RefAssured SurroundSound · 2026
The State of
Candidate Fraud
Jobseekers, Hiring Managers, and Staffing Recruiters Tell All
646
jobseekers, staffing recruiters, and HR pros
98%
of HR and hiring managers have caught a candidate lying
88%
of jobseekers have tailored a resume with keywords
74%
of jobseekers used AI to write or edit a resume
69%
of corporate HR still call the resume most trustworthy
4%
of hiring managers have actually encountered ID fraud
Why should you read this?
More candidates for new roles than ever before are using popular large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity to generate or edit their resumes and cover letters, distribute their job applications, and in many cases, pepper those applications with job description-specific keywords to evade AI-based screening tools. The result is a battle ‘o the bots, as it were. AI resumes versus AI screeners versus humans who now face an uphill battle to determine what is fact, what is fiction, and how to separate innocent embellishments from nefarious intent. So we surveyed 646 jobseekers, corporate hiring managers/recruiters, and staffing agency recruiters to figure out exactly what’s going on.
Vinda SouzaCMO of RefAssured
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Skip to the good part
A survey of jobseekers, staffing recruiters, and corporate hiring managers on performance fabrication, identity theft, and how AI is helping and hurting hiring.
Key Findings
What folks told us
1
Candidate fraud is a big (and bigger) 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.
2
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.
3
Staffing agencies take accountability for fraud when it happens
77% of staffing recruiters say their agency absorbs the cost of a bad placement alone or splits it evenly with the employer. Only 23% say the employer carries that burden alone.
4
88% of candidates admit to misrepresenting themselves on their resume
88% of jobseekers have tailored a resume with keywords they grabbed from a job description, 74% have used a generative AI tool to write or edit their resume.
5
It is a brutal 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.
6
Trust in AI screeners to catch candidate fraud is low
Only 16% of corp HR recruiters and 11% of staffing recruiters completely trust an AI-powered screening tool (no human in the loop) to actually catch candidate fraud.
Everybody has encountered fraud, and often repeatedly
Read our expert analysis or take a look at all of the raw data and come to your own conclusions.
Read the Report