Fake job seekers are flooding US companies that are hiring for remote positions

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Reality of “AI / Fake” Candidates

  • Several commenters argue fully AI-generated recruits are implausible; the real problem predates AI: offshore consultancies and bait‑and‑switch staffing.
  • Others say they have seen clear fraud: multiple identities for the same person, AI-written resumes, candidates using live AI tools to answer questions, or people who don’t exist at their claimed location.
  • One detailed account describes complex staged interviews with “actors” for video, separate experts feeding answers over audio, and different people doing the actual work afterward.

Economics & Offshore Consultancies

  • A recurring theme: one US salary can fund a whole low‑wage team overseas, making elaborate schemes financially viable and shareable across many client jobs.
  • Some say work “is being delivered” but often low quality or net‑negative; others note there are very strong offshore developers, just not at rock‑bottom rates.
  • Similar bait‑and‑switch behavior is noted in Western consultancies (e.g., selling an A‑team, staffing a B‑team).

Interview Quality & Detection

  • Many see bad interviewing as the core vulnerability: overconfident, poorly trained interviewers; adversarial “bully” interviews; fetishizing LeetCode.
  • Suggested mitigations:
    • Conversational, deep‑dive interviews into past projects.
    • Candidate‑chosen technical talks with live Q&A.
    • Varying questions, probing specifics to expose memorized or AI-fed answers.
  • Some report catching deepfakes via facial/voice desync or stressing CPU/GPU during coding tests.

Remote Work, RTO, and Security Narratives

  • Strong suspicion the “fake remote worker” narrative is being amplified to justify return‑to‑office and broader surveillance.
  • Others counter that remote fraud and even nation‑state threats are real enough that some extra verification is warranted.

Overemployment Debate

  • Large subthread on people secretly holding multiple full‑time remote jobs:
    • One camp calls it fraud/“stealing” if you promise full‑time attention and knowingly don’t provide it.
    • Another sees it as justified pushback against wage suppression and mass layoffs, especially if output meets expectations.
    • Consensus: companies’ inability to measure performance beyond “hours online” both enables and inflames this issue.

Proposed Structural Fixes

  • Reintroduce in‑person or flown‑in final interviews, even for remote roles.
  • Restrict hiring to referrals or candidates who can be met physically.
  • More extreme ideas: device‑based location verification; charging applicants a small fee; job fairs and paper resumes.
  • Many push back on tracking and fees as dystopian or unfair to honest candidates.