Fake CVs: A Comprehensive Guide to Exposing Liars

Intro: Huntly’s Experience with Fake CVs

In October 2024, 10% of all profile submissions were identified as fake profiles.

We spent some time analyzing these profiles to understand their purpose. I conducted multiple interviews with potentially suspicious candidates to avoid relying on assumptions. However, many of them failed to join the calls or refused to turn on their cameras. Even when they joined an interview, they seemed to be following a memorized script in their responses.

Working with such candidates can be challenging, as they are real people who engage in scam activities for different reasons. You might notice suspicious signs during personal communication, yet it is much harder to identify a fake only through a resume or social media. So, let’s look at some characteristics that can help you detect fake candidates and avoid potential risks when hiring software developers.

What is a Fake CV? Definition and Main Characteristics

A fake profile is a fraudulent online account often used in recruitment or social networking to deceive others for personal gain. This can belong to individuals pretending to be job seekers, recruiters, or other professionals, and their information is false or exaggerated. Some people have found a way to scale this kind of fraud and turned it into a business. There even exist firms that create fake CVs and profiles, apply to well-paid positions, and pass interviews pretending to be real job seekers.  When the candidate gets hired, they pretend to be working until their new employers notice their low performance and expose the lies. 

By this time, the fake workers have managed to receive one or two salaries, though. And once fired, they just look for another company to scam. Another way these bogus companies make money is creating fake CVs for real people on demand and passing interviews instead of them. Thus, real job seekers pay scammers to get a job they are unlikely to get on their own. 

Whatever the reason behind fake profiles, you should always remain aware and assess each candidate critically. 

Since the Huntly team uses LinkedIn as the main verification channel for checking candidates’ relevance, I’ll take LinkedIn profiles as an example. Scam profiles may include the following red flags:

1. Recent creation date. Fraudulent LinkedIn profiles have become increasingly common since early 2023, so they often date back to 2023 or 2024.
2. Generic profile picture. In order to hide the fraud, users of such profiles place a generic photo, AI-generated picture, or none at all.
3. Too few connections. Fake profiles often have none-to-little connections, as they are created upon demand and there’s no time to build a decent contact base.
4. Ideal work history. This is often an ideal profile that demonstrates over two years of tenure in current and past positions, reflecting a stable and committed work history.
5. Lack of activities in the profile. Since such profiles don’t belong to real people, there’s often no posts or comments.
6. Lack of recommendation. Active LinkedIn users take care to keep their accounts updated, which is not typical for scammers.

While one of the above-mentioned factors might not indicate a fake profile at all, the combination of three or more of them increases the chance of it being a scam profile. 

As for the fake CVs, they usually look ideal. They describe a perfect candidate with exact experience and expertise required for a job. This happens because such resumes are created specifically to attract employers’ attention and sell non-existing candidates to earn quick money. 

How to Identify a Fake Profile on LinkedIn

It might be difficult to distinguish a fake profile at first glance, so I want to share some tips the Huntly team uses to verify candidates’ genuineness.

1. Check the date of joining

I recommend starting by checking the date a profile was created. While it is possible for a real person to recently create a profile, this happens quite rarely. Real candidates usually create LinkedIn profiles in advance to build professional networks, showcase their experience, and access job opportunities in a competitive job market. To find joined date information on LinkedIn, simply click the "More" button under the headline field. Then, select "About this profile" from the dropdown menu. This will display the profile creation date, contact information, and details about recent updates.

2. See if the profile photo is unique

As I mentioned before, scam profiles might have a generic photo or none at all. How can you tell if a photo is generic? I’d say this is a photo without specific details or context that would make them unique to an individual. But it’s better not to rely on your assumptions alone and double-check with Google Reverse Image Search. Using this or similar tools allows you to find instances of the same photo across different websites. This can help you determine if the image is commonly used as a stock photo or associated with various profiles. If the same photo appears frequently without specific context, it is likely to be generic.

3. Check connections and posts

Another thing that makes us doubt profile genuineness is less than 100 connections and no activities. Lack of activities usually means the profile has few or no updates, posts, comments, or interactions. It may also lack evidence of networking and industry engagement. Profiles with low activity may appear less credible or even fake, especially in fields where regular LinkedIn engagement is the norm.

An opposite to this is the unrealistically big number of connections and followers. One of the fake profiles we detected this year had more than 1,000 followers and 500+ connections, which is impossible to achieve organically if a person joined LinkedIn recently. It’s only possible to achieve if somebody else works on the candidate's LinkedIn page to promote it. This sounds weird, though, and encourages me to check out public posts on such profiles and see what makes 1,000 people follow it.

