Fraudsters in the Zoom Room: Winning the War for Authentic Talent

This isn’t a distant concern; remote hiring fraud is unfolding in real time across the industry. As companies expand their teams globally, impostor candidates and sophisticated hiring fraud schemes are costing businesses millions, sometimes overnight. Today, trusting a resume or a video call simply isn’t enough.

Recent headlines tell a chilling story:

1. A finance worker unwittingly sent $25 million to scammers on a video call, convinced he was conversing with real colleagues, all of whom were actually deepfake recreations (CNN, 2024).
2. North Korean state actors have impersonated seasoned engineers, using stolen IDs and AI-generated images to infiltrate U.S. companies, evade detection, and attempt credential theft (Beyond Identity, 2025).
3. The median business fraud loss now stands at $125,000, with 20% of companies reporting fraud costs over $25 million this year alone (Beyond Identity, 2025).

When onboarding happens via Zoom and Slack, the risks multiply. It’s no longer just about skills or even culture fit, but about proving the person you hire is real in every sense of the word.

Modern Hiring Fraud: More Than a “Back Office” Problem

What we’re witnessing isn’t isolated. From our work at BetterEngineer, we see the patterns global reports have warned about:

1. LinkedIn profiles that vanish or change post-interview
2. Candidates easily coached to give scripted answers
3. Digital footprints that don’t add up
4. Video interviews marked by typing noises, whispering, or external coaching
5. Time zones, IPs, and addresses that contradict the résumé

These aren’t harmless quirks. As Beyond Identity’s research confirms, the majority of scam victims are targeted via social media. Fake resumes, deepfake video calls, and identity laundering are on the rise. The damage, when discovered, is often irreversible: stolen funds, lost data, and, perhaps most damaging, lost trust.

Why Traditional Hiring Methods Are Failing

Despite the mounting evidence, many companies still treat onboarding as a checkbox. Verifying someone’s identity with digital documents or a quick reference call is no match for today’s deepfake technology and real-time candidate coaching.

As shown in recent cases, once a fraudulent candidate is “inside,” the harm is already done. Devices are stolen or misused. Sensitive company data is scraped. Payments are misrouted or stolen. Fraudsters don’t just fool the interview; they can fool multi-person video calls, identity checks, and even facial recognition software (CNN, 2024).

Outdated security methods like passwords, basic interviews, and surface-level social checks simply can’t keep pace. What’s missing is cryptographic identity attestation, behavioral verification, and continuous trust monitoring.

How BetterEngineer Is Solving the Problem: Trust, Engineered

At BetterEngineer, we believe technology begins with people, real people. That’s why we’ve engineered a multi-layered verification framework built for the remote-first world:

1. Digital Identity Validation
   We cross-check LinkedIn, GitHub, Stack Overflow, and public repositories to confirm a candidate’s technical presence and history. Profiles with superficial or recent activity are flagged immediately.
2. Behavioral Verification
   Our live, structured interviews are designed to expose scripted or coached responses. If a candidate can’t answer local or technical details naturally, we know we have a problem.
3. Technical Environment Verification
   During interviews, we apply an additional layer of validation using tools that analyze location, time, and camera data to confirm a candidate’s authenticity.
   This ensures that only engineers who meet our standards join our clients’ teams.
4. Cultural and Communication Assessment
   We look for signs of transparency, long-term mindset, and cultural fit, not just technical skills.

Our recruiter team works hand-in-hand with client partners to deliver more than résumés. We deliver verified talent: engineers who are authentic, technically proven, and culturally aligned.

Why It Works (and Why You Should Care)

Hiring fraud evolves quickly, but so do we. By embedding verification into every step of the process, we make it much harder (if not impossible) for impostor candidates to slip through. Our approach doesn’t just “catch” fakes; it prevents them from advancing in the first place.

This isn’t just about ticking boxes. It’s about defending your organization from the existential risk of hiring fraud, a threat that’s already cost U.S. companies untold millions, and which will only get riskier as remote work grows.

Let's Build Safer Teams Together

Is your hiring process truly secure or just fast? Work with a partner who knows how to spot the real from the fake. At BetterEngineer, we make remote hiring trustworthy, transparent, and truly human again.

Ready to build a better, safer team? Let’s talk.