Scams: Impersonation

• A hidden party or the candidate searches for answers that display on a second window or monitor while listening in on the interview questions.
• A hidden party in an online interview provides notes or hints to the interviewee more-or-less real time.
• A hidden party speaks for the candidate while the candidate lip syncs the words!
• One person interviews and performs successfully, then a different person shows up for the job.

As hard as it might be to imagine the sheer brazenness of these scams, we have witnessed the first three in the course of numerous interviews — not often to be sure, yet enough to be gobsmacked by the audacity, or perhaps desperation, of the perpetrators. The effort, planning, and conspiracy required to pull off most of these is significant, suggesting it must be successful at some level. Still, it would seem more fruitful for the candidate to put their efforts towards improving their skills than in ways to cheat.

Instances of Impersonation

In one interview, the candidate started to look off screen, away from the camera, and her answers seemed to miss the point. Rephrased questions led to still more formulaic responses. As the interview progressed, we became increasingly suspicious. One of the interviewers noticed the answers seemed like answers from Google searches. For example, when she was asked to tell us of specific experience with some technology, she recited the definition of the technology. We tried this a few times asking about different subjects her resume had mentioned and got the same runaround. In the end, we concluded she or a confederate had been searching for answers on a separate monitor and reading them out, often missing the real meaning.

In another instance, we interviewed a candidate who had a good Internet connection, but when we began the questioning, there was a lag of one or two seconds between the words we heard in reply and the candidate’s lip movements. To be honest, the answers weren’t that good and in any case, the lips didn’t correspond to words we heard! Occasionally, the candidate’s lip movements fell behind the spoken sounds and missed synching with some of them —put another way, we heard words for which there was no corresponding lip movement! After some back and forth, we ended the interview, feeling that we had experienced the variant of the “uncanny valley”.

Finally, even though we have not experienced it ourselves, we know of situations where a great candidate was interviewed, but a different person showed up for the job! Now, substitution is acceptable if a company is hiring a defined capability from a consulting service. Often it can be an advantage to access a variety of resources with different skills for a modest cost. A consulting service might exercise discretion as to which resource actually provides that service. For example, it might have overcommitted the original resource and is substituting an equivalent one to meet its obligations. However, the cases we heard about were staffing engagements, where the client expected a particular resource, namely the one it had interviewed and approved.

While not impersonation per se, if a job must be performed in a particular location, an important detail to verify is a candidate’s right to work in that location or jurisdiction. We have had some candidates try to obfuscate their actual location, assuming that they can live a digital nomad life. Or, more duplicitously, some planned to work from one location and draw the higher compensation of work in another country. If a position does not permit a peripatetic work style, this tactic should be nipped in the bud, before too much effort is expended in evaluating the candidate. Again, this requires constant vigilance and some trust — but not without verification.

Countering Impersonation

To beat impersonation, at some point in the interview process, the identity of the candidate must be established, using official government-issued documentation. In addition, we also adhere to the following practices:

• Conduct video interviews — no audio only.
• Require the interview be in a private space, with no other people nearby or in the same room.

As the interviewer, if we suspect something, we exercise the right to have the candidate pan the camera around the room to show us there is no one else present. If any of these conditions cannot be met, the interview should be postponed.

Why do people impersonate? There may be as many motivations as there are people, but some reasons include:

• Fear of interviewing. Interviews are stressful and most candidates interview for jobs infrequently, perhaps only once every few years. It can be an intimidating process when they do and fear of failure can induce a candidate to desperate actions.
• Urgency to find a job. Some candidates are on visas that require continuous employment, making them increasingly anxious as time passes without a job in hand.
• Pressure by their agent. Candidates who are represented by agents might feel obligated to accept help that sometimes expands beyond giving advice and critical feedback. This can be especially so if the agent has a financial incentive to place a candidate quickly.
• Language skills. Some applicants learn English as a second language. While their knowledge of English can be good, in high stress situations, like an interview, they may find themselves tongue-tied and lacking confidence to express complex thoughts.
• Desire to find more challenging and interesting career paths. Sometimes, candidates feel locked-in to a specific job with limited prospects. The desire to adjust their career trajectory may tempt them to consider embellishing their resumes and other unethical options.

Summary

In our brief survey of scams in technical recruiting, we have discussed falsified resumes, front running, and impersonation. We have also described the details and tactics perpetrators use in prior articles. And, we have provided concrete examples and practical countermeasures for hiring teams. To successfully hire technical staff not only means finding and evaluating promising candidates, it also requires expending time and effort weeding out the pretenders, charlatans, and imposters. Unfortunately, this is not easy; frauds know what they must do to appear genuine. They also know how to work around algorithm and AI-based screening tools. In the end, there is no alternative to skilled, well-resourced recruiters who can use a combination of tools, online assessments, and other means of validation to find the right person for a job!

Notes

Marie Christine Umali and Roxanne Bornilla contributed to this article with research and other information.

Mark Looi, marklooi (at) looiconsulting.com, is President of Looi Consulting, a provider of technical consulting services. One of the firm’s capabilities is rapidly building technology teams to accelerate client software development projects.