How to Spot—and Stop—Fraud in Remote Hiring

Slug: how-to-spot-fraud-in-remote-hiring

Remote hiring unlocked global talent. Unfortunately, it also opened the door to global fraud. In the last decade, hiring fraud has spiked—especially in remote and contract roles—and it’s only getting more sophisticated thanks to AI, browser hacking, and ghost candidates.

Feenyx was designed to stop this exact problem: to catch deception in the act without slowing your process down or punishing honest candidates.

In this post, we break down the modern remote fraud landscape and how Feenyx detects the patterns most platforms miss—so you don’t lose time, trust, or headcount to candidates who were never who they claimed to be.

Highlights

- 80% of companies report identity fraud in hiring

- Fraud isn't always obvious—signals are subtle, digital, and evolving

- AI-generated answers and coached candidates now dominate early-stage funnels

- Feenyx bakes fraud detection into your flow: real-time, contextual, and smart

- Knowing when to flag and when to follow up is the real hiring advantage

The Rise of Remote Hiring Fraud

Remote work removed borders—and unfortunately, background checks. A decade ago, fraud meant a padded resume. Now it could mean a masked webcam, a ghost coder, or a ChatGPT-written strategy doc submitted as original work.

Hiring Team Insight: One fintech recruiter said, “We didn’t know we had a fraud problem until we got Feenyx. Now I can’t imagine hiring without it.”

Assessment Outcome: On average, Feenyx flags 12% of candidates for suspicious behavior—even when they know they’re being monitored.

Think about that. With guardrails in place, people are still trying to game the system. Now imagine what you’re not catching without them.

Location Mismatch: First Signal of a Story

IP mismatch is an early indicator. It’s not always fraud, but it’s always worth a second look.

Candidate Case: A candidate claimed to be based in San Francisco. Feenyx picked up an IP in Nigeria, browser language in Portuguese, and time zone activity that didn’t match either. One misstep might be explainable—but three formed a pattern.

Process Shift: Feenyx customers set tiered location alerts. U.S.-only roles flag international IPs. EU-sensitive roles flag outside GDPR zones. Global roles allow wider flexibility.

Geolocation isn’t about blocking talent. It’s about validating intent and risk—especially for roles with data access or regulatory constraints.

Similarity Scores: The Ghostwriting Giveaway

When multiple candidates submit word-for-word answers or duplicate code with only superficial edits, it’s not a coincidence—it’s collusion, coaching, or AI copy-paste.

Assessment Outcome: In one Feenyx session, six candidates applying through different vendors submitted the same code, line-for-line, with variable names swapped. Feenyx flagged them all, including the original source.

Candidate Case: A marketing candidate’s async answer matched content from a well-known prep site—nearly verbatim. Feenyx didn’t just flag it—it showed the source and timestamp.

Hiring Team Insight: “We’ve started checking all high-scoring responses for similarity. We still look at them—but now we look deeper.”

Similarity detection doesn’t just filter fraud—it refocuses your attention where it matters.

Tab Switching, Mouse Exits, and Behavioral Signals

Modern cheating is digital. Candidates open tabs, alt-tab between windows, and consult second monitors mid-interview. Sometimes it’s harmless. Sometimes it’s highly orchestrated.

Candidate Case: A product manager exited the test tab 17 times in 12 minutes—while answering strategic questions. Feenyx flagged tab-switching, mouse exits, and pacing inconsistencies. The hiring team followed up and uncovered a screen-sharing coach feeding them responses.

Process Shift: One enterprise Feenyx customer now uses behavior analytics to route candidates: clean assessments go straight to hiring managers; flagged ones get an extra async round.

Browser behavior is often more honest than the answers themselves. That’s why Feenyx watches both.

Multiple People in the Frame: One Face Too Many

Video assessments are meant to spotlight one candidate. But fraud often comes with company.

Assessment Outcome: In a batch of 45 async sessions, 11 had multiple faces appear. Some were brief pass-throughs. Others clearly involved off-camera coaching—or tag-teaming.

