Hiring fraud! The 'talented' Mr Ripleys plaguing India Inc Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/hiring-fraud-the-talented-mr-ripleys-plaguing-india-inc/articleshow/88484504.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=

Executives at a Bengaluru-based, mid-tier IT company were wondering why the coder they had recently hired refused to join video calls. The project lead thought it odd since the candidate had appeared on camera during interviews while being recruited. When the workforce was called back to office about two weeks ago, the lead met the new employee and realised that this wasn't the person who had showed up during the interviews.

"Now it is mandatory for a recruiter to take a screenshot during the video interview with the candidate. We have started recording the interviews as well," said a senior executive who was part of the investigating team at the IT firm.

India Inc is grappling with impersonation - candidates hired during the pandemic aren't the ones turning up for work. They are even using video morphing and audio proxy tools, among others, to get jobs. Result: the employer spends weeks wondering why the productivity of the recruit is below par and having to explain this to clients until the fraud is uncovered.

"This is happening mostly in industries like IT, where people are being hired in bulk," said Arpinder Singh, global markets and India leader, forensic and integrity services, EY. "The issue has got significantly accentuated with high attrition and the present remote work culture because of Covid. The number of such impersonation cases I've come across has doubled."

The tech and retail sectors are witnessing a boom in recruitments and turnaround time to fill vacancies is short with almost no time for in-person interviews. "There's a lot of chaos. Lesser-qualified people are getting jobs they shouldn't be getting," Singh said.