I've done a lot of hiring, interviewing, and personally enduring both myself.
When doing a past check, we only ask for dates, title(depends), and if they are re-hireable. I can't think of the last time someone attempted to add in more to it. Most of the time, this is done in some verifiable system or HR who doesn't even personally know the potential employee. Also playhaition, Its best to list the year and the month only on your resume. Some will argue year only. I've seen people like both ways. But list the dates, it will allow them to quickly determine if you qualify for a position. I can tell you first hand, if I have to fucking figure out if you have say 4 or 5 years for an opening. I'm tossing your resume to the "nope" stack.
As far as breaks of employment. You should either just tell the truth, dress it up with some of hte above listed ideas, but either way, don't list it on your resume. Just list your past jobs and dates, thats it. Let them bring that up. What you and a lot of people above need to realize is that there will be horrible people interviewing, morons, clearly those who don't know what the hell they are doing, and worse. You can't do anything to beat that. So just play the numbers make your resume and backstory the best you can offer.
As far as references. Treat them like gold. Only provide them to direct recruiters and make sure they all know about incoming contacts. Don't give them blindly to contract or headhunters. Those fucks will call them on the jump, even when they haven't submitted you to a job, and then attempt to try and harass them about openings (if they are a manager) or trying to help them find a job.
