Job Applicant Fraud Is Skyrocketing: TurboCheck's Mike Mark on Fake Candidates and Deepfakes

Pete Newsome sits down with Michael Mark from TurboCheck for a conversation most hiring teams aren't having yet, but should be: candidate fraud. TurboCheck's data shows fraud running around 40% across all roles on average, and as high as 70% to 80% for some remote technical positions. Mike lays out the three tiers behind it: individuals padding resumes or juggling multiple undisclosed jobs, organized crime groups placing fake candidates to access company systems, and nation-state actors, including North Korea, which Mike says has pulled over $1 billion from US companies through fake job placements to help fund its nuclear weapons program.The two dig into how sophisticated this has gotten: LinkedIn profiles built years ago during COVID and left to "season," GPT-written resumes, AI face masks and deepfakes on video interviews, and real-time AI tools that feed candidates answers through a teleprompter. They also talk through why manual screening alone can't keep up with AI-generated fraud, and why human judgment paired with verification technology is the combination that actually works.Pete shares why 4 Corner Resources became a TurboCheck customer after running into a bait-and-switch candidate in a hybrid healthcare role, where one person interviewed and a different person showed up for the job. Mike walks through TurboCheck's four core tools: a patented identity check screening name, email, phone, and location against nearly 1,000 data points; biometric face verification that catches AI masks and confirms a candidate stays the same person from first call through employment; government ID document verification; and reference verification to confirm references are real people.They close with practical advice for job seekers: research any company before applying, and be cautious if a "job" asks for sensitive information like a Social Security number early on or the process moves suspiciously fast.Learn more about TurboCheck at turbocheck.com, and visit 4cornerresources.com for hiring and job search resources.