Fake It 'Til You Make It: How Credential Fraud Became Normal in Indonesia
Learn why fake credentials are thriving in Indonesia, and how hiring processes are quietly helping them pass through unchecked.
In Indonesia, academic titles are currency. They confer status, open doors, and decorate everything from business cards to wedding invitations. It’s not uncommon to see Dr. and M.Kom. nestled proudly beside a name on WhatsApp. Degrees are assumed to signal legitimacy, competence, and moral character.
But scratch the surface, and the illusion frays. Occasionally (read: regularly) the story behind the degree doesn’t quite hold. The diploma looks too fresh. The timeline too convenient. We’ve seen high-profile examples: now debunked allegations over the legitimacy of President Jokowi’s undergraduate degree, or the uncovering of doctors practicing with falsified diplomas, sent ripples through social media. But ripples, not waves.
When these cases surface, they spark a few Twitter threads, then back to business because deep down, many people already suspect what’s going on. This isn’t new. It’s not rare. It’s simply how things have worked.
The Credential Inflation That No One Asked For
In Indonesia, a bachelor’s degree is a minimum ticket to be taken seriously. The S1 has become a symbolic threshold, regardless of whether the job in question actually requires theoretical knowledge or critical thinking skills. Administrative assistant? S1. Sales support? S1. Junior designer? Also S1.
So when a job ad demands “S1, fluent in English, two years of experience,” many otherwise capable D3 holders start weighing their options. Some have more experience than the listed requirement. Others have better skills. Faced with limited upward mobility and the reality of HR software that filters by academic letters, some do what the system quietly encourages: they improvise.
A small change on the CV. A loose interpretation of "equivalent education." And most of the time, it slides through. Employers don’t push too hard. If the person performs, what’s the issue?
And so it becomes a quiet transaction. The candidate pretends to hold the degree. The employer pretends they verified it. Neither party entirely fooled, but both willing to move on.
Misrepresentation isn’t treated as dishonesty. It’s seen as resourcefulness. A way of saying, “I can do the job, please don’t let paperwork stop me.”
Over time, this mindset hardens. What begins as a one-off decision becomes an acceptable tactic. And soon, the system isn’t just tolerating inflation. It’s rewarding it.
Work Experience That Sort of Happened
Embellishing work experience is a craft in itself. Titles are upgraded, timelines are blurred, responsibilities are inflated just enough to sound impressive but not enough to raise eyebrows. It’s not a lie. Well, not exactly.
A junior assistant becomes a coordinator. Three-month internships quietly mature into six-month roles. Two unrelated part-time jobs are stitched together to look like one consistent full-time position. The work you observed becomes the work you supposedly led. And because there’s no central record of job titles or scope, it’s hard to dispute.
Employers, especially those moving fast or recruiting at volume, often don’t look too closely. Reference checks are treated as a soft closing step. A few questions are asked, boxes ticked, and that’s that.
Worse, these reference checks are frequently rely on the contact details the candidate provides, often leading to a friend posing as a supervisor. No effort is made to cross-reference company records, validate positions, or dig for performance data.
This lack of rigor sends a message. If no one’s checking, why not polish the story? If every detail is taken at face value, the incentive is clear: tell the best version of your past that you can get away with.
Process Design: A Hole You Could Drive a Bus Through
It’s tempting to blame the candidate for exaggerating their experience or inflating a qualification. But the truth is, much of the responsibility lies with the systems that fail to stop it. Hiring processes in many organisations are built with big gaps in between the formal steps.
Original diplomas are rarely requested before an offer is signed. Some are never requested at all. Reference checks are conducted with little effort to confirm whether the contact is legitimate or the information provided is complete. There is often no attempt to triangulate details, no cross-check with public records or HR databases. In some cases, even the hiring panel hasn’t seen the candidate’s full CV.
Many older institutions also still rely on manual archives and handwritten records. Smaller or private colleges have unclear accreditation or inconsistent communication channels. It’s not that verification is impossible, it’s that it takes time and effort.
Hiring teams under pressure will often default to pragmatism. If the interview goes well and the candidate performs in a practical test, there is a strong temptation to skip the deeper checks. If nothing obviously seems wrong, why make it difficult?
Prevention Isn't Rocket Science, It's Just Work
The issue of fake degrees and inflated experience doesn’t persist because it’s hard to solve. It persists because solving it takes effort, and too often, no one wants to do that part.
What’s needed is a structured, consistent process that doesn’t rely on gut feeling or assumptions.
Start by verifying degrees before the offer letter is signed. Request the document, follow up with the institution, and make the offer conditional on verification. If the degree’s real, great. If it’s not, that’s your answer.
One solid, senior-level reference, confirmed with a legitimate company email, is often enough to separate fiction from fact. Ask questions that require specificity. “Were they good?” will always get a yes. “What challenges did they face in Q2, and how did they respond?” will tell you much more.
Normalize truth-telling. Make it clear that misrepresentation, even small ones, could lead to a re-evaluation of the offer. If someone is a D3 but strong, and honest about it, give them a shot, as long as the role allows it.
The goal isn’t to build walls around opportunity. It’s to build a hiring process with enough clarity that people no longer feel compelled to fake it. Right now, too many organisations have processes full of blind spots. And people, being people, are walking right through them.
When a company hires someone who embellished their background and things go smoothly, it’s tempting to move on. No immediate disaster, no visible cracks. So the instinct is to brush it aside.
But each time it happens, something subtle shifts. It teaches the candidate that the system can be gamed, and it teaches their peers that accuracy is optional. It signals that being resourceful with the truth is rewarded. Meanwhile, those who played it straight start to wonder why they bothered.
This slow erosion adds up. It creates a job market where credentials are doubted by default, and where employers become cynical. It also makes it harder for genuinely capable people to stand out.
It’s easy to blame individuals, but the system allows this. Hiring processes with no rigor invite misrepresentation. Cultures that prize surface over substance make it logical.
Choosing integrity is about setting a tone. Companies that value truth in small things will eventually see it reflected in the big things too. But that only happens if they choose to care.
At StratEx - Indonesia Business Advisory we help companies design rigorous hiring processes so they know who they are hiring. If you're interested in fully referenced, high integrity talent contact us for more info.