Not who they say they are: the 2026 Candidate Fraud Report
In our sample of RightMatch first-round interviews, 1 in 21 raised an integrity flag after our June 2026 detection upgrade, and most flags came in clusters on the same job. This free 12-page report covers what we found, what recent federal cases show, and an 8-step playbook to stop fakes early.
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The numbers, in the open
The first three come from our own interview data. The rest come from outside research.
first-round interviews in our sample flagged since our June 2026 detection upgrade (21 of 438).
of those flags came in clusters on the same job at the same employer.
employer accounts in the sample had at least one flagged interview since June.
of U.S. hiring managers have interviewed someone using a fake identity.
candidate profiles worldwide Gartner predicts will be fake by 2028.
companies infiltrated by North Korea-linked operatives posing as remote workers.
Twelve pages, four parts
How integrity flags clustered on specific jobs in RightMatch interview data.
From AI-polished resumes to swapped interviewees, stolen identities and state-backed operatives.
What DOJ and FBI cases from 2024 to 2026 show about how fake hires get in.
Eight steps you can start this quarter, half of them straight from FBI guidance.
Three things you can do this week
- 1Screen at the first interview, not after the offer.
- 2Treat a cluster of flags on one job as a signal and tighten verification on that role.
- 3Cross-check applicants for reused phone numbers and email addresses, as the FBI recommends.
How we got these numbers
Sample of 1,217 completed first-round interviews from real employer accounts on RightMatch, December 2025 to October 2026. Headline figures use the 438 interviews after our June 2026 detection upgrade.
Aggregates only; no candidate or employer is identifiable. A flag is a signal for human review, not confirmed fraud. Full methodology and sources are in the report.
Catch it in round one.
Every completed RightMatch interview gets a Trust Score. It's designed to catch AI-generated voices, duplicate identities and camera-replay attacks, and flags anything suspicious for your team before anyone spends time on a live interview.
- 1M+ candidates processed
- 27 ATS integrations
- SOC 2 Type II audited
Common questions
Anything from AI-polished resumes to someone else answering in an interview to stolen identities and state-backed operatives. The report breaks it into five types.
In our sample, 1 in 21 first-round interviews raised an integrity flag after our June 2026 detection upgrade. Gartner predicts 1 in 4 candidate profiles worldwide will be fake by 2028.
A home in the U.S. where company laptops shipped to remote "hires" are kept running so overseas workers can log in as if they were local. In October 2026 the Justice Department announced searches of more than 40 suspected laptop farms in Texas.
A background check confirms that an identity is real. It can't tell you whether the person on camera owns it.
Every completed async interview gets a Trust Score designed to catch AI-generated voices, duplicate identities and camera-replay attacks. Suspicious interviews are flagged for your team to review.
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