Usually, there are some AI-generated posts that don’t reflect a candidate's expertise. I have also seen posts with the candidate's projects that didn’t even have an original preview picture, or included general / broken links. 

Both cases ‒ few connections and too many followers ‒ indicate a considerable risk of potential scam profile.

4. Pay attention to work history

This point may not seem significant, as candidates typically take care of their profiles and work histories. But all fake profiles usually show a perfect work history with an average tenure of 2 years. If you have doubts about the credibility of a candidate’s profile, reaching out to the HR department of a previous employer is an initiative-taking step. A quick verification email can confirm whether the candidate actually worked there and in what role. Genuine HR representatives are usually willing to share basic employment details, especially if approached professionally and with respect for confidentiality.

5. See if there are recommendations

A lack of recommendations on a LinkedIn profile could signal limited engagement with former colleagues or supervisors, raising concerns about the candidate's credibility. Typically, real profiles with extensive professional experience have multiple endorsements, as well as detailed recommendations highlighting key contributions or skills. In contrast, the absence of such validations might suggest a profile that lacks a professional network or has limited real-world engagement, making it potentially suspicious.

6. Try to message a candidate

Recently, I was verifying a candidate from Ukraine — at least, this was stated in his LinkedIn account. The profile looked fine overall, so I decided to talk to the candidate. Taking into account his citizenship, I texted him in Ukrainian. When he answered me in English and refused to switch to Ukrainian, I decided that it was a fake candidate.

7. Use background check services

After taking all the steps mentioned above, if you’re still not sure you are dealing with a real or fabricated profile, background check services might come in useful. Tools like Checkr or HireRight can help you quickly verify a profile and speed up the hiring process. 

Ways to Detect a Fake Candidate During the Interview

If you failed to recognize fraud through a CV or LinkedIn profile, you can still do this during the interview stage. Below are several tips that will help you do just this.

Ask to turn on the camera

As a rule, fake candidates hide their appearance as they don’t want to be caught lying. They often pretend to be other people and attend interviews instead of real candidates. So, if a job seeker refuses to turn on the camera or explains the inability to turn it on due to technical issues during several rounds of interviews, you should be careful with such candidates.

Listen to background noise

Scams in IT recruitment are becoming a mass occurrence, and there are even businesses that make money by selling fake resumes and passing interviews instead of real specialists. While talking to a fake candidate, you can often hear background noise like in an open space or call center. Such fake firms might rent offices for their fake candidates and fool hundreds of employers a day.

Pay attention to the way candidates speak

Even if fake job applicants turn their cameras on, they might sound unnatural in many cases. For example, if you ask them hard interview questions, they might use a memorized text. They might also hide their emotions and show little engagement in a conversation. If you notice such patterns during interviews, take your time to think carefully about proceeding with these candidates.

Why Is It Important to Avoid Scams

There are three main consequences you can face if you fail to identify a fake candidate: you waste time, lose money, and get frustrated.

• Waste of time. An average time to hire in tech is 36 days. Can you imagine spending this time to hire someone who won’t eventually join your team? 
• Lost money. IT recruitment isn’t free. The cost to hire a software developer can vary depending on numerous factors, but in general, the price starts at several thousand dollars. The situation might become even more unpleasant if you hire a fake candidate: you might pay them the first (or even the second) salary before finding out nobody really does the job they get money for.
• Team frustration. Becoming a victim of fraud isn’t something people would like to experience. That’s why you, your recruiters, and your tech team might feel demotivated after the truth comes out.

Safeguard Your IT Recruitment with Huntly

Fake CVs, profiles, and candidates exist because employers want to hire the best professionals ASAP, especially in the fast-paced IT industry. While we do understand such desire, we want to emphasize the importance of thinking critically when hiring tech talent. 

If you want to secure yourself from fake CVs and interview only high-quality candidates, Huntly is here to help! Our two-step verification process ensures a pipeline of pre-vetted candidates. Once we get referrals from our global community of 2,500+ IT recruiters, the verification process begins.

1. Our built-in AI technology sorts out profiles that don’t meet core vacancy requirements like location and tech stack.
2. Huntly’s internal recruitment team pre-screens AI-verified resumes manually to pick up the best profiles of real specialists.

Thanks to this blend of technology and the human touch, 4 out of 5 Huntly candidates receive an interview invitation. 

Therefore, to hire the best candidates quickly and cost-effectively, fill out the form below and book an intro call with our team.