With moving to a remote model of working and with the growing popularity of the tech industry, we started facing more and more cases of fake candidates applying for the jobs. The problem touches a couple of layers of the recruitment process, from fictional experience and skills in CVs to wrong nationalities, locations, and even identities during interviews.

Detecting fake information on later stages of the recruitment process can cause severe consequences. From loss of time and money to legal liability and penalties, fake candidates bring a whole bunch of issues to the companies. With a trained eye on thousands of CVs and real-life examples from our experience, let us guide you through fake candidate trends and techniques to overcome them.

The Most Common Cases of a Fake Candidate Resume

From the first sight, a fake candidate resume in your hands looks like a normal one, with the right format and content. The ATS systems can often omit the red flags and will not detect suspicious information. Here's where a human analysis saves the situation. From all the cheating cases that candidates come up with to get a desired position, these are the most widespread and the most inventive:

Fake candidate resume: skills and experience

In the race for entering the IT field, relocating, or simply getting the tech position, candidates exaggerate in their CVs, providing fake work experience. They can claim skills they don't have or include non-existent projects into their portfolios. A fresh graduate or an entry-level specialist can mention fake proficiency with the aim to get a senior position.

Work history

In planning their IT staff augmentation, companies can come across a fake candidate resume that contains false job titles or responsibilities. For example, candidates can come up with the experience that would correspond to the job description they apply for. Or, they can indicate companies where they never worked before. Invented company names can sometimes be untraceable, making it impossible to verify candidates' work history.

Education and certifications

Fake education and certifications is another red flag. Candidates include degrees from unaccredited institutions. They claim to have certificates that don't exist. Or they even go further and counterfeit diplomas that look like authentic ones.

Manipulated references

When companies go for IT recruitment services, they usually get candidates verified and with all background checks. Fake job candidates know that and intentionally provide the contacts of their friends for reference checks. They even go a step further, creating fake profiles on LinkedIn. They make quite a number of efforts, all to make their identity look credible.

Identity and nationality

There are examples when fake engineering candidates (or any specialists applying in Tech) falsify their names, identities, and countries of origin. They provide false information on CVs, upload a fake profile picture, and even use deep fake technology to create fake identities during video calls. The last measure is the most recent one and is still quite rare. In most cases, when candidates see that you challenge their identity during screening or interviews, they simply quit.

How to Identify Fake Candidates in a Video Interview and Other Detection Methods

From primitive fake candidate scam to elaborated strategies, fake candidates refine their mastery to remain unnoticeable. However, experienced HR professionals usually detect them in the early stages. So, how to identify fake candidates in a video interview and even before? In search of the best strategies to find developers for your startup business, don't forget about the following checks.

Application screening

Even though your ATS system can pick up a candidate and doesn't eliminate them automatically, you can go through their CVs before moving to the next recruiting level. Look if there are any deviations in the information they provide. Pay attention to job dates and roles, as well as job descriptions. Check the progression of their proficiency and skills they acquired in previous roles. Refer to social media, and LinkedIn in particular, to check a candidate's experience.

Assessing candidates' character and integrity

There are several approaches to use when assessing a candidate's behavior and experience that they mentioned in their CVs. If you proceed with them during the interview, include these techniques:

• Behavioral interview questions. Questions about experience and how candidates handled different situations can shed light on whether they were actually involved in the situation they describe. The examples of dealing with dilemmas, difficult issues, and team conflicts can easily be detected if a person was not part of it.

• Situational judgment tests (SJTs). Let's imagine you have opened a position for a web app developer. Instead of only focusing on how to find web app developers, gather a list of hypothetical scenarios that would be applicable for the role. From daily interactions with stakeholders to solving problems with applications. These tests not only help you find a specialist for the position, but also eliminate the fake ones. You'll quickly detect underqualified candidates and can uncover their values and integrity.

• Personality assessments. With personality tests, you can assess candidates' personality traits and see how honest they are. This is an additional check for the integrity of a candidate's answers. Some examples include the Big Five Personality Traits model or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment.

