Legal and screening experts warn AI-enabled identity fraud is outpacing recruitment checks in Australian workplaces
Candidate fraud is proving increasingly difficult for HR teams to detect as artificial intelligence, remote hiring and digital onboarding create new opportunities for applicants to misrepresent who they are, according to legal and workforce screening specialists.
Poor hiring decisions – including those linked to fraudulent applications – are estimated to cost Australian small and medium businesses $7.3 billion a year, according to research from Seek. That figure covers the broader cost of a "wrong hire," but industry specialists say candidate fraud, ranging from doctored documents to AI-altered interviews, is becoming a significant contributor.
Tania Evans, founder and chief executive officer of workforce screening company WorkPro, said generative AI has widened the scope of what fraudulent candidates can attempt.
"AI, for all its wonderful things, has also created an opportunity for those to impersonate others or create synthetic profiles of themselves," Evans said. She added that WorkPro has observed a shift in the sophistication of the documents being used to support false applications. "We've definitely seen an increase in AI-created documents, identity documents in particular," she said.
Evans said the risk is amplified in remote recruitment, where an employer may never meet a candidate in person. In some...
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