records. The same is true for Stanford and other Ivy League schools.
The hazards of hiring impostors
persist, especially when sensitive jobs are involved. Most experts urge
employers to take greater care when checking backgrounds. "Look for the
red flags," suggests Dale Gustafson,
"the
person that is too perfect, gaps in their employment history or other facts that
don’t seem to add up could be an indication of a doctored resume."
When should you use an expert?
In most cases, the
employer can conduct their own screening of prospective employees. Usually a
good interview and some telephone work to verify the references are all that’s
needed to protect yourself and your business from impostors. But impostors
become more sophisticated as the stakes get higher. Among the worst are child
molesters and convicted felons who will adopt a false identity or assume the
identity of someone else in order to use your business for their evil purpose.
When the stakes are high, it pays to
retain a professional to protect your valuable business. Here are some
guidelines for when a professional investigator should be used to conduct a
background check:
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When the job involves fiduciary
responsibilities, such as purchasing, accounting, child care or handling of
cash receipts.
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When the annual salary for the
position exceeds $40,000.
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When job qualifications include an
advanced college degree.
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When, once hired, a new employee
does not perform at a level commensurate with reported experience and
background.
For most business owners, the biggest
objection to using a professional investigator for a background check of a
prospective employee is the cost. "A thorough and professional
background check is not cheap," says Dale Gustafson,
"but
one bad employee has the potential of driving a good business into
bankruptcy."
***
Special note: All the photos posted with this article
are fakes...
For More Information Contact: Telephone: 888-811-3253
- DGA DETECTIVES is based in Southern California with offices in
Ventura, Simi
Valley, Santa Monica and Malibu.
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