AI interview fraud: how it grew and where it stands

Apps now hear the interview and answer in real time. How common that is, who the fake candidates are and how employers respond.

Cheating in a remote interview was a low-tech affair a few years back: a friend sitting out of shot, or a second tab in the browser. AI interview fraud is the newer version. The candidate installs an app, the app follows the call and scans the shared screen, and a complete answer appears in seconds. Certain apps are engineered to remain invisible during screen sharing.

The technology

Two components do the work. The first is speech recognition, which transcribes the interviewer's question while it is being asked. The second is a large language model, which drafts a reply. The reply can be on the candidate's screen before the interviewer has reached the end of the question.

Nobody hides the sale of these tools. In March 2025 Columbia University suspended two students who had built Interview Coder, a tool that produced AI-written answers for technical interviews. Within weeks the pair launched Cluely. It is a desktop app that monitors the screen and listens to meetings, and its overlay is designed to be invisible during screen sharing. Investors had put in $20.3 million by June 2025, of which $15 million came in a round with Andreessen Horowitz as lead. Our explainer is what is Cluely.

Candidates who are not who they claim to be

An FBI warning in June 2022 reported more complaints about deepfake video and stolen identities in applications for remote jobs, mostly IT and software positions. Three years later, in June 2025, the Justice Department announced coordinated actions against North Korean remote IT worker schemes. More than 80 Americans' identities had been used in those schemes to obtain jobs at over 100 US companies.

A Gartner forecast from July 2025 says that by 2028, 1 in 4 candidate profiles will be fake. Gartner's survey of 3,000 job candidates, reported with it, found 6% admitting to a part in interview fraud. For the checks that help, see deepfake candidates and fake identities in remote hiring.

The employer response

One response is an in-person round. Google is reintroducing at least one in-person round, its CEO Sundar Pichai said in June 2025. McKinsey has asked hiring managers to meet each candidate face to face before an offer goes out.

That works where candidates live within reach of an office. Elsewhere it slows hiring, raises its cost and gives up a main advantage of remote recruitment.

Options for a remote team

A remote interview can still be a good one. Two things help: understanding how the tools function, and recognizing a candidate who is reading out an answer. The first is covered in how AI interview assistants work, the second in signs a candidate is using AI.