CV lies and fakes - what ever it takes

He blew not only his US$400,000 in salary but also his reputation.

The psychology of “writing fraud” is complex. Many people simply want to be admired. Such was the case of Stephen Glass, a 25-year-old journalist and rising star at The New Republic in America. He wrote dozens of high-profile articles for a number of national publications in which he made things up.

He created fake notes, fake voicemails, fake faxes, even a fake website - whatever it took to deceive his editors, not to mention hundreds of thousands of readers.

"I would tell a story, and there would be fact A, which maybe was true. And then there would be fact B, which was sort of partially true and partially fabricated. And there would be fact C that was more fabricated and almost not true. And there would be fact D, which was a complete whopper. And totally not true. And so people would be with me on these stories through fact A and through fact B. And so they would believe me to C. And then at D they were still believing me through the story," he said on American TV program 60 Minutes.

That is one of the best summaries of the psychology of resume fraud one will read. The frauds often lie on a substrata of truth yet the lies compound so quickly that the perpetrator is in too deep to pull out.

Recruiting companies who recommend candidates to employers without fully checking their credentials (we again hit the Privacy Act problem) may be liable to prosecution under the Trades Practices Act.

Last year recruitment giant Hudson settled a matter for an undisclosed sum after it was found that the placement of a senior lawyer had been “highly problematic”.  Leading law firm McMahons, who were acting for the employer, said the lawyer demonstrated “poor litigation skills and substandard conduct”.

McMahons sued Hudson for his salary package ($119,422) plus the $33,000 recruitment fee, as well as extra staffing costs and damage to its (the employer's) reputation.

Hudson had unsuccessfully argued that its “no liability” clause in its contract was protection and that it was up to the employer to be satisfied with candidates before they were hired.

The Trade Practices Act effectively says that if a recruiter proposes a “dodgy candidate” then they may be involved in deceptive or misleading conduct by a corporation or corporations engaged in a commercial activity.

According to the website Peoplecheck, University associate professor Joellen Riley said that simply having a “no liability” clause didn’t let recruiters off the hook.

“The only way a waiver would work is if there was some kind of clear disclaimer by the recruiter saying, ‘Look, we’ve done the best we can to check references but ultimately you have to rely on your inquiries and make your own decision’.”