Atl here too! We use ApproveShield and they are LEGIT. We took a “proactive vs reactive” approach for our lease up. We’ve taken quite a hit in denials and lost a few applicants for not wanting to fork over full bank statements and the vigorous screening process, but the fraud in Atlanta is ridiculously out of control.
Yes. In Pasadena tx. They bring "pay statement" we look up the company on google map then aske them for more "check stubs" and then the bank statements.
out of 10 applications we get 1 that is good! I think today 4 was cancel due to fake paystubs! Direct deposit didn't even have company address spell correctly or employee address spell right!! So disappointing
it may be the opposite. They are trying to show a lower rent to qualify for affordable housing. Beautiful apartments but income restrictions and much lower rent than market.
So many. I feel like at least one applicant a week lately. For sure a trend that’s gotten worse year over year.
If something comes back “approved with conditions” and the pay stubs look fake, that’s our criteria to queue an employment verification via phone/email.
We are in the Minneapolis area & ever since the Superbowl here, we've often had this issue. We Google the employer & check directly. It's amazing how clever criminals have gotten yet sloppy on these with mispelling their own names, overlapping date ranges, awkward spacing, etc. Crazy world we're in!
4 years 1 month ago#42756by Renate Teigen Sandberg
I used to work in a property on the East side of Indianapolis (Marion county) and fake pay stubs were a weekly thing. People even had the nerve to fake government pay stubs.
Just was speaking to a friend in LA that has over 4000 units. He said that fraud pay stubs and fraud IDs are up are up 60% right now. They have been catching them through CheckPoint ID.
We are in the Houston area and have been dealing with this issue for years. Sometimes they will have someone at the company they supposedly work "verify" employment. If we can't verify through The Work Number or a similar company we'll ask them to pull up their bank statements.
Same here in South Carolina. We prefer to run an income verification report which shows us 12 months worth of income and deposits into their bank account. Even so, we call the employer using public records to verify pay if they don't 100% match the records we pulled. Some of the things we've noticed as red flags:
- misaligned decimals (not accounting format on pay stubs)
- gross pay to date doesn't compute over the series of pay stubs
- address of employer will often be the one listed online even though most large companies have HR based elsewhere
- dates of pay don't match or overlap
- non-salaried workers working exactly 40 hours every week
- inappropriate deductions
- doesn't say where pay was deposited
- hourly rate might not match pay stub to pay stub
Very frustrating. Not a fan of the fraud. We've had an increase in applications but with a large increase in denials. Our application approval rate used to be above 50%, now it's less than half of that. I wish there were a fraud database where repeat offenders could be called out.
How do you tell if the paystubs are fake? I check to see if the name of the applicant is on the paystub, with the address that that have indicated is their current address, the name of the employer matches (I google the employer to see if they have a website) and if the googled information is the same. I also check the dates of the paystubs to see if they are continuous (we require 4 most recent stubs). I tally the YTD to see if that "fits" with what they have indicated on the application as the length of term of employment. We require them to upload their information via PDF into our application portal.
We have given up trying to verify with an employer if an applicant really works there --- usually you cannot reach anyone in HR, have to leave a VM, and they don't return calls. A lot of places have given this over to a service that the Landlord actually has to PAY to verify the applicants information! YIKES!
Is there anything I am missing and if there is something further I should be looking for?
Yes. recently we discovered a link that is being used by many applicants. Have you seen it?
www.getapartmentapproval.com/
This link allows applicants to get check stubs, W2s, bank statements and tax returns. It's incredibly stressful and makes for approving applications extremely challenging. Recently I had an applicant with fake stubs who told me I was discriminating and that was the true reason for denial..... not only am I dealing with the stress of determining whether the stubs are real or fake, but now dealing with the false accusations as well.
4 years 1 month ago#42964by Teresa Maldonado-Parasiliti
I think it's continuing to increase sadly! There is now an actual thriving black-market industry for fraud! I think more and more vendors are adding fraud protection to their tech stacks to help mitigate this issue!
How do you verify? We find fake manager numbers on applications vs calling the employer number on Google... any other ideas? Also the Work Number that employers are using costs money to use, which is super inconvenient for the 2-3 we get a year, you know? Any verification ideas welcome!
YES!!!! I'm in Raleigh and I see fake paystubs EVERY week! It's sooooo frustrating! But what's even more frustrating is that these people think we're stupid and not going to catch it.