You are sifting through resumes when one catches your eye. After a background check comes back clean, it’s time for reference checks. You call this candidate’s former employer at Altman Research. Altman is an equity research firm based in Chicago and your applicant’s supervisor had nothing but wonderful things to say about your potential new hire. It is a great scenario for a perfect hire, right? Except for the fact that Altman Research doesn’t actually exist.
Altman Research is a company created by Career Excuse. What is Career Excuse you ask? It is a service that provides verifiable references to job seekers for a fee. References from companies that do not exist. These fictional companies have websites, phone numbers and even emails, all manned by Career Excuse’s staff.
Co-founder of Career Excuse, William Schmidt, along his small staff will describe the strengths of your applicant, as well as verify fake work histories through cloud-based phone tree systems. They usually sound real enough to be believed, he describes. Schmidt goes as far as making the imaginary companies, and their fictitious executives, have LinkedIn and other social media accounts. Google searches can bring up the companies that have headers and a picture of the company. However, Schmidt says there are some limits. Career Excuse will absolutely not impersonate a government agency, lawyers or doctors. Nor will they pretend to be an actual company or person to provide references to anyone trying to work in an airport.
Career Excuse is amongst several fake referral services. If you have any doubts about reference checks, see how Background Check Central can help.