PA and Secretary Community - Deskdemon.com

This should make for interesting sound off topic.  I ran across this company that .. to me.. is one of the most unethical  companies I have ever seen!  http://thereferencestore.com/ (http://thereferencestore.com/)  I am speechless to how someone could do this!  Basically they lie for clients.  Here is bit from  a press release:

"The Reference Store is pleased to announce the launch of its "Targeted" Virtual Reference" service. Its clients give the name and location of the employer they are interested in working for; The Reference Store goes to work collecting as much intelligence on the company and specific job title the client is interested in. After the intelligence work is completed, a fake company is developed, that closely mimics the Targeted company or the targeted position. The client may then claim he/she worked at this bogus company performing exactly the specified job down to the smallest detail. To date, this approach has had a 100% success rate"

If I found out someone used this that worked for me, I would fire them on the spot!   I would think everyone would agree with me, but you never know.  So what do you think? 

To be honest, nothing surprises me anymore.  I wouldn't even take the time to read this article in full.

Just remember, what goes round comes.  Lie and cheat if you want, but things will come back to bite you, even bigger than before.  It's like finding money and not handing it in - no luck will come of it.

I wouldn't be surprised if we all work with or know someone who has lied or cheated in some way to get a job, even doctored their CV.

At least my conscience is clear!  :)

I wonder if the person who runs that company is proud because they "help" down and out people?  With that said, I am appalled by the company.   I all know someone who probably has lied, cheated or exaggerated  on their resume but that is going that far beyond umethical!   You can totally lie and create a job that matches the advertised position.  I hope who ever purchases their services is ready to put up or shut up when it comes to the job functions.    If you say you know how to do a job, any company hiring expects you to know how to do that job!   I agree with Gee, lie and cheat and it will come back to bite you.   

I agree, just when you think you have seen it all, there is something out there to top it off!.  If people fall for this SCAM and pay them money, they should not be hired.  People have been out of work for a long time would be desparate enough to pay for this.  It does come back to bite you if you lie about your ablities.  Alas....

Nothing ceases to amaze me anymore.  Companies are cost cutting and I don't believe they are doing the indepth background checks they used to including verifying the companies listed as past employers are real companies.  I believe in  what goes around comes around.  I have seen it happen too many times over. 

It wouldn't happen in my company Peaches...we are all vetted, credit references checked etc.

We all have to go through security clearance - maybe other companies should take note.

In our company they may get away with it.  (we are small in comparison to many companies. 100 people)  Yes we (I think) still research the back companies but this service CREATES a website (with typos on the sample) for people to click on.  We would check the website, call their HR, and they cover all that.   I would fire someone on the spot if I found out they did that.  Times are hard but that is wrong.

I think they could get away with it fairly easily, even with companies that are aggressive in checking references.

I do think it's thoroughly unethical though. Wow...

Marie,

Like I said it wouldn't happen in my company...the vetting our staff go through I can't even begin to discuss, let alone what we as employees have to do in advance to prepare for visitors.

When I went through security clearance I had to list every address I lived at in the past 10 years...everything is checked.

I'm sure that's true, but with most companies, how is it checked? They call the number given, assume the person on the other end of the line isn't lying, and ask for the reference.

Now here, in the military, for example, they do physically send a person out when it involves security clearances and they interview the neighbors and whatnot.

Most companies though, don't do that and really wouldn't know if XYZ Company was a legitimate company or not.

No my company doesn't do the checking - it all goes through official security clearance and the details are checked independently.

A report comes back to my company informing them if new hires have been security cleared or not.

Believe me, after all the jobs I've had, and the redundancies I've faced, do you think a virtual reference service could cover all that??

....think about it.... say I've had 5 different jobs, the virtual company would have to have 5 difference telephone nos to dial, 5 difference managers to speak to in order to ask for a reference and 5 different addresses/headed paper on which they would send that reference...remember, I've not only lived in NI but also in England too so there is no hiding...how on earth would anyone know whether to answer "hello ABC Company" or "hello XYZ company...??  This would need to be a huge virtual reference organisation to deal with someone like me...

I'm surprised you asked how such information is checked...it is checked officially through the correct authorities.  Given what my company does, and how we operate, we all know what checks are made.  If you are a visitor coming to my company from a country outside the UK, you need to give 6 week's notice so we can get you security cleared, sometimes longer.

I know our company does call, most of the time, but if you have someone answering a phone and lying they would get a way with it.  Even more so with a website to back it up.  I know my company called my history, my previous employer was kind enough to lie and say good things (of course not lie, I am teasing them)   I think Gee4s company is an exception to most or maybe government companies, nuclear, etc have stricter guidelines.  But then I have never worked for a company with high security of any type.   I am going to be honest, there are times I don't even think our company checks at all.  We had one hire that was interviewed and hired on the spot, started the next day.  I don't think references were ever checked for her.   Our company only employes 68 full time people and 4 part time people and the people who run the company are.. a bit unconventional to say the least. 

Most companies nowadays do not accept verbal references.  Therefore it would be much easier to create references on various types of headed notepaper for each company you have worked for.

That said, even if you were to call the companies someone said they worked for, the virtual reference agency would have to have dedicated nos set up AND answer the phone as if they worked for a particular company, in order to give the impression you are actually contacting who you think are you contacting.

Think about it, they would have to have a certain no of staff and dedicated phone lines to deal with all their clients' previous employers.  I would be interested to know how many clients they had and how many employers were contacting 'fake' companies for references eg. how many phone lines would they need to set up to recreate these 'fake' companies ?

It sounds like they are doing more by providing written references than actually dealing person-to-person.  Very few employers contact a company by phone for a reference - they usually put something in writing which forces something in writing back - that is much easier to replicate.

Here in the US verbal references are quite common.

What industry is your company, gee? Those kinds of security clearances here are definitely usually only required for military / government type applications (and as mentioned - nuclear, companies worried about corporate espionage, etc.). Most "regular" companies here don't have that level of security clearance required.

Sorry Marie, I can't divulge that information.

It's funny that I read this today because I had a similar situation just happen. My daughter is 16 and trying to get her first job. McDonald's is having a job fair this week and I was telling a co-worker who reports to me about taking her to it. Co-worker asks me if my daughter has a resume. I say, no, she's only 16 and she has no prior work experience and (unfortunately) hasn't really been involved in many extracurricular activities yet. Co-worker says that she used to work for a temp agency, and if I want, I could put together a resume for my daughter and say that my daughter had worked for her in the past and if they call her she would tell them what a great employee she was. This lady has never even met my daughter. I politely said no thank you. What is WRONG with people??? Besides that fact of how unethical this is, my daughter would end up getting caught in a lie and getting fired anyway. SO unreal. The sad thing is, I had a pretty decent impression of this lady until today...now I feel like, how am I supposed to trust her? Ugh!
Jo