Fraudsters Use Generative AI Tools to Secure Remote Jobs

Generative AI tools are reportedly powering a new threat to companies: job seekers who aren’t who they say they are.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to create false profiles, photo IDs, employment histories and even deepfake videos for interviews, these fraudsters aim to secure remote jobs, CNBC reported Tuesday (April 8).

In these jobs, they can then steal the company’s data, trade secrets or funds; install malware and then demand a ransom; or, in some cases, collect a salary that they can give to the North Korean government, according to the report.

These scams often target cybersecurity and cryptocurrency firms but are also common across industries, the report said.

By 2028, 1 in 4 job candidates will be fake, the report said, citing research and advisory firm Gartner.

Firms that have encountered fake job seekers have deployed solutions to prevent it from happening again. These include using identity-verification companies to vet candidates and video authentication programs to spot deepfake videos, per the report.

Remote hiring, onboarding and training are some of the toughest tests faced by employers, according to the 2021 PYMNTS Intelligence and Jumio collaboration, “Digital Identity Tracker®.”

The report found that during the pandemic, digital identity verification solutions emerged as valuable tools for employers to remotely hire and onboard new workers and to replace cumbersome manual processes.

Businesses are harnessing AI to bolster security measures and combat increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, PYMNTS reported in May.

For example, Proofpoint addresses the increasing risks associated with business email compromise (BEC) and malicious URLs with a predelivery defense system that protects against social engineering tactics and malicious links.

“Organizations need a simple, unified and effective way to catch every threat, every time, every way a user may encounter it, using every form of detection,” Darren Lee, executive vice-president and general manager of People Protection Group, Proofpoint, said at the time in a press release.

Businesses are a prime target for bad actors and scammers, PYMNTS reported in April 2024. The FBI Internet Crime Report said that in 2023, business email compromise (BEC) attacks in the U.S. resulted in $2.9 billion in adjusted losses annually, while malware attacks represented $59.6 million in adjusted losses annually.