“One-in-five individuals lie to secure employment” reports Cifas

The Cifas Fraud Behaviours Survey shows that falsifying qualifications on CVs and supplying false information on a job application were the second ‘most common’ type of first party fraud (ie when an individual knowingly misrepresents their identity or provides false information for financial or material gain) to be committed.

In addition, one-in-seven of those people surveyed (ie 14%) felt that it was ‘reasonable’ to say they had achieved a 2:1 degree in order to secure a job, when in reality they had failed their final year at university.

Monday 3 February marked ‘National Sickie Day’, when UK employees were more likely to be off work with illness. While many will have legitimate reasons for doing so, Cifas’ Fraud Behaviours Survey shines a light on people’s willingness to be dishonest.

When asked what they would do if they had discovered a colleague had been dishonest about their qualifications in order to security employment, anonymously reporting that truism received a mixed reaction from respondents. One-third (33%) said they would inform the Human Resources Department confidentially compared to 36% who would choose not to raise the issue, with the remaining 31% of respondents ‘unsure’.

Erosion of trust

Rachael Tiffen, director of learning and the public sector at Cifas, explained: “First-party fraud is not a trivial offence. It erodes trust and carries significant consequences for those involved, including potential criminal charges and the risk of damaging future career prospects.”

Tiffen added: “When someone falsifies their CV to land a job, they will not stand out from the crowd in a positive way. Instead, they may be viewed as an ‘insider threat’. Someone who demonstrates dishonesty, in turn raising concerns about their potential to continue deceiving others in the workplace.”

Tiffen concluded: “Dishonest members of staff not only pose a risk to their employer, but they also endanger customers, colleagues and wider stakeholders. In order to protect themselves, organisations should implement thorough checks across the entire employee lifecycle such that any potential fraud risks can be identified and mitigated.”

Industry viewpoint

In relation to first-party fraud in general, Marko Maras (CEO and founder at Trustfull) commented: “There is a concerning level of ambivalence towards fraud. Falsely claiming goods have not been delivered or creating fake e-mails to enjoy welcome bonuses might feel harmless, but these actions can have a detrimental impact on businesses.“

For small businesses, whether selling their wares through marketplace platforms like Amazon or Esty or via their own online store, the financial losses caused by first-party fraud add up and can deteriorate their bottom lines significantly.

Maras stated: “We should all recognise that the impact of fraud is far from negligible, even if it may seem harmless to us. As fraud proliferates across various sectors, it’s time for e-commerce businesses to rethink their approach. Legacy checks are much too easy to bypass, while standards need to be brought up to the same level as more regulated sectors, such as banking. High-volume industries need to leverage alternative data and real-time checks on a par with those used by financial institutions in order to clamp down on the recent surge in fraud, be it first-party or not.”

The Fraud Behaviours Survey was carried out by Opinion Matters on behalf of Cifas and involved a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK individuals who responded between 22-28 May 2024

*Discover more by accessing the latest Cifas Fraud Behaviours Survey