To spot a fake pay stub, run three checks: does the FICA deduction equal 7.65% of gross pay, do the year-to-date totals grow correctly from one stub to the next, and does the net pay end in irregular cents rather than a suspiciously round number. Most forgeries fail at least one of these because the people making them don’t understand how payroll taxes actually work. The visual polish of a stub matters far less than whether the math holds up.
What a Real Pay Stub Should Show
Before you can identify a fake, you need a clear picture of the genuine article. Payroll software like ADP, Gusto, or QuickBooks generates stubs automatically, and while formats differ, the underlying data is consistent.
A legitimate pay stub identifies the employee (name, address, often the last four digits of the Social Security number) and the employer (name, address, and Employer Identification Number). It shows pay period start and end dates plus the actual payment date. Gross wages are broken down by hourly rate, hours worked, overtime, and any bonuses.
The deductions section is where the truth lives. A real stub itemizes federal income tax withholding, state and local income taxes where they apply, and FICA taxes for Social Security and Medicare. For 2026, the employee share of FICA is 7.65%: 6.2% for Social Security on wages up to $184,500, and 1.45% for Medicare on all wages.1Internal Revenue Service. Topic No 751 Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates2Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base Employees earning above $200,000 (or $250,000 for married couples filing jointly) also owe an Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9%.3Internal Revenue Service. Topic No 560 Additional Medicare Tax Pre-tax deductions such as health insurance premiums and retirement contributions appear separately from post-tax deductions. Net pay is the bottom line, and year-to-date totals track cumulative earnings and deductions across the calendar year.
Numerical Red Flags That Give Fakes Away
This is where most forgeries collapse. Payroll math follows rigid rules, and a forger who doesn’t understand tax withholding produces numbers that are impossible in the real world.
- FICA that doesn’t equal 7.65% of gross pay. Every W-2 employee in the United States has Social Security and Medicare withheld. If the stub shows no FICA at all, it’s fake. If the FICA amount doesn’t come out to roughly 7.65% of gross wages (or less if the employee has already exceeded the $184,500 Social Security wage cap for the year), the math doesn’t check out. The rates are fixed by statute, so there’s no legitimate reason for this calculation to be wrong.1Internal Revenue Service. Topic No 751 Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates
- Perfectly round net pay. A take-home amount of exactly $3,000.00 or $2,500.00 is deeply suspicious. After federal tax, state tax, FICA, insurance, and any retirement contribution come out, net pay almost always ends in irregular cents. Round numbers happen occasionally. They don’t happen consistently across several stubs.
- Gross pay that doesn’t match hours. Multiply the hourly rate by hours worked, add overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate, and compare against the gross figure. A mismatch means the rate, the hours, or the total was invented.
- Year-to-date totals that don’t accumulate. If you have two or more consecutive stubs, subtract the earlier YTD from the later one. The difference should equal the current period’s earnings and the matching deductions. Forgers routinely make up YTD numbers that don’t track from stub to stub.
- No federal or state income tax withheld on substantial pay. A very low-income employee may legitimately have zero federal withholding. Absence of both federal and state tax on a stub showing $4,000 or more in biweekly gross pay is a serious warning sign.
The FICA check alone catches most fakes. If nothing else, run that one.
Visual Red Flags
Look at the document before you look at the numbers. Real payroll software produces polished, internally consistent output. Manual fakes usually don’t.
- Blurry or distorted logos. A company logo that looks pixelated or stretched was probably copied from a low-resolution web image and pasted into the document.
- Inconsistent fonts and spacing. Real payroll systems use one typeface throughout. If the employee name uses one font and the earnings table uses another, or if spacing varies between sections, something was assembled by hand.
- Misspellings and grammar errors. Payroll systems auto-populate fields from a database. Misspelled company names, wrong state abbreviations, or awkward section headers point to a document typed rather than generated.
- Overly generic layout. Some fakes use a template so basic it carries no branding at all. Real employer output almost always includes a company name, a logo, or the payroll provider’s identifier somewhere on the page.
No single visual issue is proof by itself. Two or three together should push you into the numbers.
Content and Detail Red Flags
The information on the stub can betray a fake even when the formatting looks acceptable.
