Just found out about The Work Number, a company owned by Equifax that keeps a file on you with your work history, salary, bonuses, and tips. Once a potential employer has gotten your consent to run a “background check” they can access this info if they pay Equifax for the report, so if you’ve left anything off your resume or are negotiating salary, they might already know.

You can freeze your report like a credit report, so employers can’t see your info until you lift the freeze. Just wanted to share this because I had no clue this was possible!

EDIT: This is NOT the same as freezing your credit report. This is your work history report!

Just wanted to give a PSA to job hunters out there. I genuinely had no idea this existed until I saw a TikTok a few months ago saying you could freeze this info. Basically It’s an employment and income database. SOME employers report your job history and pay info to it. Prospective employers can access this to verify employment history and income.

I checked mine and had jobs from so long ago that aren’t listed on my resume. and some of the dates / info were completely incorrect. You can freeze it on the website theworknumber.com

I’m not sure how many companies verify through this database but it’s worth checking out to prevent any discrepancies in what’s listed on resume vs what’s listed on your work number report

Hello - I have submitted my application and waiting to hear back from ISC2. I requested to be endorsed by ISC2. I submitted offer letter, W2, resume for all the employers. Hope that will be sufficient.

But just in case ISC2 asks for a verification letter, I know one employer in the past will tell me verification is handled by Equifax -The Work Number.

In preparation for the application, I talked to my previous manager at this company who said I will have to request the verification from HR as it’s against company policy for them to provide one.

Has anyone’s employer done this and refuse to provide a verification letter? I’m afraid this will delay the process in case they ask. How do I go about it if they ask for the verification letter?

Hi - curious as to others experiences with using the Equifax VOE that is free (?) with pre-built Workday integration? Anyone using it and recommend?

TIA!

Has anyone ran into the employer requiring you to use “the work number” to verify employment? Am I reading this wrong in that they charge $66 to verify employment?

I’ve always just had HR verify employment but they gave me the employer ID and said I had to verify through equifax. Is this new or is this why there are application fees? I don’t charge application fees. So I’d have to bill it back to the tenant I suppose. But this still seems annoying that that can’t just say yes or no that they work there.

Any suggestions? Just have their HR department give them a letter of employment instead?

I saw on a recent post that mentioned equifax has a tool that tracks your employment details such as you salary and other similar information. On one hand, if companies see this it can damage your salary negotiations. On the other hand, a company might have a negative reaction if they request it and get nothing back. Has anyone here had to deal with the product or is it something that’s had no impact on your career?

Over the past year, there’s been a lot of misinformation being spread online in regards to The Work Number. Yes, a report that provides your past income, employment dates, and even business income does exist. No, it is not often accurate. But recruiters and verification services still use it, to try and poke holes in applicant’s resumes or stories. 

While researching this, we created a Compendium of everything TWN related, including:

• Where does the data come from?

• Step by step instructions on how to freeze your TWN

• Reasons to give when a recruiter asks about your frozen TWN

Please, if you don't know what the TWN is, please learn about it and freeze it! Even if you aren't lying or doing overemployment. For example, they've even convinced QuickBooks to sell them data on how much money your small business makes.

Is this true?

At least what I'm seeing on the front page here:

https://employees.theworknumber.com/employee-data-freeze

Is there any actual real risk in freezing it or is it just a scare tactic?

We bought a house about two months ago but otherwise haven't done anything with credit in a long while. We have no idea what this is or why they would be requesting it of her employers.

What do we need to do to make sure this isn't identity theft and if so it's not successful?

Has anyone else had a previous employer that uses Equifax for employment verification? There is no one at my previous employer that will sign and certify my employment on the PSLF application form. Equifax says to tell PSLF the employer ID and my SS and that they will report it to them. Has anyone done this? Do I just write “employer ID is xxxx, contact Equifax” on the PSLF application where it expects a signature?

Over the last few years, there’s been a rise in the usage of a screening tool called The Work Number. It’s owned by Equifax, and is sold to recruiters and verification services to provide them with your past salary information, employment history, business income, etc. 

