How to verify a remote candidate's identity at each stage

To verify a remote candidate's identity, check the same person at every stage: the application, the interview, the offer and the first day. The FBI advises employers to verify identity during interviewing, onboarding and throughout the employment of any remote worker. This guide lists checks a recruiting team can run on an ordinary video call, and the published cases that show where a single check fails.

Why one identity check is not enough

In July 2024 the security training company KnowBe4 reported that it had hired a software engineer who was a North Korean IT worker. Its HR team had held four video interviews on separate occasions and confirmed that the person matched the photo on the application. The background check came back clear, because the identity was real and stolen. The photo had been altered with AI from a stock photograph. KnowBe4 found out when the laptop it shipped began loading malware, and it says no data was lost.

A document held up to the camera can pass as well. In December 2025 a Maryland man was sentenced to 15 months in prison for a scheme in which he took the interviews and others did the work. In an online interview with the CEO of a Virginia company, he showed his own Maryland driver's license and US passport. After he was hired, a man in Shenyang, China used his credentials to do the job. The US Justice Department says at least 13 US companies paid him more than $970,000 between 2021 and 2024.

In the KnowBe4 and Maryland cases, the check that was run came back clean. The checks below are meant to be repeated, and to connect each stage to the one before it.

Identity fraud is common enough to plan for. In a Gartner survey of 3,000 job candidates, 6% said they had taken part in interview fraud, either posing as someone else or having someone else pose as them. Gartner also predicts that 1 in 4 candidate profiles worldwide will be fake by 2028.

Before the interview: check the application

The FBI's January 2025 notice recommends three checks that need only your applicant records:

• Search your HR system for other applicants with the same résumé content or contact details.
• Look at each applicant's phone number and email address. North Korean IT workers have reused phone numbers, voice-over-IP numbers in particular, and email addresses on résumés that claimed to belong to different people.
• Read the résumé for typos and unusual terms.

An earlier FBI notice from October 2023 adds online profiles to the list. Its warning signs include profiles that do not match the résumé, several profiles for one identity with different pictures, and profiles with no picture.

If a staffing firm supplies the candidate, the same notice says to ask the firm for documentation of its background check process. If the firm cannot provide it, assume no check was done and run your own.

During the interview: see the person and the document

Hold the interview on camera. The 2023 notice lists an unwillingness or inability to appear on camera as a warning sign, along with inconsistencies in time, location or appearance when the candidate does appear.

Ask the candidate to hold a driver's license, passport or other identity document up to the camera. The 2023 notice recommends this, and suggests having the candidate point the camera outside to show where they are.

Watch the picture and the sound together. In 2022 the FBI described interviews in which lip movement did not match the audio, and coughs and sneezes did not line up with the video. Its 2025 notice says North Korean IT workers have used AI and face-swapping technology in video job interviews. Asking the candidate to turn their head or pass a hand in front of their face can reveal the edge of a face filter. More signs are in deepfake candidates and fake identities in remote hiring.

Ask about the place and the school. The FBI suggests "soft" interview questions that ask for specific details about the candidate's location or education. A person who lives where the résumé says can answer them without effort.

Keep a record. The 2023 notice says to keep records of all interactions with potential employees, including recordings of video interviews. Tell the candidate before you record. On SecureInterview's Pro plan the host can record a meeting to their own device, and everyone in the meeting sees "Recording" while it runs.

Have one interviewer attend every round, so that someone can say whether the same person came back.

After the offer: connect the hire to the interview

Ask someone who interviewed the candidate to join the first-day call. This is the simplest check that the person who starts is the person you interviewed.

Send equipment with care. The FBI's 2023 notice says to require a signature on delivery and to send devices only to the designated work location. It lists a freight forwarding address, or a home address that changes quickly after hiring, as a warning sign. KnowBe4 drew the same lesson: a laptop shipping address that differs from where the person is supposed to live is a red flag.

Watch for changes during onboarding. The 2025 notice asks HR teams to look for changes of address or payment platform at this stage.

Call the references. KnowBe4's own review of its case says not to rely on email references alone.

Meet in person where you can. The 2025 notice recommends completing as much of the hiring and onboarding process as possible in person. For a remote team that can be a single meeting, and the costs are weighed in should you go back to in-person interviews?

When a check fails

Treat a failed check as a reason to ask, and stop there until you have an answer. People move house, use a VPN for ordinary reasons and look different on a new webcam. Say what you saw, ask the candidate about it, and write down the answer.

Run the same checks on every candidate for the role. A check applied only to candidates who seem suspicious is unfair to them and easy to avoid for everyone else.

If you believe a candidate has used a stolen identity, the FBI asks companies to report it to its Internet Crime Complaint Center, with any details you hold such as email addresses, phone numbers and the names used.

Run the checks on your next interview

A recruiting team can run every check in this guide on an ordinary video call, provided it runs the same steps each time. SecureInterview is a video interview in the browser with a shared screen and chat, and the candidate joins from a link with no account and no download. Start an interview or see how it works. For the wider picture, read the rise of AI interview fraud.