Latest news with #CaseyMarquette
Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Fraudulent Candidates Are On The Rise: What Employers Need To Know
Casey Marquette is a seasoned Fortune 50/200 security strategist & CEO at Covenant Technologies empowering elite technical recruiting teams. Recruiters have long been trained to spot red flags on résumés—gaps in employment, vague job descriptions and inflated titles. But today, these signs barely scratch the surface. A new breed of candidate deception is emerging, and it's more organized, technical and difficult to detect. According to CBS News reporting, fraudulent job seekers are using advanced digital tools to secure legitimate employment under false identities. Occasionally backed by sophisticated crime networks, these hires blend in seamlessly with remote teams, pass onboarding processes and draw in real salaries for weeks or months before anyone realizes something is wrong. The risk is significant. Reported in technology, finance and healthcare sectors, victims range from large enterprises to small firms without fraud detection. Regardless of industry, targeted companies face wage losses, data breaches, reputational damage and compromised team performance. Because the technology powering this deception is evolving quickly, HR leaders must adapt to keep fraud out of the hiring process. How Fraud Is Infiltrating Corporate Hiring Recent federal investigations have found that most job seeker hoaxes are targeting remote jobs, likely because the lack of traditional verification makes it easier to blend in. Coordinated criminal groups coach operators to assume false identities, providing fake diplomas, interview scripts and deepfake videos for impersonation. Other deception tactics include using voice modulation and remote desktop access to give off-camera answers during interviews. Once hired, these fraudulent operators attend meetings, submit work and gather data or introduce vulnerabilities. While individuals who commit candidate fraud aren't always malicious in intent, they create real problems. These are people who use résumé-writing software to embellish experience, fabricate previous roles or upgrade technical skill sets. In interviews, they rehearse AI-generated answers to common behavioral and technical questions. In April 2025, Business Insider reported on apps that provide entry-level and mid-career applicants with real-time talking points for interviews. During video interviews, fraudulent candidates may either read from a screen or repeat answers given to them through an earpiece. The result is a hiring process filled with individuals who appear qualified on paper and sound impressive in conversation, then struggle to perform in practice. Deadlines are missed, essential skills aren't demonstrated or plagiarized work products are submitted. These situations lead to team disruptions, productivity loss and increased recruiting costs to replace the unqualified hires. The reality is that many companies rely on outdated screening tools that weren't built to detect this kind of fraud. Basic résumé parsers reward structure and keyword density without evaluating substance. While some video interview platforms score candidates on surface-level qualities like articulation and tone, they lack the sophistication to recognize when a person is reading from another screen or receiving live assistance. When hiring teams use technology that was designed for speed and efficiency, not verifying authenticity, fraudsters are able to learn the scoring patterns. Then, with the right preparation, they can exploit the gaps in the systems. Organizations need advanced solutions that can detect offscreen assistance, monitor behavioral cues in real time and flag inconsistencies that human reviewers may miss. Strategic adoption can be a significant advantage for protecting teams and reputations. A Proactive, Layered Way To Protect Hiring Integrity Companies must adopt a layered approach that combines human intuition with advanced detection technologies to address the growing threat of candidate fraud. The solution isn't a single system or team. It's a connected effort across recruiting, HR and cybersecurity. • Invest in advanced verification tools. Hiring teams should bring in modern identity verification tools beyond document uploads. Biometric matching, liveness detection and government-issued ID checks can confirm whether the person on camera is real and matches the submitted credentials. These systems are essential for preventing impersonation during remote hiring. • Deploy AI strategically. Be intentional with AI usage. For instance, implement recruiting platforms that monitor candidate behavior during video interviews. The right tools can detect when someone is reading from another screen, receiving external prompts or showing signs of deepfake manipulation. They can also compare speech patterns, analyze reaction times and flag candidates whose delivery is inconsistent with natural interaction. • Avoid predictable interview practices. AI alone can't always decode when someone is providing false information. So, recruiters should lead with unscripted engagement. Asking about candidates' personal path, motivations or reflections on real-life scenarios can help determine whether they're drawing from authentic experience. • Verify at multiple stages. Confirming candidates' identity should be an ongoing process. Include checkpoints during onboarding and after hiring to check performance, monitor access and verify contributions. Anomalies in system use, drops in productivity or technical issues can indicate problems. • Lean on IT professionals' knowledge. Recognizing patterns across devices, networks and behavior is crucial for modern workforce risk management. This means collaboration between cybersecurity and HR teams is key. If fraudulence signals are shared across departments, a candidate who bypassed one check could be caught by another. The Future Of Talent Screening Requires Vigilance Fraud prevention in hiring cannot be an afterthought. Companies must adapt by combining innovative technologies with smarter processes that are woven into every stage of the candidate journey. This proactive, layered approach will better protect their teams, data and reputation during the growing wave of candidate fraud. Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?
