Huntress also checks that an applicants’ supplied phone number is valid, as well as running a Google search on them.

“All of the above will save you a great deal of time, and if you see anything that does not match, you know you are dealing with a fake profile, and it happens a lot,” Feligno concluded.

Brian Jack, KnowBe4’s CISO, agrees that fake remote employees and contractors are something every organization needs to worry about, adding: “CISO’s should review the organization’s hiring processes and ensure that their overall risk management practices are inclusive of hiring.”

Hiring teams should be trained to ensure they are checking resumes and references more thoroughly to be sure the person they are interviewing is real and is who they say they are, Jack advises. Best would be to meet candidates in person along with their government-issued ID or using trusted agents, such as background checking firms — especially as use of AI enters into the mix of hiring schemes such as these.

“One thing I like to do as a hiring manager is ask some questions that would be hard to prepare for and hard for an AI to answer on the fly, but easy for a person to talk about if they were who they claim to be,” Jack says.