> If garbage is flooding the market, it forces employers to pay higher wages for a chance to actually get something good.

I don't think garbage in any market drives up the prices for anything.

Those looking for something good just waste more time looking, and some of them give up and settle for garbage.

Exclusivity drives up prices. If you're the sole supplier of something badly needed, you can charge a lot for it. If a second supplier shows up, but with garbage, you're likely not going to be able to charge even more.

How do higher wages discourage fraud?

As I see it, the hurt is going to come from more hoops expected, as any burdens are always passed down to the individual. In in an ideal world, companies would actually read/think/analyze all the data/metadata they already have; however, we don't live in this world. And the individual's going to have to spell everything out in gross detail.

When a fake candidate accepts an offer, the first real runner up candidate gets a rejection and has fewer offers to choose from.

If enough people do it this can create a negative feedback loop. It’s called Market for Lemons https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons