The Rise of PDF Fraud: How to Spot AI-Generated Pay Stubs and Bank Statements

The New Screening Problem 

A property manager posted on a landlord forum with a warning: "We almost approved a tenant whose pay stubs were completely fabricated. Perfect formatting. Correct employer logo. Realistic numbers. The only reason we caught it was that we called the employer and they'd never heard of the applicant." 

This isn't isolated. Rental application fraud has exploded in sophistication. What used to be obvious — blurry photocopies, mismatched fonts, round numbers — has been replaced by AI-generated documents that can fool experienced screeners. 

For less than $50, anyone can generate professional-looking pay stubs with custom employer names, realistic tax withholdings, and properly formatted layouts. AI document generators can create bank statements with convincing transaction histories and proper formatting from major banks. 

What's Being Faked

• ‍Pay Stubs. The sophisticated fakes include correct tax withholding calculations, realistic deductions, proper formatting matching the claimed employer's layout, and sequential check numbers. The giveaway is rarely visual anymore — it's in year-to-date totals that don't reconcile with per-period amounts, EINs that don't match the company, or tax withholding percentages that are slightly off for the claimed filing status. 
• ‍Bank Statements. Harder to fake convincingly because they require realistic transaction patterns over 30-60 days. But improving fast. The tells: perfectly round deposit amounts (real paychecks have odd cents), deposits landing on unusual days for the claimed pay schedule, no small recurring charges, and running balances that don't add up when you check the math. 
• ‍Employment Verification Letters. Generated in minutes with publicly available company logos and official-looking formatting. 

How to Verify Beyond Documents 

Documents alone are no longer sufficient proof. Your verification process needs additional layers.

• ‍Call the employer directly. Don't use the phone number on the pay stub — look up the company's main number independently and ask for HR. Verify name, position, and salary. 
• ‍Request tax returns. W-2 forms and tax returns are harder to fake because they contain cross-referenced data — employer EIN, Social Security income records, withholding amounts — that needs to match across multiple documents. Ask for the two most recent years. 
• ‍Use bank account verification services. Services like Plaid allow applicants to connect their bank account directly, providing verified income data that can't be faked with a PDF. This is the single most effective fraud prevention tool available because it pulls data directly from the bank's systems rather than relying on documents the applicant provides. 
• ‍Cross-reference everything. The employer name on the pay stub should match the employer name on the tax return. The income on the pay stubs should reconcile with the W-2. The bank statement deposits should align with the pay dates and amounts on the pay stubs. Fraudsters who fake one document rarely fake all three consistently. 
• ‍Check document metadata. PDF files contain metadata that reveals when they were created and what software generated them. A "bank statement" created in Canva last Tuesday isn't a bank statement. Most PDF readers can display this metadata through the document properties. 

Building Fraud Into Your Screening Process 

The most effective approach is layered verification: 

• Layer 1: Standard screening (credit, criminal, eviction) through a professional screening service. This catches the obvious problems. 
• Layer 2: Document verification. Review pay stubs and bank statements for the red flags described above. Check the math. Look at metadata. 
• Layer 3: Direct verification. Call the employer. Request bank account connection through a verification service. Ask for tax returns if anything in Layer 2 raised concerns. 
• Layer 4: Consistency check. Cross-reference all submitted documents against each other and against the information on the application. 

Most legitimate applicants sail through all four layers without issues. Fraudulent applications almost always break down at Layer 3 or 4 because maintaining a consistent fiction across live phone calls and direct bank verification is orders of magnitude harder than generating a convincing PDF.