Topic: Does your property experience high fake paystubs in your area?

Does your property experience high fake paystubs in your area (application for apartment)?

Yes, in Atlanta

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.

Yep. We are taking a little extra time on each application but it is well worth it. I agree, it is out of control

That’s why we ask for 3 months worth. Dropped the phony rate a bunch.

We have been getting SO many in Jacksonville.

Yes - west side Indianapolis

Yes!! Seeing more and more these days!... and fake social security #s.....????

Ha! My side they try to hide pay .... or even work a month short just to get lower rent ....

Do you not verify them?

yes we do- we look at the paystubs- some of them forget to delet "logo goes here" or business name is miss spell etc...

geez, usually they tell on themselves, I suppose.

We also require bank statements to verify the direct deposits. They haven’t figured out fake bank statements yet

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.

this is why i also send employment verification straight to employer!

No thank goodness! Honestly I didn’t even realize it was that big an issue until this group!

Everyone in my office thinks I’m crazy but I analyze it all - we can’t afford to move people in who can’t afford it, especially these days!!

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.

Yes, a lot! We require 4 most recent paystubs, 2 months of bank statements to verify direct deposits and verify with HR or work#.

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!

I’m exhausted just trying to figure out how to manipulate the system, I would be a terrible criminal ????

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 have received several.

We are in the Houston area and are seeing fake paystubs, socials, and ID's.

I am in Houston and we see them at least once biweekly.

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.

Yes, Houston

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?

hey Everyone-

We noticed these results in our most recent survey!

www.snappt.com/survey-covid-19-residential-rentals

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.

Does approveshield verify if the paystubs have been edited? I’m looking to use a 3rd party to screen my applicants

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!

3 months worth of paystubs?

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!

What does your employment verification look like? Do you email?

Relate to this so hard LOL

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.