A startup founder has claimed that his company suffered a loss of over ₹2 lakh after hiring a candidate who allegedly fabricated key details on his resume. Taking to LinkedIn, Ashutosh Gupta, Chief Business Officer at Praper Media, shared the experience, writing, “We hired someone who lied about everything on their resume. By the time we found out, we’d lost 2 lakhs.”
Gupta explained that the incident occurred when the company was smaller and did not consider background checks essential. “Back when Praper was smaller, background verification felt unnecessary. So we hired based on interviews and gut feeling. If someone seemed good in the interview, we brought them on,” he wrote.
Gupta said that the candidate, referred to as “Chirag” in the post, appeared confident and experienced during the hiring process. He claimed to be earning ₹40,000 at his previous agency, and the startup offered him ₹45,000.
However, Gupta said concerns began to surface about 2 months into the role. “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,” he wrote.
{{/usCountry}}However, Gupta said concerns began to surface about 2 months into the role. “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,” he wrote.
{{/usCountry}}“For someone who claimed 3 years of experience and ₹40K salary at their last agency? That made no sense,” Gupta said, adding that the company decided to contact the candidate’s previous employer.
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What did background verification reveal?
According to the post, the verification revealed multiple discrepancies. “Lie #1: He was making ₹25K, not ₹40K. So we’d given them an 80% raise. Lie #2: He wasn’t ‘resigned.’ He was fired. For performance issues. Lie #3: The ‘manager’ we called? Their friend. Glowing a fake review.”
Gupta detailed the financial impact, stating the company spent ₹1.35 lakh on 3 months of salary, ₹40,000 on training time and ₹25,000 on replacement hiring. “Plus: Delayed client work, affected team morale, wasted time. Total: ₹2L+ and 4 months lost,” he wrote.
Following the incident, Gupta said the company made background verification mandatory for every hire. The process now includes emailing the previous employer’s HR, calling the former manager through official company numbers, cross-checking LinkedIn profiles and verifying salary slips.
“People try to bypass with fake numbers and photoshopped slips. We catch them 90% of the time,” he added, advising other founders to begin verification early rather than “wait for a mistake.”