Employee’s fake salary and resume details cost startup over Rs 2 lakh loss: Boss learns a costly hiring lesson

A hiring decision that looked routine at first has now turned into a cautionary tale for many startup bosses. According to a LinkedIn post shared by Ashutosh Gupta, Chief Business Officer at Praper Media, his company ended up losing over Rs 2 lakh after bringing on board a candidate who, he claims, falsified key details on his resume. In his post on LinkedIn, Gupta wrote, “We hired someone who lied about everything on their resume. By the time we found out, we’d lost 2 lakhs.”

How the Hiring Happened

Gupta explained that the incident dates back to a time when the company was still small and did not treat background verification as essential. He admitted that in those early days, the team depended largely on interviews and instinct. As he put it, background checks felt unnecessary then, so if someone performed well in the interview and seemed confident, they were hired.

The candidate, referred to as Chirag in the post, presented himself as someone with three years of experience. He claimed he was drawing a salary of Rs 40,000 at his previous agency. Based on that, the startup offered him Rs 45,000, which appeared to be a reasonable hike.


Gupta summed up that stage of the process by saying, “Said he was making ₹40K at their last agency. We offered ₹45K. Deal done.”

Performance Red Flags

Trouble surfaced around two months into the job. Gupta shared that the employee was assigned a reaction video edit, something the company’s junior editors typically complete three times a day. However, in this case, the task took two days, and even then, the output could not be used.

He described the situation clearly: “We assigned him a reaction video edit. Standard work. Our junior editors handle 3 per day. He took 2 DAYS. And the output was unusable.”

For someone who had claimed three years of experience and a Rs 40,000 salary, the performance did not match the profile. Gupta added, “For someone who claimed 3 years of experience and ₹40K salary at their last agency? That made no sense.”

What Background Checks Revealed

The company then decided to contact the previous employer. What they discovered, according to Gupta, changed everything.

He listed the discrepancies in detail: “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.” What initially seemed like small inconsistencies turned into what Gupta described as a complete misrepresentation of facts.


Gupta broke down the losses in numbers. “Rs 1.35 lakh in salary over three months. Rs 40,000 worth of training time. Rs 25,000 spent on hiring a replacement,” he wrote. Beyond direct expenses, he pointed out additional setbacks, including delayed client projects, a dip in team morale, and leadership time that could have been spent elsewhere. He summed it up in one line: “Total: ₹2L+ and 4 months lost. All because we skipped one step.”

A Change in Hiring Policy

After this episode, Praper Media revised its hiring process. Gupta stated clearly, “So now every hire gets background verification. No exceptions.”

The updated system includes emailing the previous employer’s HR department, contacting former managers through official company numbers instead of personal contacts shared by candidates, cross-checking LinkedIn profiles, and verifying salary slips.

He also cautioned that some applicants attempt to manipulate the process. “People try to bypass with fake numbers and photoshopped slips. We catch them 90% of the time,” Gupta said. He advised other founders to begin verification early rather than “wait for a mistake.”