People use deepfakes to apply for remote jobs

Brilliant or a form of fraud? Applicants increasingly use deepfakes to apply for jobs.

According to the FBI, impostors were helped using stolen identities, fake video and manipulated voices. This is to gain access to sensitive company data. Companies hiring for an open IT role may need to do more than research how potential employees respond to the question “What is your worst quality?”. If the prospective employee sneezes or coughs without moving their lips, their worst quality might be that they aren’t real.

Deepfakes to apply

The FBI wrote told its Internet Crime Complaint Center this week that it has received multiple complaints of people using stolen information and deepfake videos and voice. With the aim of applying for remote technical jobs.

According to the FBI announcement, more companies have reported people applying for jobs using video, images or recordings. These have been manipulated to look and sound like someone else. Counterfeiters also use other people’s personally identifiable information — stolen identities — to apply for jobs. Especially in IT, programming, database and software companies.

Access sensitive information

The report noted that many of these job openings had access to sensitive information. Such as employee data, as well as financial and proprietary company information. Implying that the cheaters may have a desire to steal sensitive information. As well as a tendency to collect a fraudulent salary.

What is not clear is how many of these fake job attempts were successful and how many were caught and reported. Or, in a more nefarious hypothesis, whether someone got an offer, took a paycheck, and then got busted.