CV verification: hire on facts, not on a narrative

Written by Guillaume Pouillier, CNAPS-licensed private detective, licence no. AGD 095-2024-03-06-20190240581 · Last updated: July 12, 2026

CV embellishment is a national sport; the failed hire that follows costs months of salary, disorganisation and sometimes litigation. For positions of responsibility, management, finance, access to sensitive data, contact with vulnerable people, pre-employment screening is not distrust: it is diligence. We conduct it within the strict framework of article L1221-6 of the French Labour Code and the GDPR, with the rigour of a CNAPS-licensed agency. This page sets out what the law allows, what we check, how fast, and at what price.

What does French employment law allow: and forbid?

Article L1221-6 of the Labour Code sets the frame: information requested from a candidate must have a direct and necessary link with the job offered, and the candidate must answer in good faith. Verifying the truthfulness of the CV is therefore legitimate; digging into private life is not.

Three principles structure our assignments: purpose (assessing the ability to hold the job, nothing else), proportionality (the level of verification follows the level of responsibility) and fairness (no fabricated pretext, no intrusion into private spaces). Add the absolute prohibition of any discriminatory collection: health, opinions, family life and origins are never part of the scope.

This framework does not weaken the verification, the essentials that matter to an employer (does the degree exist? is the experience real?) can be checked by perfectly lawful means.

What exactly do we verify about a candidate?

Degrees with the issuing institutions, the reality of past positions (roles, dates, scopes), the authenticity of references, visible corporate offices and side activities, the consistency of career gaps, and the strictly professional online reputation.

For an executive or an incoming shareholder, the verification naturally widens into full due diligence.

Must the candidate be informed?

Yes, and it is a strength rather than a constraint: the GDPR and the Labour Code require informing the candidate that checks are carried out. Announced within the recruitment process, that transparency deters fraud before the first verification even starts.

In practice, a line in the offer or the process e-mail (“the information in your CV will be subject to verification”) fulfils the information duty, and by itself weeds out part of the embellished applications. The contrast speaks: a solid candidate has nothing to fear from verification, and knows it.

Our reports observe the same hygiene: only elements directly linked to the job appear in them. Anything belonging to private life, even crossed incidentally, is neither collected nor reported. That discipline also protects you in any later employment litigation: a clean recruitment file is an exhibit that reassures the judge, never one that worries him. And it protects the candidate too, which is exactly how a verification process earns the acceptance of the very people it examines, and why serious candidates routinely tell us they prefer employers who check.

Which positions justify pre-employment screening?

Those where the error is expensive: general management and finance, access to sensitive systems and data, handling of funds, representation of the company, childcare and care of vulnerable people, and any hire preceding a delegation of authority.

• Management & finance: signature, cash, commitments, the trio where a fake CV does the most damage
• IT & data: system administrators, client access, trade secrets
• Positions of trust at home: childcare, elder care, see also the background check for individuals
• Senior sales people: actual track record, live non-compete clauses, see non-compete violation
• Before a delegation of authority: the director’s criminal liability deserves a verified delegate

How does the verification unfold, and how fast?

Scoping within 24 hours (the position, the scope, the process deadline), source-level checks (institutions, employers, referees), professional open sources, and a report within three to ten working days, aligned with your recruitment calendar, because a good candidate does not wait.

1. Scoping. The position, the CV’s critical points, the decision date: the scope is proportionate and the deadline guaranteed.

2. Source-level checks. Institutions for degrees, employers for periods and roles, referees authenticated before being interviewed.

3. Open sources. Registers, legal publications, professional press: offices, companies, public disputes.

4. Report. Point by point: confirmed, contradicted, unverifiable. The decision remains yours, simply an informed one.

International profiles: why are they harder to verify?

Because the usual landmarks vanish: “universities” that sell degrees, unreachable foreign employers, whole periods beyond the reach of standard checks. Our WAD network verifies at the source, in the country concerned, what a recruiter cannot check from Paris.

Diploma mills, outfits selling “masters” for a few hundred euros, thrive precisely because few employers verify beyond the look of the parchment. Likewise, experience claimed in a distant country is statistically more embellished than any other: the candidate is betting nobody will go and look.

It is a losing bet against an international network: our WAD correspondents verify the institution, the employer and the role in the country itself, under local conditions. The extra cost is modest; it is justified as soon as the position is sensitive, and it is systematic in due diligence on executives with international careers.

Two typical files, anonymised

A prospective CFO whose “MBA” existed in no register of the claimed school, and whose previous role had ended in a dismissal for misconduct never mentioned; a perfect candidate, confirmed on every point, hired with complete peace of mind.

The CFO with the phantom MBA. A finalist for a finance directorship displays a prestigious MBA and eight years in an international group. The school has no trace of him; the former employer confirms three years, not eight, ended by a dismissal for misconduct linked to expense claims. The recruitment stops, before the delegation of signature, and before a single euro of the treasury passed through his hands.

The confirmed candidate. For a position with client-data access, a company verifies its finalist. Exact degrees, confirmed experience, authentic and complimentary referees. The hire concludes in confidence, and the candidate, informed of the verification principle from the offer, read it as the mark of a serious firm.

The phantom referee. One last, expeditious example: a “former manager” given as a reference answers from a mobile number, never from the company. Checked at the source, the company has no employee of that name, the referee was a friend of the candidate. Cost of the discovery: two phone calls and one register lookup. The lesson generalises: references are the cheapest element of a CV to fake, and the cheapest to verify.

How much does it cost?

CV verification falls under administrative enquiries: from €350 (excl. VAT) per candidate for a standard check (degrees, experience, references). Recurring volumes and in-depth executive screenings get a flat-fee grid, free written quote.

Set that amount against the full cost of a failed hire, recruitment, onboarding, departure, replacement: verification is the cheapest line of the process, and the only one that protects all the others.

See the full price list.

Frequently asked questions