The issue of candidate fraud may only be growing worse. Within three years — by 2028 — 1 in 4 candidate profiles worldwide could be fake, according to a July 31 report from Gartner.
In a survey of 3,000 job candidates, 6% said they participated in interview fraud, either by posing as someone else or having someone else pretend as them. Burgeoning artificial intelligence use during the hiring process will likely increase concerns among recruiters, Gartner found.
“It’s getting harder for employers to evaluate candidates’ true abilities, and in some cases, their identities. Employers are increasingly concerned about candidate fraud,” Jamie Kohn, senior research director in the Gartner human resources practice, said in a news release. “Candidate fraud creates cybersecurity risks that can be far more serious than making a bad hire.”
For instance, when candidates believe they’re being assessed by AI, they distort certain skills, adjusting to what they think AI prioritizes, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. This can pose problems for hiring teams, who may not be able to accurately assess applicants’ capabilities and personalities, the researchers said.
Across other Gartner surveys, candidates expressed concerns about employer AI use as well, with only a quarter saying they trust AI to fairly evaluate them. Half also believe AI screens their applications, and a third expressed concerns about AI failing their applications. In addition, only half of candidates said they believed the jobs they were applying for were legitimate.
Even so, 4 in 10 candidates said they also use AI during the application process, primarily to write text for their resume, cover letter, writing samples or assessment questions.
To screen for candidate fraud, employers can create a multi-layered fraud mitigation strategy, Gartner said. For instance, companies can set clear expectations around acceptable AI use and communicate about their fraud detection efforts, including legal consequences if fraudulent behavior occurs and is detected.
Recruiters can also use assessments to detect fraud, including in-person interviews. In another Gartner survey, 62% of candidates said they were more likely to apply to a position if it required in-person interviews.
After the initial hiring phase, employers can also deploy system-level validation to detect fraud, such as tighter background checks, risk-based data monitoring, identity verification and anomaly alerts in recruiting systems.
