In 2020, a large services company discovered that one of its employees had secured the job using a fabricated résumé and an impersonator to clear the online test. The deception went unnoticed until months later, when performance issues surfaced.
By then, the organisation had already invested in training, onboarding, and project allocation — all wasted because fraud had slipped through the cracks. This is not an isolated story. Recruitment fraud is emerging as one of the most persistent and costly risks in the talent market.
What the Evidence Tells Us
Surveys and studies reveal just how widespread the problem is. A CareerBuilder survey (2017) reported that 75 per cent of hiring managers had caught candidates lying on their résumés, most often about skills or job histories. The ProctorU report (2020) found that nearly 8 per cent of online test takers attempted cheating behaviours such as impersonation or unauthorised assistance, raising concerns about the integrity of remote assessments. These numbers show that fraud is not the exception — it is becoming alarmingly common across industries.
The Real Costs of Fraud
Fraudulent hires carry consequences that ripple through the organisation. The immediate cost is financial, with resources spent on recruitment, training, and payroll that yield no return. But the deeper cost lies in lost productivity, disruption to teams, and erosion of trust. Genuine candidates, who might have been the right fit, lose out unfairly. Recruiters are forced to double down on vigilance, stretching their workload even further. And when such cases surface publicly, the organisation’s credibility takes a hit with clients, partners, and future applicants.
Why Organisations Should Take Notice
Fraud in hiring is not simply a human resources headache. It strikes at efficiency, profitability, and brand value. In a highly competitive talent market, the margin for error is slim. Each fraudulent hire represents not only wasted investment but also a distortion of organisational culture and performance. For companies already battling attrition, skills shortages, and fast-changing business demands, recruitment fraud adds a destabilising layer of risk.
Building Trustworthy Hiring Practices
The way forward lies in building processes that are harder to exploit and easier to trust. Verification at multiple stages, stronger screening checks, and more transparent communication create an environment where genuine applicants are supported and fraudulent attempts are filtered out. Recruitment is ultimately about trust — and safeguarding that trust is as critical as filling the vacancy itself.
