JOB SEEKERS USING fake credentials seem to be an everyday occurrence on the mainland. One recruitment company in Dongguan reportedly received more than 1,000 applications with bogus qualifications in less than a year.
A Communist Party commissioned report found more than 15,000 cadres used fake credentials after background checks were carried out on 670,000.
Economic crimes committed on the mainland are also reported daily. In the past four years more than a quarter of a million people have been arrested for such crimes, according to the China Daily, and 67 billion yuan has been retrieved.
Nonetheless, foreign employers do not always look closely into who they are hiring. When they have bad experiences, they just throw their hands in the air saying 'Oh, it's China!', according to Allan Matheson, managing director of Quam Data Services.
'Almost everybody has had bad experiences in China but they just write it down to China being what it is,' he said. 'If a multinational gets burned by their employees, they don't want to talk about it ... and the chances are they don't want to go to the authorities.'
This might be about to change, with Quam Data Services' recently launching TrustPlus service, which offers to help companies manage employee risk on the mainland.
'Employers leap into [hiring] with their eyes closed. A change in thinking is necessary,' said Mr Matheson, adding that the best way to keep fraudsters away was to not hire them in the first place.