How To Spot Fake Pay Stubs

Fake pay stubs can cost you a lot of money if you don't know how to spot them. Someone could be lying about their previous salary or trying to commit fraud. As such, you have to keep yourself safe.
People use pay stubs in various situations. These include when filing taxes and when applying to rent a home. Other situations include seeking a loan, querying payroll errors, and proving previous earnings.
Thus, if you don't know how to spot a fake pay stub, someone is going to take advantage of you. Keep reading to learn how to differentiate between the real ones and the fake ones.

Tips for Spotting Fake Pay Stubs

People lie for all sorts of reasons. But that's not a problem for you to worry about. Your focus should be on how to tell if a pay stub is fake. Failure to spot the deception could get you in legal and financial trouble. Here are some tips to help you sort the fakes from the real stubs:

1. Call Their Previous Employer

A quick way to weed out the liars is to ask them for permission to call your previous employer. Their reaction should give you the first clues whether the pay stub is real or not.
If they say "Yes", you can have the response from the previous employer in no time. If they refuse, you have a reason to be suspicious. Don't call the number they give you. They may have asked one of their friends to pretend to be their former boss. Research the company on your own and call the HR.

2. Ensure All the Information is Included

Knowing how to make a pay stub can help you identify the fake ones. You'll know what information is missing and if there's anything out of place. Common parts of a pay stub include the gross pay, taxes, and insurance deductions.
There shouldn't be any fancy font or misaligned data. Also, basic information on the stub, such as their name, should be correct. Look out for spelling mistakes as well.
Other things to look for are marital status, date of birth, and address. People forget to correct generic information when faking pay stubs. Make sure everything matches what they've already told you. Last, if the pay stub is made using low-quality paper, you'll know it's fake.

3. Confirm the Salary or Wages

Confirm the salary or wages on the pay stub is correct by asking for a bank statement. This figure should show up on the statement as a deposit. Moreover, the deposit should show the name of the company paying them. If any of this information is different or missing, they are lying.

4. Countercheck the Figures

Get a calculator and check whether the figures add up. Calculate the earnings and the deductions on the pay stub. If you find incorrect mathematics which the person can't explain, then the pay stub is fake.

5. Check the Decimals

Still, on mathematics, ensure the format for the dollars includes decimals. Accounting software aligns all the digits and decimal points. Thus, if anything is out of place, the stub is probably fake.

Learn More About Pay Stubs

It takes a few minutes to make fake pay stubs. Thus, you have to be cautious when dealing with them. Countercheck everything on your own to be sure they are accurate. Plus, focus on the information at hand and not whether someone looks legit or not. Looking forward to generating a real stub? Get started now with the paystub creator!