Why Visual Checks Are Not Enough
A pay stub is the easiest income document to fake because it is simple and usually arrives as a PDF. Ontario employers must give a wage statement on or before each pay day, and they may send it by email, so a forwarded file is normal and tells you nothing about who made it.1
Stub generators are a search away and produce clean, plausible documents. An edited copy of a real stub looks even better, because the layout, logo and employer details are genuine and only the numbers changed. Reading the PDF closely will catch the careless version. It will not catch the careful one.
That is the case for treating every uploaded stub as a lead rather than as proof. Use the checks below to decide how hard to look, then confirm the income somewhere the applicant cannot edit.
What a Real Ontario Pay Stub Must Show
The Employment Standards Act sets out what the statement must contain.1 A stub from an Ontario employer that is missing one of these is a reason to ask questions:
- The pay period the wages cover.
- The wage rate, if there is one.
- The gross wages and, unless the employee gets it some other way, how the gross was calculated.
- The amount and purpose of each deduction.
- Any room or board amount deemed paid.
- The net amount paid.
A missing field is not proof of fraud. Small employers make mistakes, and employees of federally regulated employers or out-of-province employers fall under other rules. It is a reason to confirm the income at the source before you rely on it.
Common Red Flags
None of these proves a stub is fake. Two or three together mean the stub should carry no weight until the income is confirmed another way.
The Math Does Not Work
- Gross pay minus the listed deductions does not equal net pay.
- Hourly rate times hours does not equal gross pay for the period.
- Year-to-date totals do not grow by the period amount from one stub to the next, or they are too low or too high for the date in the year.
- Deductions are round numbers, or identical on every stub even when gross pay changes.
- Income tax, CPP and EI deductions are missing entirely on a stub from a regular employer.
The Details Do Not Match the File
- The employer name, address or phone number matches nothing you can find on your own.
- Pay dates fall on weekends or holidays, or the pay frequency changes between stubs.
- The applicant’s name or address on the stub differs from the ID and the application.
- The net pay does not match the deposits on the bank statement for the same dates.
- The stated start date on the employment letter is later than the first stub.
The File Itself Looks Wrong
- Fonts, spacing or alignment change between fields on the same stub.
- Several months of stubs arrive as one file created on the same day.
- The PDF properties name an online stub generator or an image editor.
- The applicant sends a photo or screenshot when the employer issues PDFs.
The absence of any of these tells you little. File metadata can be stripped, and a forger who uses a real stub as the starting point keeps the right fonts and the right math.
How to Confirm Pay at the Source
Source verification means getting the income from where it is created, not from a document about it. There are two good sources and one fallback.
| Check | What it confirms | What it cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll record the applicant connects | Employer, status and income as payroll holds them | Works only when the employer uses a provider the applicant can sign in to |
| Bank account the applicant connects | Net pay landing on the stub’s pay dates, and from whom | Payer names vary; some employers pay through a payroll company |
| Call to payroll or HR through a number you found yourself | Employment status, title and start date | Many employers will not confirm salary by phone |
PropTx Verify integrates with payroll providers to verify employment at the source, falls back to bank deposits when payroll data is not available, and runs fraud detection on manual uploads, which it scores lower than connected data. For the full step-by-step, see how to verify a tenant’s employment.
Collect the consent first. Pay and bank data are financial information, which the Privacy Commissioner treats as sensitive and generally requiring express consent: tell the applicant what you will check, why, and who will see it.3 The Commissioner also notes that seeing a pay stub to confirm income likely does not require keeping a copy.4
What to Do When a Stub Looks Fake
Ask before you conclude. Give the applicant a chance to connect payroll or a bank account, or to explain the discrepancy, and write down what you asked and what came back. Many mismatches have ordinary explanations: a raise mid-year, a bonus, a second job, or a payroll company whose name appears on the deposit.
Apply the same checks to every applicant for the unit. The Ontario Human Rights Commission warns that applying rental criteria to some applicants but not others can be evidence of discrimination where Code-protected people are singled out.5
If the evidence holds up, decline the application on the basis of income you could not verify. Making a false document, including materially altering a genuine one, is forgery under the Criminal Code, and knowingly using a forged document is a separate offence.6,7 You can report it to your local police and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, which accepts reports from witnesses as well as victims.8 The steps are set out in rental application fraud.
This page is general information, not legal advice. For a decision that turns on specific facts, talk to a lawyer or licensed paralegal.
Questions
Can a Landlord Ask for Pay Stubs in Ontario?
Yes, as income information, but only if the landlord also asks for credit references, rental history or a credit check, and income is then weighed with that information.2
Does PDF Metadata Prove a Pay Stub Is Fake?
No. Metadata naming a stub generator or image editor is a strong reason to verify, but clean metadata proves nothing, because it can be removed. Confirm the income through payroll, bank deposits or the employer.
Is Using a Fake Pay Stub a Crime in Canada?
It can be. The Criminal Code makes it forgery to make a false document, including materially altering a real one, and a separate offence to knowingly use a forged document as genuine.6,7
Should You Keep Copies of Pay Stubs?
Usually not. The Privacy Commissioner says seeing a pay stub to confirm income likely does not require taking a copy. Record what you verified, the source and the date instead.4
Sources
- Employment Standards Act, 2000, S.O. 2000, c. 41
Government of Ontario, e-Laws, s. 12(1) and (3), statement re wages, consolidated to January 1, 2026. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- O. Reg. 290/98: Business Practices Permissible to Landlords in Selecting Prospective Tenants for Residential Accommodation
Government of Ontario, e-Laws, s. 1(3) and (4). Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Guidelines for obtaining meaningful consent
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Form of consent: express consent; Sensitivity. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Privacy in the landlord and tenant relationship
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Can a landlord ask to see my driver’s licence? My tax information? My pay stubs?. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Policy on human rights and rental housing, V. Identifying discrimination in rental housing
Ontario Human Rights Commission, s. 4.2 Rental criteria. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46
Justice Laws Website, Government of Canada, s. 366(1) and (2), forgery and making a false document; current to 2026-09-30. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46
Justice Laws Website, Government of Canada, s. 368(1), use, trafficking or possession of forged document. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Report fraud and cybercrime
Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Report online; Why you should report fraud and cybercrime (modified 2025-11-27). Accessed October 22, 2026.
