Reference Ace › Guides › Fake references in NZ: what actually happens when you're caught
What a fake reference is, why services selling them are a trap, and what to do instead.
A fake reference is anyone answering an employer's call in a role they never held, or a real person scripted to lie about what you did. Both are lies told to your prospective employer, and both put you on the hook for them.
Online services offer to take care of reference calls. If an employer discovers it, and they do re-verify, the dismissal needs no performance process. The representations clause does the work: your application contained false information.
NZ employers call the main switchboard, check the referee on LinkedIn, and compare dates. A mobile-only referee with no footprint at the company is a red flag on its own.
Yes. Fraud charges are possible where a deception obtains a benefit, employers can pursue civil claims, and the near-certain outcome either way is losing the job.
The failure mode usually is not the call. It is the later verification: payroll records, LinkedIn, or a chance conversation between HR and your actual ex-manager.
Fix the record before it is checked again. Real referees can be found for almost anyone, and an honest brief is defensible forever.
Reference Ace checks real examples of your work, confirms they're yours, and vouches for them to employers by name, always as an independent reviewer and never as a former boss. Got a referee already? We brief them and run the practice check before a real employer calls.
See how it works and pricing