🔎 How to Spot Fake Pay Stubs

Fake pay stubs are a growing problem in tenant screening. With basic design tools, applicants can create convincing-looking pay stubs in minutes. The consequences of missing them — approving an applicant who can’t actually afford your unit — can mean months of unpaid rent and a costly eviction. This guide teaches you what to look for.

▶ Video Overview

Visual Red Flags on the Pay Stub Itself

Start by examining the document carefully:

• Perfect round numbers — real pay stubs have odd cents from taxes and deductions. If gross pay is exactly $4,000.00, net is exactly $3,000.00, and all deductions are round numbers, something is off.
• Inconsistent fonts — look for mismatched typefaces, size inconsistencies, or text that looks pasted rather than generated by payroll software
• Misaligned columns or text — professional payroll systems produce precise output; alignment issues suggest manual creation
• Missing fields that real pay stubs always have — employer EIN (tax ID), pay period dates, YTD totals, and detailed deduction line items should all be present
• YTD numbers that don’t add up — divide YTD gross by number of pay periods in the year; it should match current period gross pay closely
• Wrong deduction amounts — FICA (Social Security + Medicare) should be 7.65% of gross. If the numbers don’t reflect this, the stub is likely fake
• No state income tax deductions in states that have income tax — California, New York, Illinois, etc. all have state income tax; a stub from an employee in those states with no state tax withholding is suspicious

Verification Steps That Catch Fakes

Call the employer directly

This is the most reliable verification step. Call the employer’s main phone number (look it up yourself — don’t use the number on the application or pay stub) and ask to speak with HR or payroll. Ask:

• “Can you confirm [applicant name] is currently employed?”
• “What is their position?”
• “Can you confirm their start date?”
• “Can you confirm their current salary or hourly rate?”

Many HR departments will confirm employment and title but not salary. Confirming employment and title is still valuable — if the employer can’t confirm the person works there at all, the stub is fraudulent.

Request bank statements alongside pay stubs

Ask for 2–3 months of bank statements in addition to pay stubs. Verify that deposits on the bank statements match the net pay on the stubs in timing and amount. Payroll direct deposits have consistent timing (every 2 weeks, 1st and 15th, etc.) and consistent amounts. If the bank statement shows no regular deposits matching the stated pay schedule, something is wrong.

Check the employer name online

Google the employer listed on the stub. Does it exist? Does it have an address and phone number? Small employers without web presence aren’t automatically suspicious, but if the “company” doesn’t exist online at all, dig deeper.

Look up the EIN

The employer’s EIN appears on every legitimate pay stub. While there’s no free public lookup for EINs, cross-referencing it against the W-2 the applicant provides (if you request one) can reveal inconsistencies.

Math Verification Checks

Run these calculations on any pay stub:

• FICA check — Social Security should be 6.2% of gross (up to annual limit); Medicare should be 1.45%. If either is significantly off, the stub may be fake.
• YTD consistency — if this is the 10th pay period of the year (bi-weekly pay), YTD should be approximately 10× the current period gross. If they don’t roughly match, investigate.
• Net pay calculation — add up all deductions and subtract from gross. Net should match what’s stated. If it doesn’t, the numbers were fabricated.

What to Do If You Suspect a Fake Pay Stub

1. Don’t accuse directly

   Don’t confront the applicant with “your pay stub is fake.” You may be wrong, and accusation creates Fair Housing liability. Instead, ask for additional documentation.

2. Request additional verification

   Ask for 3 months of bank statements, a W-2 from last year, or a letter of employment on company letterhead. Legitimate applicants will comply. Fraudulent ones often withdraw.

3. Verify with employer

   Call the employer directly as described above. This is the cleanest way to verify without confrontation.

4. Deny if unverifiable

   If income cannot be independently verified to your satisfaction, deny the application. “Unable to verify income” is a legitimate, documented denial reason that doesn’t require proving fraud.