Detect a fake
payslip

A payslip edited in one place still reads perfectly. Holofin recomputes the net from the gross, checks the salary against the bank statements in the same case, and examines the file itself.

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Payslip

October · A. NOVAK

EMP 0412
Gross pay3,850.00
Income tax−612.40
Social security−356.13
Pension−154.00
Net pay3,727.47
Recomputed2,727.47
3 signalsReview
The net pay does not follow from the grossstrong
2,727.47 credited on the October statementstrong
Different font on the net pay linemedium

The problem

Four ways
to fake a payslip.

A payslip is how a lender or a landlord judges income. Each kind of fake is caught a different way, and no single check catches all four.

The edited payslip

A real payslip with the gross or the net raised in a PDF editor.

Caught by recomputed net

The generated payslip

Made from scratch with an online payslip generator or an AI model.

Caught by payroll software fingerprint

Someone else's payslip

Genuine, but it belongs to a partner or a colleague.

Caught by name vs identity

The cherry-picked payslip

Real, but the month with the bonus, sent instead of the last three.

Caught by salary credits

How Holofin checks it

Six checks,
from proof to clue.

They are independent and never blended into one score: every alert says which check fired, on which line, with the two values it compared.

  1. 01

    The net recomputed from the gross

    Gross pay minus each deduction must give the net pay printed. Whatever the country and the payroll software, a payslip edited in one place breaks that sum, and the alert names the line that no longer follows.

    strong

    What it reads

    • Gross pay
    • Tax withheld
    • Social contributions
    • Pension
    • Net pay
    • Pay period
  2. 02

    The payslip against the rest of the case

    The name must be the one on the identity document, the net pay must arrive as a salary credit on the bank statement for the same month, and the employer must be the one on the employment contract. A forger who edits the payslip rarely edits the statement too.

    strong

    What it reads

    • Employee name
    • Employer
    • Net pay
    • Salary credit
    • Payment date
  3. 03

    AI-generated and AI-edited payslips

    Holograin, our proprietary model trained on financial documents, detects payslips generated by AI and payslips redrawn by an image model from a photo or a scan of a real one. It reads the texture a generator leaves in every pixel, which no re-save or screenshot removes.

    How Holograin works
    The same payslip after an AI image generator changed the net pay to 3,639.59 eurosAI detected95/100
    A fictitious document after one prompt to an image model, as Holograin scored it.
  4. 04

    The payroll software's fingerprint

    Payslips come out of payroll software, and each one builds its PDF its own way: the producer, the fonts, the structure. A payslip that claims to come from a payroll run but was assembled like an export from a design tool or an online generator is flagged.

    medium

    What it reads

    • PDF producer
    • Embedded fonts
    • Page structure
    • Text layer
  5. 05

    Picture modifications on scans and photos

    On a scan or a photo, the image is analysed region by region: an amount cut out and replaced, an area cloned, a white patch over a line, a figure that does not match the font of the page. The retouched area is located, so a reviewer sees where to look.

    medium

    What it reads

    • Cloned areas
    • Pasted figures
    • White patches
    • Font mismatches
  6. 06

    The file itself

    Modification dates, a consumer PDF editor in the history, text laid over text, a digital signature broken by a later edit. These clues open an enquiry; they never refuse a payslip on their own, because a genuine one re-exported or scanned shows them too.

    What it reads

    • Metadata
    • Edit history
    • Overlaid text
    • Digital signature

Use cases

Wherever income
drives a decision.

Consumer lending

Declared income checked against the payslips and the salary credits.

Mortgages

Three months of payslips, each one consistent with the statements.

Tenant screening

Rental applications where the payslip carries the decision.

Car finance and leasing

Fast decisions at the point of sale, with a trace of every check.

By API, upload portal or SFTP

Send the payslip or the whole case; get back the extracted fields and the signals, with the page and line of every value. Checked at upload, a doubtful payslip can be requested again before the case is opened.

FAQ

Fake payslips

Recompute it: the gross pay minus every deduction must give the net pay printed. Then compare it with the rest of the case: the salary credited on the bank statement for the same month, the employer on the employment contract, the name on the identity document. Finally look at the file itself. Holofin runs these checks on every payslip and says which one fired.
Often, but not from the file alone. Editing tools leave traces: a consumer editor as producer, a modification date after the creation date, a different font on the net pay. A payslip re-exported or scanned by an honest applicant shows some of them too, so they open an enquiry. The proof comes from a net that does not follow from the gross, or a salary the bank statement does not show.
In France, yes, against the national company registry. Elsewhere, Holofin compares the employer named on the payslip with the employment contract and the salary credits on the bank statements; it does not query national company registers outside France.
Generated payslips are often arithmetically correct, so recomputing them is not enough. They are caught by the way the file was produced, which is not how payroll software builds a payslip, by Holograin when an AI model drew them, and by a salary that never reaches the applicant's bank statements.
No. It returns signals ranked by strength, each with the values it compared; the thresholds and the decision stay with your team. In the EU, the GDPR restricts decisions based solely on automated processing that have legal effects on a person (article 22).
Yes, in most jurisdictions. In the UK, submitting a falsified payslip to obtain credit or a tenancy is fraud by false representation under the Fraud Act 2006. In the US, a false statement on a loan application to a federally insured lender falls under 18 U.S.C. 1014.

Other documents

Fake ID document →A birth date edited on a scan, a generated card, or someone else's passport.Fake proof of address →A utility bill with the name or address changed, or one drawn from scratch.
Forensic analysis of the file

Test Holofin on your payslips

Send us real payslips, including the fakes you have already caught. We return the signals payslip by payslip, and tell you what we missed.

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