(excerpt from "The Death of 20th Century Selling" by Dan Seidman, page 105)

 Marvin owned a film production agency and needed to hire a sales pro:

He was a good candidate with a 3-year gap in his employment history. He had an only child who was killed in a car accident, so, devastated, he went to work at a chemical plant outside the country. He wanted to hide from the world and so he stopped selling.

I checked with a former employer who was reserved, but said the guy was a good salesman and would do well.

After he came aboard, equipment began to disappear and a locked file cabinet was jimmied open. The big tip-off was when a young woman called, furious. She'd gone to bed with him as he'd promised her a role in a movie. We make industrial films!

Upon investigation, it was discovered that our man never had a child. Those three years were spent in prison. I called the former employer and asked why didn't you warn me? He was afraid of the guy! It was safer to lie to me than to have the con man mad at him.

I learned to do a much better job checking out my potential employees after that.

POSTMORTEM: Marvin got a tough lesson. Today, it is even harder to do reference checks in that former employers fear liability from ex-employees. Get professional direction on what language to use when phoning references - perhaps from a local search firm or the Society for Human Resource Management.