Candidate Case: A senior developer’s webcam snapshots showed them quietly stepping away mid-assessment—replaced by a second person who typed 80% of the solution.

Feenyx captures frame changes and facial count over time—giving reviewers a full timeline of the session. It’s not about catching someone off guard. It’s about seeing the truth, even when the camera's rolling.

Empty GitHub, New LinkedIn: Spotting Synthetic Candidates

Legitimate candidates often have a digital trail. Fraudulent ones often scramble to build one—right before applying.

Candidate Case: A developer submitted code from a GitHub account created the same day, with no stars, no commits, and no followers. Feenyx flagged it. Cross-reference showed the same resume had been submitted elsewhere by someone using a different name and email.

Hiring Team Insight: “It looked like a strong candidate—until we realized the LinkedIn photo was AI-generated.”

Feenyx can’t replace human judgment. But it can surface when the surface-level signals are too clean to be real.

Multiple Submissions = Coordinated Deception

Some fraud rings test the system by submitting the same assessment through multiple vendor accounts. Without cross-platform analysis, this tactic goes unnoticed.

Assessment Outcome: One candidate took the same test five times—each through a different recruiter. Feenyx connected the dots based on camera angle, keystroke patterns, and behavioral overlap.

Process Shift: Feenyx customers use duplicate detection to avoid wasting manager time on recycled submissions.

In high-volume hiring, pattern-matching across sources is essential. Feenyx gives you the visibility to do it.

AI-Written Answers That Sound Too Good

LLMs like ChatGPT can produce elegant answers in seconds. The problem? They often lack depth, authenticity, and adaptability—three things good hiring teams screen for.

Candidate Case: A customer support candidate submitted perfect prose responses—but couldn’t replicate that fluency in a follow-up call. Feenyx’s AI fingerprinting had already flagged the async answers as likely machine-written.

Hiring Team Insight: “It wasn’t about punishing AI use. It was about knowing when a candidate relied on it instead of thinking on their feet.”

Feenyx doesn’t ban AI. It shows you when it’s been used—so you can judge how and why.

False Positives and Why Context Matters

Not every flag is fraud. Some candidates really do live abroad. Some genuinely write like ChatGPT. Some simply have noisy households.

Assessment Outcome: One candidate was flagged for mouse exits—but they were working on a small screen and switching between tabs to view a long coding challenge. Once reviewed, they passed easily and got the offer.

Candidate Case: A second-language English speaker’s async responses were scored as "robotic." But it turned out they were simply nervous and reading from notes. The hiring team gave them a live interview—and found a top performer.

Hiring Team Insight: “Feenyx shows you the full story. It’s on us to decide what that story means.”

This is why Feenyx pairs fraud signals with context—not just hard rules. The goal is fairness, not gatekeeping.

Building a Fraud-Aware Hiring Culture

Fraud detection isn’t about paranoia. It’s about clarity, confidence, and consistency.

Feenyx gives teams a system they can trust—so they stop second-guessing and start making faster, smarter decisions. Fraud signals aren’t a final verdict. They’re the start of a better conversation.

- Recruiters can ask informed follow-up questions

- Managers can avoid wasting time on ghost candidates

- Leaders can trust their pipeline isn’t a house of mirrors

Hiring Team Insight: “Before Feenyx, every candidate was a mystery. Now we know who’s real—and we spend our energy on them.”

Final Word: Don’t Let Fraud Undermine Your Hiring

One bad hire can waste weeks of recruiting time, thousands in salary, and immeasurable team trust. The worst part? Fraudsters don’t show up with red flags. They come prepared. Polished. Practiced.

Feenyx doesn’t just evaluate what candidates say—it evaluates how they act. Behind the scenes, in the moment, across platforms.

From async assessments to live interviews, Feenyx gives hiring teams the visibility they’ve been missing—without slowing anything down.

Ready to stop guessing—and start seeing the truth? Start your free trial and make fraud detection a built-in advantage, not an afterthought.