Unscrupulous job seekers are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to apply for jobs under false pretenses. On the other side of the process, hiring managers use AI to advertise jobs that do not exist. Those who want to be ethical, whether workers or managers, are the victims of fraud.
The acts themselves are nothing new. Some applicants have always “gilded” their resumes in hopes of getting a better position. Others have used aliases, hoping their previous unethical or illegal actions would not surface. At the same time, employers make promises they had no intention of fulfilling or engage in their own fraudulent practices.
Technology-Enhanced Deception
However, the Internet has made all these illicit processes far easier. AI raises them to a level that makes detection almost impossible and proliferation inevitable.
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Mr. Benjamin Sesser is the co-founder and CEO of BrightHire. His business works with many companies to guide them through the process of using AI to find and hire the right people. He shared a fundamental insight with CNBC.
“[T]he hiring process is an inherently human process with a lot of hand-offs and a lot of different people involved. It’s become a weak point that folks are trying to expose.”
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Applicants use AI to exploit the weaknesses within the system. Perhaps the greatest weakness on the employee side is that so many positions are remote and can be done anywhere by an employee with access to a computer. The employee and supervisor need not meet if the work is done to whatever standard the company requires.
Under such circumstances, potential employees may use AI to counterfeit physical and personal characteristics. If a deeper voice conveys knowledge and authority, AI can artificially lower a person’s voice. If the employer desires candidates in their early thirties, those nearing retirement age can erase decades from their faces and voices. If the employer requires a master’s degree, AI can create a realistic-looking certificate in seconds.
Some take these subterfuges to another level by creating several identities to gain several “full-time” positions. They can neglect their duties while being paid until the employer finally fires them. Even if the person is fired from one job, the others will fill the financial gap. Some computer-savvy employees can indefinitely delay the day of reckoning by using AI to simulate the tasks they are employed to complete without ever doing the work.
According to Tech News Today, “Experts predict that by 2028, as many as one in four job applicants globally could be fake.”
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However, there are also dangers that extend far beyond finding “easy money.” In 2024, a Washington D.C. Grand Jury indicted four defendants who allegedly used AI to obtain Information Technology (IT) positions with U.S. defense contractors. Three of them were North Koreans, and all four used their illicitly obtained access to relay sensitive information to Kim Jong Un’s henchmen. Thus, such a ring of cyber-spies can cause immense damage to national security.
Stolen Identities
On the other side of the process, fake managers can also commit fraud by exploiting applicants. AI makes it easy for a malefactor to impersonate a human relations officer from a genuine company while advertising on the Internet.
Consider this hypothetical situation. Mary Jones graduated from college but has been unable to find a position in her field. She has a low-wage job that pays the rent, but she is discouraged. She uses her laptop to search for a position in her field. Finally, Mary sees a promising advertisement with the logo of a national leader in her field. She answers it. Within an hour, Mary gets an e-mail asking if she can do a virtual interview the following afternoon. Delighted, she accepts.
The interviewer appears professional, and the interview goes well. The interviewer tells Mary, “Everything looks good, but I am under a bit of a time crunch. If you can complete our onboarding information card today, I can submit it, and we should have a solid offer next week.” Ecstatic, Mary agrees. He e-mails the card, which asks, among other things, for her address, social security number and birth date. Within minutes, the “interviewer” is applying for credit in Mary’s name. Another wrinkle is to ask the applicant to join a training program or purchase tools for which the prospective employee is expected to pay.
Ghost Jobs
Another way of exploiting applicants consists of legitimate employers placing ads for positions they do not intend to fill. In the industry’s parlance, such positions are called “ghost jobs.”
They do this for several reasons. Some employers wish to accumulate a thick file of job seekers in case someone quits. Sometimes, a company may post jobs because management wants to impress potential investors. Blanketing the job sites with postings is often evidence of growth, but only if the postings are genuine.
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Other companies might use job postings and interviews to determine where the market for employees in specific positions stands at any given time. There are even reports of companies that hope to persuade workers to be more productive by advertising their positions—a sort of high-tech way of saying, “We could always hire somebody else.”
Combining Innocence with Caution
All such deceptions reflect a moral crisis inside American society. Unfortunately, an unethical and deceitful climate is becoming the norm rather than the exception. AI makes it easier with less effort and more profitable results.
AI also makes it more difficult to perceive due to the quality of the deception.
When society decays, it prepares the ground for the brutal and barbarous world. It requires people to follow Our Lord’s advice in Matthew 10:16, “Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves.”
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