Deepfakes and fake CVs push employers to rescreen workers
Key Points
- 76% of hiring managers have seen falsified employment details
- 45% have encountered candidates misrepresenting their identity
- 52% of HR chiefs periodically rescreen staff, 30% monitor continuously
- 89% of employers plan more screening and ID checks within two years
- 90% of HR chiefs now use AI in recruitment
Employers are extending staff checks well beyond hiring, according to First Advantage’s 2026 Global Workforce Trends Report.
The screening firm found that 76% of hiring managers have encountered falsified employment details during recruitment.
A further 45% have dealt with candidates misrepresenting their identity, while between 71% and 88% of employers worldwide reported candidate verification issues.
Of the chief human resources officers (CHROs) surveyed, 52% now periodically rescreen existing employees and 30% monitor their staff continuously.
Both groups are considering expanding these checks, and 89% of employers plan to introduce additional background screening and identity verification tools within the next two years.
The report found that 90% of CHROs have built some form of AI into their recruitment processes, while concerns about forged documents, deepfakes and identity fraud continue to rise.
“The research highlights a significant shift in how employers think about trust,” said Rolf Bezemer, executive vice president and general manager at First Advantage.
“Candidate misrepresentation, increasingly complex workforce models and widespread AI adoption are creating challenges that many hiring processes were simply not designed to address,” Bezemer said.
He added that the trust problem cuts both ways for employers and job seekers.
“Employers are concerned about hiring the wrong person, while candidates are increasingly worried about job scams, identity theft and sharing personal information online,” Bezemer said.
“Questions that were once confined to background screening teams are now being discussed at board level because trust, identity and risk have become business issues rather than purely recruitment issues,” he said.
