How to Spot Fake Pay Stubs During Screening

By PropsManager Team | Dec 17, 2025

How to Spot Fake Pay Stubs During Screening

1. Do the Math

• Does the Year-to-Date (YTD) income match the pay period?
• Are the deductions (Social Security, Medicare) calculated correctly? (Social Security is 6.2%, Medicare is 1.45%). Fakes often get these numbers wrong.

2. Check the Formatting

• Are the fonts consistent?
• Are there typos?
• Does the company logo look pixelated?
• Are "O"s replaced with "0"s?

3. Verify with the Employer

Call the company. "I am verifying employment for [Name]. Can you confirm they are currently employed?" (They usually won't give salary info without a release form, but they can confirm employment).

4. Request Bank Statements

Ask for 3 months of bank statements to see the actual direct deposits hitting the account. This is much harder to fake than a PDF pay stub.

Conclusion

Trust but verify. If something looks off, dig deeper.