Remote hiring removed the moment when a candidate walks into the building. Fraudsters use that gap. They apply with stolen identities, AI-generated headshots and polished profiles, then have a proxy or a deepfake sit the video interview. In June 2022 the FBI warned that complaints about deepfakes and stolen personal data being used to apply for remote work positions were rising, including interviews where the audio did not line up with the speaker's lip movements.
The stakes go well beyond a bad hire. US prosecutors have shown how North Korean IT workers used stolen American identities and US-based "laptop farms" to get hired by hundreds of companies. In one case, the Arizona facilitator was sentenced in July 2025 to 102 months in prison for a scheme that generated more than $17 million. A fake employee gets access to your code, your systems and your customer data.
Gartner expects the problem to grow: by 2028, it forecasts that one in four candidate profiles worldwide could be fake. A quick, documented check on the media a candidate sends you adds friction exactly where the fraud happens.
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