FSB warns businesses to check candidates’ references

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is contacting its members to warn them about the scale of reference fraud directed at small businesses. The FSB and BBC1’s Fake Britain cooperated on a survey of 1,800 small firms, which found nearly one in five (17%) had discovered candidates with fraudulent references.

The survey found that bogus references are used at every level of business:

• 40 per cent of dodgy references were for entry level positions;
• 40 per cent were for mid-level positions;
• 12 per cent were for management positions;
• 2 per cent of fraudulent applications were for Director level jobs

The programme will also report that seven out of 10 (71%) of small business owners are unaware of websites which offer to provide applicants with fake references. The FSB is encouraging businesses to be wary of potential fraud and take precautions to prevent being taken in by a scam.

A very interested article from The FSB. If you would like to read more about the FSB please click here.