78% of jobseekers believe AI tools make it easier to look qualified for a job one hasn’t done, and 98% of corporate HR and hiring managers have caught a candidate misrepresenting their qualifications, according to new report on candidate fraud from RefAssured
San Francisco, CA – September 17, 2026 – RefAssured, a provider of automated reference checking solutions, candidate fraud detection and prevention, and comprehensive performance intelligence for the staffing industry, today announced the release of a new report called “The State of Candidate Fraud” based on a survey of 646 jobseekers, staffing agency recruiters, and corporate HR professionals and hiring managers in the United States.
The survey that underpins this report was conducted between July and early September of 2026 as part of RefAssured’s flagship SurroundSound research program. It elucidates multiple stakeholder perspectives regarding the state of fraud in hiring, examining the experiences of employers, staffing agencies, and talent. This report is available immediately at no cost at: https://www.refassured.com/blog/candidate-fraud-report-landing/
Some findings from the report:
- Fraud is a growing problem: 84% of HR and hiring managers and 76% of staffing recruiters say candidate fraud is more common today than it was three years ago.
- Almost every recruiter has caught a candidate lying about their qualifications: 98% of HR and hiring managers and 95% of staffing recruiters have personally caught a candidate misrepresenting their qualifications, experience, or identity.
- Outright identity fraud is actually the rarest type of fraud that recruiters encounter: only 4% of HR and hiring managers and 13% of staffing recruiters say they’ve personally encountered identity fraud, compared to 61% of HR and hiring managers and 54% of staffing recruiters who say they’ve seen candidates list skills in their resumes that they do not have.
- Candidates admit to changing their resume to stand out: 88% of jobseekers have tailored a resume with keywords they grabbed from a job description, 74% have used a generative AI tool like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity to write or edit their resume, and 78% of jobseekers believe AI resume tools make it easier for a candidate to look qualified for a job they haven’t done.
- It is a tough time to be a jobseeker: 81% of jobseekers say it’s harder to land an interview than it was three years ago, and 55% say their job applications rarely or never get a personalized response.
- Trust in AI screening tools to catch candidate fraud is low: Only 16% of HR and hiring managers and 11% of staffing recruiters completely trust an AI-powered screening tool (no human in the loop) to actually catch candidate fraud.
- Jobseekers prefer human recruiter interaction: 51% of jobseekers say they’ve been screened or interviewed by a chatbot or AI recruiter in the past 12 months, and 61% of jobseekers still say they’d prefer a human recruiter over a computerized one.
“Much is being written about fraud and its impact these days, but the reality of the situation is considerably more nuanced,” said Vinda Souza, CMO of RefAssured and author of the report. “Yes, candidate fraud is extraordinarily common right now, and there are many more types of fraud than are commonly acknowledged, with identity-based misrepresentation actually on the lower side of incidence compared to performance fabrication on resumes, which is nearly ubiquitous. But the motivations for perpetrating fraud also warrant examination. These include a demoralizing environment for jobseekers and the democratization of consumer AI solutions that make it tempting and easy to try to stand out in a crowded field, resulting in substantial damage to the integrity of the hiring process.”
The report is accessible after a quick gate via: https://www.refassured.com/blog/candidate-fraud-report-landing/