• Technical and problem-solving tasks. Solving problems in real time will help you detect if candidates' traits and experience correspond to the ones indicated in the CV. With these tasks, you can check how candidates manage assignments under pressure, how they react, and approach problem-solving.

Background and reference checks

These two checks are a standard practice in every recruitment process. They're especially important when you hire for remote positions. Because, how to hire foreign employees without duly checking their previous background abroad? Background checks help verify candidates' qualifications, education, and employment history. They are often conducted by third parties, go through a number of stages and are considered reliable.

In turn, reference checks involve reaching out to former employers and colleagues provided by the candidate. This is where a fake candidate can be detected. Before addressing the provided references, check if the reference is real. Check through open sources or social media if a person indeed occupies the managerial position or did so in the past. A very positive feedback can be another potential red flag. To get the objectivity, reach out to a couple of references, and not only one.

Alarming red flags not to miss

• Absence of concrete examples. If a candidate cannot provide details in the examples, it can mean that they didn't actually have that experience. Notice all the general and vague answers.

• Refusal to lead video interviews. Video calls help to identify fake identities quicker. This is one of the reasons fake candidates avoid turning their video on. Besides, you can read their body language or switch to their language, if it's possible. This will help you read their behavior. So, always opt for video calls in all cases.

• Reluctance for technical assessments. Candidates with fake experience or level of expertise can agree for tech assessment with a deadline. But they can find excuses to pass through such checks in real time. For all suspicious situations, include real-time assessments during tech interviews.

• Inconsistency in responses. If candidates confuse the dates, provide irrelevant information regarding their places of employment or previous experience, such candidates can be fake.

To detect all the red flags and save business from undesirable losses, many companies address staffing or recruiting agencies. This is one of the benefits of staffing services, as their HR professionals have more experience in detecting suspicious behavior.

Financial and Legal Impacts of Hiring a Fake Candidate

The consequences of recruiting and hiring a fake candidate vary. Depending on the stage where you identify the fraud, you can bare material and immaterial losses. The financial impact may result in the following:

• Training and onboarding costs. If a candidate happens to be unsuitable for the role, the costs spent on their training and onboarding will be useless.

• Salary and benefits. The same goes for the salary and benefits if a fake candidate is not revealed on the initial stages.

• Revenue losses. If the position a fake candidate occupies involves any business decision-making, the company can bear revenue losses and missed opportunities.

• Replacement costs. As soon as the fake identity is disclosed, a fake specialist will need to be replaced. This leads to additional costs of replacement, including recruiting from scratch, advertising, and so on.

• Productivity losses. As a result, you will waste time and will need to start all the recruitment campaign from scratch. Add here the losses linked to a missing role in the project.

As for the legal impact, you may face lawsuits related to hiring fake candidates. This, in turn, can damage your reputation. If the role you're hiring for requires special qualification, you may face some compliance issues. If, for any reason, a candidate started working in the company, they can misuse proprietary information and cause data breaches. That's why it's very important to do a thorough check from the beginning, vetting fake candidates for further interview rounds.

Final Insights

Identifying fake candidates early in the recruitment process is crucial to save your team and integrity of your business. These fraudulent applicants can slip through the cracks if not thoroughly vetted, leading to significant risks. Some examples include poor job performance, project delays, and even damage to your company's reputation.

By implementing rigorous screening techniques, such as in-depth interviews, technical assessments, and thorough background checks, you can filter out unqualified or dishonest candidates before they become a costly problem. And if you want to conduct professional campaigns and avoid being caught by surprise, write to us, and we will be able to find a custom approach to find top talents for you.

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by Silvia Arutiunian
on August 22, 2024. Share on LinkedIn Post on Twitter

Silvia is the Hiring Specialist at Outstaff Your Team, who transforms the hiring process into an exciting journey with a successful outcome. More than 5 years of experience in IT outsourcing has brought her the valuable skills that help her lead a qualified recruiting process. Her empathy and exceptional understanding of soft skills are the key strengths in her professional activity. The tech talents she finds for various clients harmoniously fit the team.