Educational background, professional certificate, and identity card checks are the most basic checks that should be performed before a company makes a decision to employ selected candidates. Based on our experience in providing employment background screening services since 2008, we find that fake academic certificates are rampant.

Bachelor’s diplomas are the most frequently forged, followed by high-school diplomas. The third most common case of forgery occurs in postgraduate diplomas. The falsification is done not only at the staff level but also managerial level.

In some cases, local universities claim to be affiliated with overseas universities, especially with the ones in the USA and the UK. After further verification, it is commonly found that there is no affiliation between them. For this kind of case, the candidates can be categorized as victims because they might not know the modus operandi run by the universities.

Six facts we often find behind fake academic certificate cases are:

• Candidates have never taken education program at the claimed school/university.
• Candidates have actually been dropped out, and the student number (NIM) listed on the diploma is on behalf of other students.
• Candidates are still active students, and the student number listed on the certificate is on behalf of another person who has graduated or is falsified.
• GPA forgery
• Transcript forgery
• Degree forgery, e.g. A candidate with an associate degree claiming to have a bachelor’s degree.

Hiring candidates with fake academic certificate can be very costly for companies. Therefore, to avoid the matter, background checks should be performed before companies make decision in hiring selected candidates. However, many companies, which opt to conduct background checks on their own often find it time and energy consuming while the result can be biased due to resources shortage. At this point, to get background checks done properly and obtain objective results, a company needs to delegate the task to an experienced and trustworthy third party.

Integrity Indonesia has been trusted by its clients as a mitigation solution provider, and employment background screening is one of our services. To verify the candidate’s claims, our team of screeners assess the validity of information provided in the curriculum vitae and other supporting documents by conducting a background check. Attempts to provide false information, such as forged diplomas or false employment records are foiled. Should your companies need more detailed information about how employment background screenings work for your companies, do not hesitate to contact us.