Welcome back to this week’s P | A | C | T news, your newsletter by Tech Talent North.
Hiring has always relied on trust. You assess experience, listen for judgement, look for values alignment and assume the person on the other side of the screen is being honest.
At Tech Talent North Western Edition, Timothy Khoo-Jones, VP of Strategic Growth & Human Capital at Hillspire, explained why that assumption now needs closer attention. His session, The New Face of Fraud, captured what many HR leaders are already encountering: candidate fraud is evolving quietly and it’s getting harder to detect.
On the surface, everything still looks right, now the risk sits elsewhere.
Key takeaways:
- Candidate fraud is already embedded in today’s hiring market.
- Strong hiring processes now require both human judgement and technical safeguards.
- Small changes made early can significantly reduce long-term risk.
When The Numbers Stop Feeling Abstract
Timothy opened his session with a statistic that felt uncomfortably close to home.
“Gartner recently released a statistic that suggests that as many as one in four candidates will not be who they say they are by the year 2028… Based on what a number of companies are already seeing, this could be as high as 40%. Today, 40% of the applications you receive could not be who they say they are.”
For many in the room, this confirmed what had already been suspected. Strange interview moments, candidates who vanished after onboarding and situations that felt off but were hard to explain at the time.
Timothy reinforced that this is already showing up across organisations of all sizes, including Canadian companies. In some cases, the impact surfaced months later through data exposure, customer trust issues or regulatory scrutiny.
A Story That Feels Familiar
To bring the issue to life, Timothy shared a composite case drawn from real incidents.
The candidate looked strong on paper, the interviews went well and the salary negotiations were minimal. There was even an eagerness to start quickly, with early warning signs easy to rationalise away, be it webcam issues, a preference for chat over video or working hours that didn’t quite align.
Over time, those small inconsistencies added up and when VPN activity pointed overseas and access logs showed unusual patterns questions started to be raised. By the time the situation was uncovered, the individual had already had extended access to sensitive customer data and intellectual property.
“Six months of customer data access. Six months of IP.”
The consequences extended well beyond the hiring team. Clients were affected; the legal teams became involved and regulatory reviews followed.
The original hiring decision became a company-wide problem.
Why Canada Is Especially Exposed
Timothy spent time unpacking why Canada has become a particularly attractive target.
Unfilled technical roles create urgency and trust-based cultures reduce friction. Remote work widens the surface area for risk, meaning Canada’s position as a gateway to the U.S., combined with fragmented privacy legislation, adds another layer of complexity.
“We want to believe people,” Timothy noted. “That’s one of our strengths.”
That strength now requires stronger guardrails.
Recognizing When Something Feels Off
Fraud rarely announces itself clearly but it does show up through patterns.
It often shows up in patterns: avoiding live video, LinkedIn profiles that grow overnight, interviews that feel polished but disconnected and resistance to simple verification steps.
Timothy demonstrated a surprisingly effective test during the session.
“Our best defence against digital masks is peekaboo.”
Asking a candidate to briefly place their hand in front of their face can still disrupt many deepfake tools. Simple actions like this can reveal far more than complex questioning.
Technology Helps, Awareness Carries It Further
Hiring tools have evolved quickly, with deepfake detection, liveness-based identity verification and AI-powered screening now entering mainstream use.
Timothy was clear that tools alone do not solve the problem.
“Technology is only half the solution.”
Hiring teams still need shared awareness, clear escalation paths and permission to pause a process when something feels wrong. Fraud is adaptive, meaning defensive systems need to evolve alongside it.
“Technology plus process plus training equals your best line of defence.”
A Practical Way Forward
Rather than overwhelming the room, Timothy offered a simple, three phase approach:
- The first step is awareness.
Review existing hiring workflows and identify where verification is assumed rather than confirmed. - The next step is implementation.
Introduce identity verification, train recruiters on behavioural red flags and create space for peer review in hiring decisions. - The final step is learning together.
Track what works and share insights across teams and with peers.
“The people committing this fraud are organized,” Timothy reminded the audience. “So let’s get organized.”
Looking Ahead
As tools continue to evolve, new risks will emerge.
Timothy previewed digital identity wallets capable of conducting interviews, answering background questions, and replicating voices.
“The setup time is about an hour.”
This makes early action even more important. Hiring systems designed today will already feel outdated tomorrow.
“What you do today will already be behind.”
What This Means For People & Culture Leaders
Hiring fraud now sits at the intersection of trust, security and culture. HR leaders are uniquely positioned to influence all three.
This moment calls for curiosity, collaboration and care.
Care for the people teams making decisions under pressure. Care for the candidates navigating an increasingly complex landscape. Care for the organisations depending on secure, ethical hiring practices.
Timothy closed with a question that stayed with the room.
“The question isn’t whether you’ll encounter candidate fraud. You will. The question is whether or not you’ll be able to catch it.”
That answer is being shaped right now, one hiring decision at a time.