Forbes
23-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Real Risk In Recruiting Isn't AI; It's IA (InAction)
Casey Marquette is a seasoned Fortune 50/200 security strategist & CEO at Covenant Technologies empowering elite technical recruiting teams. When AI entered the recruiting conversation, it was met with both optimism and apprehension. It promised to streamline hiring, reduce bias and help organizations find better talent faster. For some, that promise is starting to come true. But for most, it remains just out of reach. According to LinkedIn, 73% of talent acquisition professionals agree that AI will reshape how companies hire. Yet despite this momentum, only 11% of recruiting teams report having truly integrated AI into their processes, and more than 30% haven't explored it at all. This hesitancy is understandable. AI raises valid concerns about bias, data privacy, transparency and cost. But I believe many companies are overlooking a larger risk; doing nothing leaves recruiting teams at a growing disadvantage. The Status Quo Is Quietly Breaking Down Most recruiting still relies on manual processes and disconnected technologies. Resumes are screened by overworked teams. Interview scheduling drags out for days. Candidate evaluations vary wildly depending on who's involved. This status quo is inefficient, expensive and increasingly unsustainable. Top candidates don't wait around. Many receive multiple offers in days. Slow hiring cycles in high-pressure industries like healthcare, insurance and technology mean lost talent, missed revenue and damaged employer reputation. Even companies that have invested in technology often find themselves frustrated. Their platforms may offer plenty of features, but they weren't built with recruiters in mind. They provide data without insight, automation without strategy and compliance without clarity—digital clutter. AI Alone Won't Fix Recruiting—But Its Role Is Evolving The idea that AI can replace recruiters is not only misleading but harmful. The best hiring decisions still require final human judgment. What AI can do is help recruiters spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time on high-value work. This is where a better framework is needed, one that views AI not as a substitute but as a support system. Augmented Intelligence refers to the intentional use of AI to enhance, not replace, human decision-making. In recruiting, it means AI assists with speed, insight and scale, while people bring context, judgment and relationship. This model remains the most accurate and forward-looking framework for how AI should operate in recruiting. What's changing is what AI is capable of. Today's advanced AI models, especially those powered by large language models (LLMs), do far more than analyze and accelerate. They can learn from hiring patterns, feedback loops and recruiter input. They begin to understand role requirements and the less tangible elements of cultural fit and leadership style. Over time, they adapt, refining candidate recommendations based on outcomes, team feedback and even subtle preferences that emerge across hiring cycles. For example, AI can now flag which candidates meet hard skill requirements and which ones are most likely to thrive within a specific team dynamic. It can pick up on tone, communication style and alignment with stated values, especially when that data is fed back into the system with thoughtful human input. That said, AI is not a standalone solution. It's a system that gets smarter in partnership with the people using it. Recruiters still play the essential role in validating, interpreting and humanizing decisions. They see the subtleties that algorithms can't always explain, like when a candidate needs reassurance before an offer call or when a resume doesn't tell the whole story. The real power lies in the partnership. When recruiters and AI systems learn together, hiring becomes faster, more intelligent, inclusive and aligned with long-term success. What's Holding Teams Back? While the technology exists, real adoption still lags. The reasons vary, but looking at my work with clients, internal recruiters and HR teams over the past few years, some common themes emerge: • Bias Concerns: Fears that AI will reinforce existing inequities. • Opaque Systems: Tools that don't explain how decisions are made. • Poor Integration: Platforms that disrupt more than they support. • Limited Training: Recruiters unsure how to use the tools effectively. • Lack Of Leadership Alignment: Tech investments without strategic backing. These are solvable problems. However, solving them requires a mindset shift from viewing AI as a one-size-fits-all product to understanding it as a framework that evolves with the team. What Recruiters Need Now For AI to create lasting value in hiring, it must be embedded in transparent, fair and recruiter-centric systems. That means: • Customizable scoring models that recruiters can adjust. • Mobile-friendly workflows that simplify scheduling, feedback and even initial interviewing. • Real-time summaries that keep teams aligned and data clear. • Ethical design principles that prioritize job-relevant skills over proxies like resume formatting or educational pedigree. It also means taking a hard look at the current recruiting tech stack. Many tools are siloed; they offer overlapping features but don't communicate. A more effective path forward is to consolidate around platforms that support recruiters in practical, flexible ways. For Talent Leaders, The Window Is Now The companies that win the talent war in 2025 and beyond won't be those that rely on AI the most. They'll be the ones that use it most wisely, choosing tools that respect the craft of recruiting while amplifying what makes it powerful. These companies will: • Replace reactive hiring cycles with data-informed planning. • Reduce time-to-fill without cutting corners on quality. • Deliver better candidate experiences, from first contact to offer. • Equip recruiters with insight, not just automation. This doesn't require a total overhaul. It starts with asking the right questions: Where are we losing time in our hiring process? What tools are our recruiters actually using, and which are getting in the way? Are we learning from each hire, or repeating the same process without feedback? If the answers point to gaps in consistency, efficiency or visibility, AI can help—but only if it's purposefully introduced. The Bottom Line The future of recruiting isn't about removing humans from hiring. It's about removing the obstacles that keep them from doing their best work. The tools are ready. The question is whether we're ready to use them before someone else hires the people we want. Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?
