The rise of artificial intelligence tools has made candidate fraud easier for bad actors, introducing a greater challenge for many HR leaders during recruitment.  

A report from Gartner last year warned that one in four job candidates globally will be fake by 2028, as GenAI tools make deepfakes "increasingly sophisticated and adaptable."  

One example of this was the case of Vidoc Security co-founder Dawid Mozcadlo, who shared his experience on LinkedIn last year with a job applicant who used AI to alter his appearance and answer his questions during a job interview.  

Husnain Bajwa, SVP, Product at SEON, said the fabrication of an entire professional identity using AI is one of the biggest issues they see for HR and talent acquisition teams.  

"Fraudsters are using AI to build entire professional identities from scratch, including fake names, synthetic headshots, polished LinkedIn profiles, and convincing portfolios," Bajwa told HRD.  

"What makes it especially dangerous is how these campaigns operate. It's rarely just one fake application. These are coordinated efforts; dozens of submissions hit multiple open roles at the same time, and they're all designed to look like legitimate, high-quality candidates."  

How to spot fake candidates  

No single red flag is enough to determine if a job applicant is a fraud, according to Bajwa.  

However, he noted that certain patterns emerge that HR leaders can watch out for if they want to spot fake candidates. They include:  

• Multiple applications coming from the same device or IP address
• Identity details that don't add up
• AI-generated responses that tend to be very polished but generic  

When it comes to a portfolio, HR leaders can look out for GitHub accounts created just a month before the application, watch out for cloned repos, or design portfolios packed with shallow derivative work.  

A string of applications that arrive within a 15-minute window with the same formatting and language may also be cause for concern, according to the expert.  

"The good news is that technology to surface these signals exists," he said.  

"HR teams don't have to be doing this manually and can instead use tools that can pull this data together and offer a clearer picture of who's real and who isn't."  

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