How to Reduce Hiring Risk With Application Fraud Prevention
While frauds during the hiring process are nothing new, the latest technologies give fraudsters new ways to take advantage of recruiters with super busy schedules.
Fortunately, new application fraud prevention tools can also help recruiters reduce hiring risks and ensure only candidates with real resumes get the job.
In this article, we will discuss applicant fraud and how businesses and recruiters rely on modern tools to combat fraud, which you can do, too. Stay tuned!
What Is Applicant Fraud?
Applicant fraud is any attempt candidates make to fake information about themselves in order to get a job. Those activities can range from entering non-existent jobs on their resumes all the way to forging diplomas and personal documents or even stealing identities, which are all criminal acts.
New technologies and the global market have made it increasingly difficult for recruiters to spot fake applications. In a local setting, the recruiter knows the most relevant schools, and it is easy to check companies where they can often find contacts to double-check on their hire.
But, even when that is the case, it all takes time and manual work—and any recruiter knows how busy a schedule can get, especially in a never-ending hiring season.
Common types of recruitment fraud
While fraudsters are very creative, here is what you will encounter most often:
Fake experience: While it is OK for candidates to present themselves in the best light possible, putting false information in their resume is entirely different but not uncommon. This can range from not putting the actual job name (writing "developer" instead of "intern") to misrepresenting their activities on the job, inflating their overall experience. Thanks to AI, writing convincing cover letters has never been easier, so recruiters must be extra cautious and double-check everything during the interviews.
Forged documents: Fake diplomas and certifications are not uncommon. Plenty of diploma mills and certification mills are offered by institutions, claiming they are something they are not. While the certification is real, the institution that issued it doesn't have the accreditation to issue such diplomas, making the candidate's knowledge questionable.
False identities or impersonation: In worst cases, candidates will apply using other people's personal information or let someone else take the interview instead of them. Both cases are especially common in remote positions.
The detrimental Business effects of application fraud
Recruitment fraud detection is much more important than it might initially seem, as it is not only about the recruiter's wasted time. Here's how a fraudulent hire can impact your business:
Financial losses: Hiring is a tedious process that takes time and costs money. If you make a fraudulent hire, all that money spent on recruitment platforms, screening, HR efforts, and salaries is wasted and will need to be redone. Not to mention the potential costs of legal actions, which can take months or even years until conclusion.
Operational issues: If you were hiring during the notice period of a previous employee, hiring a fraudster to fill their role will disrupt your workflow. It will take time until you spot that they are not qualified, and it will also take time to find a real replacement. Until you do, someone will have to do the job, putting more pressure on other teammates or incurring more costs while you hire external consultants.
Security risks: If a fraudster goes through your entire onboarding and starts working with your team, they will get to know your company from the inside, which can potentially include valuable working processes, know-how, and trade secrets. Plus, a fraudulent employee will become a part of your system, which is a security risk on its own.
Reputational harm: If the fraudulent employee interacts with customers or clients or your company operates in a regulated or public-facing industry, their incompetence will be quickly noticed. That will question your company's onboarding process, hurting brand reputation in the eyes of potential customers, clients, and business partners.
How to reduce fraud application risks
While fraudsters use high-tech to fake their resumes and identities, companies also have the latest tools at their disposal that will combat fraud:
Know Your Employee (KYE)
The Know your Customer (KYC) is a well-known practice in the financial sector, and something similar is implemented in the recruitment industry—know your Employee (KYE).
KYE for hiring tools allows recruiters to vet potential hires thoroughly, check their employment history, confirm credentials, and, in some cases, run criminal background and sanction checks
Verifying applicant identity
Because identity theft and impersonation are common in remote hiring, pre-employment identity verification essentials are mandatory and include the following:
Checking government-issued IDs or passports
Validating addresses, phone numbers, emails, or other information
Self video interview
Conducting video interviews automating self-interviews
However, potential fraudulent employees are ready to circumvent these security measures, which is why choosing secure applicant screening tools is mandatory to reduce hiring risks.
Digital identity verification platforms for HR
Digital identity verification platforms provide HR teams with tools that will help them screen candidates and eliminate potential fraudsters at scale. These tools remove tedious, manual work and reduce the chances of fraudulent employees going through the entire onboarding, saving you time and resources.
Here's what to look for when choosing software for online identity verification for candidates:
Self-verification: While conducting video interviews is great, self-verification will save you enormous time and resources, which is why this feature should be your priority.
Several dynamic verification options: You want to choose a verification tool that gives you various verification options, ranging from standard ones such as ID verification and social ownership, all the way to biometrics and liveness tests via video or voice.
Ease of use: While frauds are a problem, you don't want to overwhelm real candidates with complicated verification procedures. Whatever verification method you use must be simple to allow candidates to confirm their identities without unnecessary hassle.
Secure data transfers: Because candidates will share sensitive information, it's essential for it to be shared with the company via a secured connection, as you want to eliminate personal data leaks.
Integrations: The tool you choose should be easy to connect with other recruitment tools you already use in your day-to-day.
Trust Swiftly: A simple and reliable identity verification solution
Trust Swiftly will ensure your HR team doesn't waste resources on fraudulent applicants, reduce hiring risks, and ensure your staff focuses only on real candidates. Here's how:
Self-service verification
Trust Swiftly allows you to conduct self-service verification without the need for your HR staff to oversee each applicant.
That alone will discourage the majority of fraudulent applicants and ensure only people with authentic identities are able to get to the next phase.
Self-service verification will save you time and resources and allow your team to focus their efforts elsewhere, indirectly improving the quality of hires made. For even more assurance we allow for physical prescence verification through our IAL3 kiosk solution.
15+ verification methods
Trust Swiftly will allow you to verify candidate identities in several ways:
Phone SMS ownership
Email ownership
Selfie liveness test
Document verification
Banking ownership
Live video interview
Geolocation check
Voice check
Physical address ownership
Google and mobile authentication
SSN checks
NFC ID check
Manual reviews
You can choose the methods based on your business needs and risks, allowing you to screen candidates without bothering them.
Easy to use and secure
Trust Swiftly is simple to use, and won't scare off legitimate candidates. They will receive a notification, and the entire verification process will be done in a few simple steps.
Moreover, the entire process is super secure; even the most security-aware candidates can go through it with peace of mind.
Global scalability
Trust Swiftly has international support, which means you'll be able to scale your business remotely and hire at scale while reducing fraud risks.
Many integrations
Trust Swiftly works with all popular tools, including Google, Micrsoft, Plaid, Twilio, WordPress, PayPal, Stripe, and more.
What's best is that the deployment is super simple, and no coding knowledge is required, allowing your team to set it up in minutes.
Works for other use cases, too
Trust Swiftly will also work in other areas of your business and can be used for financial verifications in eCommerce, fintech, marketplaces, or other situations where client/customer identity needs to be validated.
Bottom line
Ensuring remote hires are legitimate can be a real problem, which is why recruitment fraud detection tools are a must. Fraud prevention tools for hiring managers save time, allow secure applicant screening, and reduce business risks that come from hiring fraudulent employees.
Trust Swiftly is an excellent choice if you want to verify the identity of a job applicant. With our automated KYE process, your HR team will save countless hours that would be wasted on interviewing fraudulent candidates. Trust Swiftly is super simple to implement and use, and flexible pricing makes it an excellent option for businesses of any size.
Sign up for Trust Swiftly now, completely free, and enjoy the benefits of fraud-free recruitment today!