A pay date that lands on a Saturday, Sunday, or federal holiday deserves a second look. Most payroll systems are set to process on business days. Weekend direct deposits happen, but they’re uncommon enough to flag. Inconsistent pay period spacing is another tell: if someone says they’re paid biweekly but two stubs are 11 days apart, something is off.
Check the employer. A company name that returns nothing in a business registration database, a phone number that goes to a disconnected line, or an address that maps to a vacant lot all point one direction. A missing EIN is telling, because payroll software pulls the EIN automatically and a hand-built stub might not include one. Don’t treat the presence of an EIN as proof of legitimacy, though; anyone can copy one from public filings.
Stubs that show no pre-tax deductions at all are worth a closer read. Most full-time employees have at least health insurance or a retirement contribution taken out. A stub with only gross pay minus taxes may be legitimate for a part-timer or a brand-new hire, but combined with other flags it adds weight.
How to Verify a Suspicious Pay Stub
Call the Employer
Look up the employer’s phone number independently, not from the stub, and call HR or payroll. Confirm the employee’s name, job title, and approximate income range. If you’re a lender or landlord, get the applicant’s written consent to request employment or income information before you make that call, since third-party income verification is regulated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Cross-Reference With Other Documents
Ask for supporting paperwork. A W-2 from the same tax year should show annual wages and withholdings that line up with the YTD figures on the stub. Bank statements showing direct deposits should match the net pay, the employer’s name in the transaction description, and the deposit frequency the stub claims. Any real contradiction between these documents settles the question.
Request an IRS Tax Transcript
For high-stakes decisions like a mortgage, the strongest verification comes from the IRS directly. The Income Verification Express Service (IVES) lets authorized lenders request a borrower’s tax transcript using Form 4506-C.4Internal Revenue Service. Income Verification Express Service (IVES) The borrower signs the form, the IRS sends the transcript to the lender, and the transcript includes W-2 data, 1099 income, and other reported earnings. The signed form must reach the IRS within 120 days to remain valid.5Internal Revenue Service. Form 4506-C IVES Request for Transcript of Tax Return A borrower’s reluctance to sign a 4506-C is itself informative.
Use Digital Verification Tools
Document verification has moved past visual inspection. Modern fraud tools use optical character recognition to extract text and check figures against expected tax math. Metadata analysis can show whether a file was created or edited in image-editing software, revealing alterations invisible to the eye. Some platforms combine both with machine learning to flag inconsistencies automatically. These tools are most practical for lenders and property managers handling volume, but they’re increasingly available to smaller operations too.
Why This Matters for the Person Who Submitted It
Submitting a fabricated pay stub to a bank, credit union, or federally insured lender as part of a loan application is a federal crime. The statute covering false statements on loan and credit applications carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000,000.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1014 – Loan and Credit Applications Generally When the fake is emailed or otherwise sent electronically, wire fraud can also apply, with penalties up to 20 years (or up to 30 years and a $1,000,000 fine if a financial institution is affected).7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1343 – Fraud by Wire Radio or Television State charges for forgery, fraud, or identity theft are common on top of that. This is not a small matter, and treating it accordingly protects both parties.
What to Do Once You Confirm a Fake
Preserve the evidence first. Keep the stub, write down every inconsistency you found, and save records of any verification calls or emails. If you compared the stub against bank statements or a W-2, keep those comparisons together. This documentation matters if you later need to justify a rejection or report the fraud.
Reject the application and be clear about the reason. If you’re a landlord or lender, a clear paper trail protects you from claims that the denial was arbitrary or discriminatory.
Report it where it fits. Fraudulent pay stubs tied to tax misrepresentation can be reported to the IRS on Form 3949-A, Information Referral; submission is voluntary and confidential.8Internal Revenue Service. Report Tax Fraud a Scam or Law Violation If the referral leads to the IRS collecting additional taxes and penalties, Form 211 to the IRS Whistleblower Office may qualify you for an award.9Internal Revenue Service. IRM 3.28.2 – Information Referral Process for Form 3949-A For broader consumer fraud, the Federal Trade Commission takes reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, which shares its database with more than 2,000 law enforcement agencies.10Federal Trade Commission. ReportFraud.ftc.gov Local police and your state consumer protection office are options when the dollar amount is significant or the scheme looks ongoing. If your losses are large enough, a fraud attorney can advise on civil recovery.