Fake Job Applications Most Common Entry Point for Fraudsters, Says CIFAS

Organisations are most vulnerable to employee fraudsters at the recruitment stage, according to a report from the UK's Fraud Prevention Service, CIFAS. It said that deceitful attempts to gain access to sensitive data via the recruitment process accounted for more than 50% of all subsequent internal fraud cases in 2013.

Overall employee fraud rose by 18% in 2013 compared to 2012, but this is the first time since the founding of the Internal Fraud Database in 2006 that dishonest attempts to gain employment accounted for the majority of insider fraud cases. Figures show that the most common reason for application fraud (40%) was because potential employees had concealed unspent criminal convictions.

The number of fake job applications that are discovered at the hiring stage had increased by 70% increase in 2013. Despite this, Mike Emmott, CIPD employment relations adviser, said it was even more important for employers to invest in comprehensive pre-employment checks now that competition for jobs had increased. However, the report noted that it isn't always possible to detect a potential fraudster at the recruitment stage, because the average length of service an individual spent with a company before committing fraud was six and a half years.