Candidate Misrepresentation: How Identity + Behavior Background Checks Improve Hiring

Candidates have never had more tools to look like someone they’re not. AI can write the resume, script the interview answers, and even fake their face on the video call. So how do you know the person you hired is the person who actually showed up?

Hiring has a trust problem. In First Advantage’s 2026 Global Workforce Trends Report, 76% of hiring professionals said they encountered falsified employment details and 45% dealt directly with candidate identity fraud. Gartner projects that by 2028, 1 in 4 candidate profiles worldwide could be fake. Generative AI is what’s driving it: polishing resumes, coaching answers in real time, and generating synthetic identities that pass traditional checks. The candidate on paper, and on screen, isn’t always the person you’re hiring.

Identity verification answers half the question. It confirms who someone is. It can’t tell you how they’ll treat your people, your customers, and your brand once they’re on the payroll. That second question is where fraud, safety, and reputation risk live, and it’s the one legacy background checks were never built to answer.

In this session, Ben Mones and Sue Horn break down what screening looks like when identity and behavior are checked together: confirming who a candidate is, then surfacing the documented conduct history a standard check never sees.

You’ll learn:

• How candidates are using AI to misrepresent themselves at each stage of the hiring funnel
• What identity verification confirms, and what it leaves unchecked
• What a behavior check actually pulls, and how to keep it defensible
• What leading organizations are doing to reduce candidate fraud, protect their brand, and improve quality of hire

Built for Talent Acquisition, HR, and Risk and Compliance leaders who own the cost of a bad hire.