- Hiring a candidate with a fake resume cost Praper Media over Rs 2 lakh and four months lost
- Candidate claimed Rs 40,000 salary but was paid Rs 25,000 and was fired for performance issues
- The company now mandates background verification for every hire without exception
Startup founder Ashutosh Gupta, Chief Business Officer at Praper Media, recently shared a LinkedIn post sharing how hiring a candidate with a fake resume resulted in a loss of over Rs 2 lakh and four months of productivity. Gupta explained that the candidate's hiring happened at a time when Praper was smaller and the company relied heavily on interviews and instinct. "Background verification felt unnecessary. So we hired based on interviews and gut feeling. If someone seemed good in the interview, we brought them on," Gupta wrote.
According to the founder, Chirag came across as confident and experienced. He claimed he was earning Rs 40,000 at his previous agency. The team offered him Rs 45,000 - a raise that seemed fair for someone with three years of experience.
However, Gupta said concerns began to surface about 2 months into the role when the candidate failed to perform basic tasks, such as taking two days to complete a standard video edit that typically takes junior editors only a few hours.
"We assigned him a reaction video edit. Standard work. Our junior editors handle 3 per day. Chirag took 2 DAYS. And the output was unusable. For someone who claimed 3 years of experience and a ₹40K salary at their last agency? That made no sense. So we called his previous employer," he wrote.
The verification call revealed multiple discrepancies. While Chirag claimed to earn Rs 40,000 at his previous job, his actual salary was only Rs 25,000. He claimed to have resigned from his previous role, but he had actually been fired for performance issues. The "manager" provided for a reference check turned out to be a friend who gave a glowing, but fabricated, review.
See the post here:
"It cost us ₹1.35L in salary (3 months), ₹40K in training time, and ₹25K in replacement hiring. Plus: Delayed client work, affected team morale, wasted time. Total: ₹2L+ and 4 months lost. All because we skipped one step," Gupta added.
The incident triggered a major change in hiring policy at Praper Media. "So now every hire gets background verification. No exceptions," Gupta stated. The company's updated process includes emailing the previous employer's HR, calling the previous manager through official company numbers, cross-checking LinkedIn details, and verifying salary slips.
"People try to bypass with fake numbers and photoshopped slips. We catch them 90% of the time. If you're building a team of 15-20+ people, here's what I recommend: Start background verification now. Don't wait for a mistake. We learned at Rs 2 lakhs. You don't have to," he advised other founders.
Similar Cases:
Other founders have shared similar "hiring horror stories" recently:
- Tint Cosmetics: Founder Arshia Kaur reported a marketing head used fake salary slips made in Excel to join her company in late 2024, only to be fired months later for incompetence.
- Jobbie: Founder Mohammed Ahmed Bhati recently revoked a Rs 22 LPA offer after a background check revealed the candidate had made derogatory religious remarks on social media.
