What's your goal? Is it to avoid hiring someone fake, or to avoid interviewing them at all?
If you are just trying to decrease the number of AI-generated applicants, one tactic I've seen is to ask applicants to complete a short (~30 minutes) evaluation alongside or even before applying. As in, your application won't be considered if this isn't done.
That will weed out 95% of people who are just spitting fake applications at you -- it won't be worth their time. It might dissuade some real applicants, too - just be upfront about why you're doing it, and don't make your overall process onerous.
The remaining folks, the ones who are actually trying to fake it for money, are harder to spot, and you will need more traditional methods.
The last place I work do this by requiring an in person to "pick up your laptop" and immediately, many of fake will not bother even enter the pipeline -- and make it well known upfront you will not ship
The people that desperate for employment but legitimate will work the job are happy to take a free flight and hotel and meet some people in the team - it was full remote but had a few in major city so just fly them to a "wework" say hi to a several members free dinner and all.
NK, scammer, body shop that will substitute the worker on day 1 after have someone else fake the interview don't bother in this terms
You could require people mail in their resume, which costs ~$1 within the US ($2-5 internationally depending on the applicant's location), and is a small amount of hassle without being a disproportionate burden on the applicant's time.
The on-site prior to hiring is a good idea, but I expect you might still get some spam from people applying completely blind.
This might not be applicable to your situation since it sounds like more of a spam issue, but several of my colleagues who help with the hiring at their companies now require an "on-site" interview because of rampant cheating and misrepresentation by potential applicants.
The amusing thing is that the positions are still 100% remote - they just conduct the interviews at shared workspaces.
I've been flown out to SF for "remote" role interviews -- I thought it was common that even if the role is remote, you interview on site and might fly out for a brief training, receive your equipment, fill out HR paperwork etc is a reasonable ask assuming costs are covered.
The company I work for now has 700 people and has no “site”. When I was hired, they gave me a choice of having my laptop shipped directly from Apple or picking up from an Apple Store and I installed the MDM software after I picked it up.
Of course the laptop is registered in the company’s name.
I would be hesitant to work remotely for any company that wasn’t “remote only”.
wish someone could recall the npr segment I mentioned in this thread:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45058584
(Ask HN: What to do when you suspect your interview is with a state operative?)
I would consider taking an introspective look at your company and see if you're doing anything that would cause people to view your company as evil. People have quite a fun time wasting evil companies time and resources. It's common for some random person to share a story from a company and then everyone in the group pools their resources together to hammer the company with fake applications.
What's your goal? Is it to avoid hiring someone fake, or to avoid interviewing them at all?
If you are just trying to decrease the number of AI-generated applicants, one tactic I've seen is to ask applicants to complete a short (~30 minutes) evaluation alongside or even before applying. As in, your application won't be considered if this isn't done.
That will weed out 95% of people who are just spitting fake applications at you -- it won't be worth their time. It might dissuade some real applicants, too - just be upfront about why you're doing it, and don't make your overall process onerous.
The remaining folks, the ones who are actually trying to fake it for money, are harder to spot, and you will need more traditional methods.
The last place I work do this by requiring an in person to "pick up your laptop" and immediately, many of fake will not bother even enter the pipeline -- and make it well known upfront you will not ship
The people that desperate for employment but legitimate will work the job are happy to take a free flight and hotel and meet some people in the team - it was full remote but had a few in major city so just fly them to a "wework" say hi to a several members free dinner and all.
NK, scammer, body shop that will substitute the worker on day 1 after have someone else fake the interview don't bother in this terms
I had an employer hold firm on this right after the COVID lockdowns of 2020.
You could require people mail in their resume, which costs ~$1 within the US ($2-5 internationally depending on the applicant's location), and is a small amount of hassle without being a disproportionate burden on the applicant's time.
The on-site prior to hiring is a good idea, but I expect you might still get some spam from people applying completely blind.
This might not be applicable to your situation since it sounds like more of a spam issue, but several of my colleagues who help with the hiring at their companies now require an "on-site" interview because of rampant cheating and misrepresentation by potential applicants.
The amusing thing is that the positions are still 100% remote - they just conduct the interviews at shared workspaces.
I've been flown out to SF for "remote" role interviews -- I thought it was common that even if the role is remote, you interview on site and might fly out for a brief training, receive your equipment, fill out HR paperwork etc is a reasonable ask assuming costs are covered.
The company I work for now has 700 people and has no “site”. When I was hired, they gave me a choice of having my laptop shipped directly from Apple or picking up from an Apple Store and I installed the MDM software after I picked it up.
Of course the laptop is registered in the company’s name.
I would be hesitant to work remotely for any company that wasn’t “remote only”.
may be related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45221938 (Justice Department Announces Actions to Combat North Korean Remote IT Workers)
wish someone could recall the npr segment I mentioned in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45058584 (Ask HN: What to do when you suspect your interview is with a state operative?)
This one? It's from a show that plays on NPR affiliates:
https://theworld.org/stories/2025/08/13/meet-the-kyles-north...
It may not be possible but charge 1 cent to submit. Should filter out the bots.
How to deal with fake job offers?
I would consider taking an introspective look at your company and see if you're doing anything that would cause people to view your company as evil. People have quite a fun time wasting evil companies time and resources. It's common for some random person to share a story from a company and then everyone in the group pools their resources together to hammer the company with fake applications.