I once worked at a company that, before I got there, hired two fake candidates back-to-back for the exact same role. The first one got caught during the paperwork phase because the names on their documents didn’t match up. The second one slipped through the cracks and “worked” at the company for months without delivering a single meaningful result. Turns out, this guy’s career was getting hired for tech jobs. He had six different full-time jobs at once, doing no actual work, waiting for each company to figure it out. He even hired stand-ins for Zoom interviews, got them to wear face masks to hide their identities (thank you, COVID), and used that trick to land more gigs.
Crazy, right? But it’s also a perfect example of how technology and remote work have complicated hiring, and the odds of running into a fake candidate have increased exponentially. Meanwhile, folks in talent acquisition feel like they’re drowning in résumés, and qualified applicants feel ignored or lost in the shuffle.
Some of these fake hires are just trying to scam extra paychecks, but others are more sinister—there have been multiple cases of state-sponsored espionage employee/bot farms designed to steal secrets or hack into a company’s network. And as remote work keeps expanding, it’s getting harder to confirm someone’s identity.
Deepfake Candidates
Deepfake technology is getting more advanced—and more accessible—every day. We’ve all seen viral videos of celebrities or politicians saying things they never actually said. That same tech is being used by people applying for jobs.
When you can’t physically be in the same room as someone, you miss out on many gut-check moments—like spotting tiny inconsistencies in body language or noticing an off vibe.
Even the most cautious HR teams can get fooled. If the tech is good enough, you could see a face moving in real-time and never realize it’s AI-generated. That opens the door to seriously damaging hires if companies don’t have solid measures to catch these scams.
The High Cost of a Bad Hire
When a fake candidate sneaks in, it’s not just embarrassing—it’s expensive. You pay their salary, spend time onboarding them, and delay crucial projects while they fail to deliver. Meanwhile, the rest of your team might have to pick up the slack, leading to burnout.
And if this person has access to sensitive systems or data, you’re looking at potential security breaches, stolen IP, or serious damage to your company’s reputation. Even if it’s not espionage-level bad, replacing a bad hire can cost anywhere from 30% to 150% of that position’s salary. For a startup or smaller business, that is a huge hit.
KYC: Borrowing an Idea from Banking
Banks have dealt with identity fraud forever, and their solution is something called “Know Your Customer” (KYC). Basically, customers have to prove they are who they claim to be when they open an account—usually by providing government-issued photo IDs, letting the bank run credit checks, or giving other supporting documents. Employers could theoretically copy that approach, asking for the same documents before a candidate moves further in the hiring process.
But KYC isn’t foolproof. AI has made it easier to persuasively forge documents, and advanced face-swap software might fool even the best digital ID checks. Some systems rely on matching a live video feed to a photo ID, but deepfake technology can handle that if it’s sophisticated enough. Smaller companies might not have the budget or desire to incorporate a full KYC approach. Job seekers also might be hesitant to share personal documents with a potential employer, especially if they’re not sure they want the job yet.
Practical Tips for Spotting Red Flags
No single approach works 100% of the time, but here are a few strategies that might help:
Multiple Interviews: Conduct more than one interview, ideally with different team members. While some people might handle one interview just fine, juggling multiple sessions can trip them up. Don’t overdo this. Three to four interviews should be plenty. Respect the candidate’s time.
Video Verification: Ask the candidate to do something spontaneous during a video call, like holding up a piece of paper with a specific code, joining a call on short notice, or doing 10 air squats (don’t do this). Deepfake setups can be delicate, and last-minute changes might break their ability to fake it.
Off-Script Questions: Don’t rely only on typical questions. Throw a curveball or ask them to solve a small problem on the spot. Imposters often rely on canned responses. Note: Use this judiciously, some candidates have extreme interview anxiety.
Cultural Interview: At some point in the interview process, do a casual chat with some team members. If they refuse to engage or seem overly scripted, that’s a potential sign something’s off.
A Path Forward
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to the problems facing modern hiring. We’re dealing with everything from mass résumé spam to advanced deepfake technology. The best plan usually involves layering different tactics.
Balanced Verification: Do a more thorough identity check for roles with higher stakes or deeper security concerns. But don’t assume that alone is enough—pair it with referrals, portfolio reviews, or real work samples.
Multiple, Short Interviews: Instead of one long conversation, break it into several shorter ones with various team members. It’s harder for imposters to keep up a charade across multiple interactions.
Remote-But-Verified Onboarding: If someone is working remotely, bring them into the office or to a team meetup at least once. Even a day or two of in-person interaction can confirm they’re who you think they are. Also, fake people will likely turn this down.
Stay Alert After Day One: Just because they’ve signed the paperwork doesn’t mean you stop paying attention. Watch their performance closely during the onboarding phase to spot inconsistencies. Also, rely on your tech alerts as they are connecting to your system. Why is Mort in marketing downloading our entire CRM on his first day?
Training and Awareness: Teach your hiring managers and recruiters what to look for, from suspicious video artifacts to obviously scripted answers.
Spotting the Real Deal
Is it weird that we have relied on technology to remove some of the human elements of hiring but need to rely on humans to ensure that technology doesn’t allow humans to undermine the technology elements of hiring?
Relying on technology has really made some things faster—managing applications and scheduling interviews—but, ultimately, we are humans hiring other humans. Without that face-to-face element, we risk losing the trust and genuine connection. The story about that guy juggling six full-time jobs may seem over-the-top, but it shows just how broken the hiring system can be. No one wants a fake employee on the team—whether they’re after easy money or your confidential data.
Ultimately, technology alone can’t solve this. Roll out KYC checks and video verification systems, or require people to come in occasionally (to your level of affordability). But at the core, hiring is about connecting with an actual human being. That’s why it’s important to talk about hobbies and experiences and gauge someone’s personality.
Fakers tend to collapse or vanish when you dig a little deeper. It’s not foolproof, but adding a personal touch can help reduce the noise.
If you want to avoid deepfake hires, your best bet is combining good screening methods with authentic interaction. Remote work, ATS overload, and deepfake tech aren’t going anywhere, so get better at spotting the real deal. In doing so, we might rediscover that genuine human connection that job interviews have been missing for far too long.
Hadas Cassorla, JD, MBA, CISSP has a lot of letters after her name, but the three letters she cares the most about are Y-E-S. Marrying her improv and legal background into technology and business, she helps organizations build strong, actionable and implementable security programs by getting buy-in from investors, the boardroom and employees. She has founded her own business, Scale Security Group, and has built corporate security offices from ground-up.