Spotting a Fake Paystub

Would you be able to spot a fake PayStub if one was placed in front of you? Fake check stubs have become increasingly common and they are dangerous for businesses who use them as a valid source of commitment from people. You should be aware of the signs of a fake pay stub so you do not put yourself in a situation where you are taken advantage of.

The first thing you can watch for when you are scanning over a pay stub from someone is the first impression of the stub. Pay stubs are not meant to look pretty. Pay stubs need to be easily read by computers which means they need to have very basic, block fonts. If the pay stubs that you are looking at is not written in a very basic font, it is likely not a real stub. Also, when a computer spits out a pay stub from a pay stub generator it is going to be formatted in a block way. If the stub is not perfectly formatted in a block layout, it is likely that it was not generated inside of a check stub maker and it could very well be fake.

To expand on the block format of the pay stub, pay close attention to the decimals. Decimals need to be formatted correctly. If a computer system created the pay stub with the help of an accountant, the decimals are all going to line up perfectly. If the decimals are even off slightly, you need to look into further seeing if there are other signs that the stub may be faulty. An accountant is not going to make the error of having the columns off.

Accountants know that dollar signs are not necessary when these types of documents are formatted. In the accounting world, they use very few dollar signs. The final amount may have a dollar sign placed next to it, but the columns that have the amounts broken down and itemized do not need to have dollar signs next to them. If the pay stub you are looking at it over utilizing dollar signs, you should pay attention to other possible red flags and be sure to verify their employment.

The point of a pay stub is to explain how a check amount was determined. If you are looking at a pay stub that has a check torn off of one end of it, that is a good sign. If you can tell that there was never a check attached to the piece of paper that you are looking at, you need to look for something on the piece of paper that tells you where the check went. If a pay stub was printed after a check is automatically deposited into an account, it is going to say so on the stub. You need to be sure that the pay stub has either had a check torn off of the stub, or that there is proof that the stub is associated with a bank account.

If you think you may be dealing with a fake check stub you need to be sure that you are doing everything you can to verify the employees finances before you agree to whatever you are considering. One of the things you can do to double check when you may be dealing with a fake pay stub is that the place of employment actually exists. Just calling the phone number on the pay stub is not enough. You need to verify, for certain, that the business on the stub is legit and that the person is an actual employee and that they earn the amount of money that the pay stub depicts.