Fake Resumes on the Rise: How to Recognize & Defend Against Candidate Fraud

Published On: October 3, 2025Categories: Talent Acquisition

As if the stalled labor market wasn’t enough to make your head spin, a new type of hiring headache has entered the scene: the proliferation of fake resumes and fraudulent applications. Resume “creative writing” is nothing new for recruiters. Now AI tools and bots have turned it into a full-blown trend.

Need more convincing? The numbers don’t lie. Data from Resume Lab and StandOut CV shows anywhere from 60-70% of people admit to lying on their resume at least once. Equifax found 71% of HR professionals have encountered fabricated or misleading candidate information, yet only 20% are confident in their ability to detect fraud. 

This is a big problem for recruiters, since it means hours of wasted time vetting candidates who either don’t exist or aren’t who they say they are. It also exposes your organization to financial and security risks, especially in highly regulated industries.

In this blog, we’ll cover common types of fake resumes and applications, why it’s a growing threat, and how to use AI in talent acquisition to spot fraud early and strengthen the hiring process.

TL;DR

  • Why it matters: Fake resumes waste recruiters time, create compliance/security risks, and erode trust in hiring systems.
  • What to do: Standardize screening, verify resumes, test skills, and use fraud-prevention tech like Rival Recruit’s ReCaptcha, pre-submission attestations, and custom fields.
  • Stay ahead: Train your team, set clear policies, monitor high-volume roles, and have a plan if fraud is detected post-hire.

Rise of Fake Resumes and Fake Job Applications

It’s never been easier to game the hiring process. Let’s break down the two main categories to be aware of: fake resumes and fake applications.

Fake Resumes: Fabricated Experience, Inflated Skills, and AI Polish

Some jobseekers are so fed up with the stalled labor market that they’re blatantly lying on their resumes. A new survey from FlexJobs found 10% of U.S. professionals admitted to exaggerating job responsibilities or extending job dates to cover up employment gaps. A fake resume could involve fabricated work experience, inflated skills, and fake credentials, some of which can be generated using tools like ChatGPT.

Fake Job Applications: Bots, False Identities, and Bulk Submissions

The other example of candidate fraud is fake applications. This is becoming so prevalent that Gartner predicts by 2028 one in four candidate profiles worldwide will be fake. Examples include:

  • Bots or third parties clogging your ATS with fake profiles
  • Fraudulent applicants with stolen or false identities to gain remote roles for money laundering
  • Outsourcing tricks where hired candidates secretly subcontract the job to someone else
  • Application farming where agencies or individuals mass-apply to jobs on behalf of candidates, sometimes without their direct involvement or interest

Fake resumes and fake job applications are a nightmare for resource-strapped TA teams. Even if you are attuned to spotting signs of fraud, it means you’re wasting time weeding out fake candidates instead of connecting with real ones. 

Why This Matters to Recruiters

Yes, fake resumes and applications are a nuisance for busy recruiters trying to fill legitimate roles. They’re also severely undermining the integrity of your hiring process.

  • Compliance and Risk – If you end up hiring someone under false pretenses, you could end up in a whole mess of legal, financial, and even security risks, especially for organizations in healthcare, finance, or government contracting.
  • Poor Candidate Experience – When time is wasted sifting through bots and fake profiles, the process for legitimate candidates gets delayed and they may drop out entirely.
  • Eroded Trust – When your ATS platform and sourcing channels start feeding hiring teams bad data, they lose confidence in the process and fall back to less efficient recruiting methods, like manual resume reviews or phone screens for every applicant.

How to Spot Fake Resumes & Applications: Red Flags

If you see two or more of these red flags, that’s a strong indication the resume is fake.

Fake Resume Red Flags

  • Inconsistent timelines and employment gaps – A candidate might list “2019-2021” for one role and “2020-2022” for another with no explanation of why there’s an overlap.

  • Overly polished for vague job descriptions – Are you seeing a lot of buzzwords without measurable results? That’s a red flag.

  • Inflated skills or irrelevant certifications – For example, if an entry-level marketer claims to be certified by HubSpot, Salesforce, Python, and SQL all in the same year.

  • Unverifiable references or fake companies – The references use gmail addresses or the company has no online presence.

  • Repetitive phrasing and generic achievements – These are telltale signs of GenAI.

Fake Application Red Flags

  • Incomplete information or identical applications across multiple roles – These signal potential bot applications.

  • Avoiding video interviews or resisting providing identification – This could signal a stolen or false identity.

  • Multiple applications from the same IP address – This is typical of bulk submissions.

Stop Fake Resumes With a Structured Hiring Process

While no system can prevent fraud entirely, a structured hiring process makes it much harder for fake resumes and applications to slip through the cracks. The right combination of verification and technology will put your team in the best possible position.

Leveraging Technology: ATS Filters and Basic Bot Prevention

Stop the fraudulent activity before it reaches your team. Rival career sites allow you to enable ReCaptcha so automated submissions are blocked. Combine this with pre-submission acceptance statements and custom fields to create a clear audit trail.

Standardized Screening: Same Questions, Same Checks for Every Candidate

This one is pretty simple: Make sure every candidate is measured against the same standards. Rival Recruit allows you to add a pre-submission acceptance statement and custom attestation field on applications so every candidate certifies their information the same way, every time.

Resume Verification: Education, Past Employment, References

Cross-check degrees, validate employment dates, and confirm references before moving forward with candidates. Rival Recruit allows you to add custom fields to capture the exact details you’ll verify (degree name, institution, reference contacts) and store the candidate’s truthfulness attestation with their application.

Skills-Based Assessments to Test Claims

Job simulations, coding challenges, or case studies help you verify that applicants have the skills they claim on their resumes. 

Partnering with Third-Party Verification Providers

Background checks are essential for highly regulated industries, and Rival partners with several third-party verification providers so all of the results are housed inside your ATS.

Best Practices for HR Teams to Stay Ahead

  • Train your team to spot common fraud tactics.
  • Monitor high-volume roles for spikes in duplicates, bot-like patterns, or unusual IP/device clusters.
  • Plan for post-hire discovery with a documented response path (i.e. probation/termination policy, access revocation, incident review).

The Future of Hiring: Balancing Trust & Verification

Don’t let a few bad apples (or bots) spoil your recruiting process. Once you educate yourself on the rising trend of fake resumes and fake applications, you can take the next step and do something about it. 

Here’s how to strike the balance between trust and verification:

  • Use technology to flag fraud early, while keeping the candidate journey respectful and consistent.
  • Let AI hiring tools detect patterns while recruiters apply context and empathy in the screening process.

Rival Recruit can help you focus on hiring the right people, faster with structured, fair talent acquisition and recruiting automation that cuts through fake resumes and fraudulent applications. 

Ready to stop fake resumes from wasting recruiter time? Schedule your demo today!