Employers add identity checks as AI fraud grows in hiring

In short: Employers are adding more identity and security checks during hiring because some applicants are using AI and fake identities to cheat the process.

What's going on

Companies say they are seeing more fraud in recruitment, from applicants using chatbots to answer questions, to people paying others to take tests for them. Some cases are more serious, such as criminals trying to get hired under false names to gain access to a company’s internal systems.

The research firm Gartner predicts that by 2028, one in four candidate profiles worldwide could be fake. That risk is pushing human resources teams, which usually focus on people and culture, to work more closely with cyber security teams, which focus on spotting threats.

Some employers are now asking job candidates to prove they are real during video interviews. The Financial Times article gives an example of recruiters asking candidates to hold up three fingers in front of their face, which can help confirm it is a live person and not a deepfake (a fake video made to look real). Hiring platforms are also adding tools that prompt candidates to verify their identity with official ID.

Other services analyze video and audio for signs of manipulation. For example, they may look at facial movement, lip syncing, eye motion, and voice patterns, then flag anything that looks unusual for a human to review.

What to watch

More checks could make hiring slower and more invasive, since it can involve collecting sensitive personal data even when a person may not get the job. There is also a risk of false alarms, where a legitimate candidate is flagged by mistake. In the EU, rules like GDPR and the EU AI Act limit fully automated decisions in high-stakes areas like hiring, so many tools are being positioned as “flags for humans,” not final decisions.

Source: Financial Times