Even if you are not lying on your resume or during the interview, all job seekers must stay abreast of what TWN and related services can do to their career. The information will typically be used during a job verification, but has started to be used by recruiters during other times. It can also be pulled and referred to at will, since many of the contracts sold are reportedly flat-fee (or the people pulling it don’t care about budget). This means that even after you start your job, the TWN report can and has been used against employees. 

The best way to avoid this is to freeze your TWN report. Please, everyone, become aware of this report and let’s try to stop it.

~https://backgroundproof.com/twn-compendium/~

The more I look into TWN by Equifax the more clear it is that employment verifiers can see overlapping positions.

I realize that not every company is on TWN but a huge number are. Do the verifiers just check the employers listed on resume/application or do they use your PII/SS to run full TWN reports?

Because TWN actually advertises themselves in part as an employment verification tool that can capture omitted positions. They have a youtube advertising promo vid on it.

I didn't wanted my supervisor to know that I am looking for a job so on eQip I provided the equifax employment verification number for the private sector job that I was still employed in when I filled out eQip after tentative offer. I got the final offer and already started working in Fed. During background investigation interview I provided mobile number of my supervisor and someone called my manager day after the interview. Few days later someone new calls me back saying that my supervisor number is incorrect. I told him that I have already provided correct number during interview and someone has already contacted her. However he said he doesn't have a record of it and he is not going to search for who called her because it is going to take a lot of time for him to find that out. He said if you don't want to provide number I will make a note that I am refusing to provide the number. He seemed unnecessarily uptight on the phone. I told him I am not refusing to provide just simply stating that my previous supervisor has already been contacted by someone else. Anyways I provided him the number through text message so I have a record of it.

Is this going to be any concern for adjudication of high risk public trust BI? I am already working at Fed agency. There are other supervisors on employment history where I have provided correct phone numbers.

Why YSK:

Because this can absolutely affect whether or not you get hired or even approved for stuff like loans or apartments. If you've ever been confused about how a job knew about a position you didn’t list on your résumé, this might explain it. You can access your report at theworknumber.com and freeze it, but Equifax doesn’t exactly make it easy or obvious.

The Work Number is a database run by Equifax (yes, that Equifax) which basically collects every bit of data there is about your employment and employment history, such as your salary, employment history, current employer, whatever.

Prospective or current employers can use this to verify salary information and see your employment history or see if you're working multiple jobs.

This is very damaging to your salary negotiation power and also prevents you from clandestinely working multiple jobs at once if you want/need to (ianal but I'm 99% sure this is not illegal in the US unless you signed a contract explicitly preventing that! The HR handbook is not legally binding!). This database is essentially the Eye of Sauron but for employers.

Freeze your report!

If anyone knows if other credit bureaus or entities doing stuff like this, please post it in the comments.

Recently applied for a new job and did not include any J2's believing employer can only verify what I included in resume and bg check application. However they found out about one of my J2 from 2020 in unrelated field that I didn't include in my resume/bg check, by equifax employment verification. How do you guys avoid this? I didn't even know equifax keeps history of our employments -at least some of them- Anyone else had the same issue?

I am in the process of buying my first home and I was told by the bank that my HR department would be getting a call to verify my employment.

I was in meetings all day and came back to an automated voicemail on my phone stating they were Equifax calling to verify my employment on behalf of the bank (they said the bank name in the message).

They provided a code and said to call back between 7am and 7pm Central Time but the number was a 515 number which seemed off. Wouldn’t a company like that have an 800 number?

Something about it just seems off and I can’t find anything online about possible scams like this.

In the US, there is https://theworknumber.com by Equifax that basically tracks all of your employment AND salaries, and the provides it to your future employers, so people are actively opting out of this ("freeze") their records to avoid being shortchanged on their future salaries.

I just found that Equifax Canada has a similar "product" called "Income and Employment Verifications" https://www.consumer.equifax.ca/business/income-and-employment-verifications

Has anyone managed to opt out of this yet?

Can someone quell my anxiety? I applied and was approved for the Discover IT card and this morning I was advised via email they needed to verify my information/income via Equifax. Thinking it was a scam, I called customer service and they said it is just to verify identify because they have apparently had a lot of fraud in recent years. I’m only concerned because when I applied for the card it said to put my current income (about 60k) but my last two tax returns are a bit less so they won’t reflect my current salary. Has anyone been through this and what was the outcome?