Applicable law
Confirm the current duty, lawful route and accountable employer or controller.
Version 1.0 · UK recruitment resource
AI Candidate Identity & Recruitment Fraud Control Checklist
A source-led control framework for connecting the person who applies, interviews, verifies, onboards and starts work—without allowing an automated fraud signal to become an unchallengeable decision.
Control classifications
Know which rule you are applying before you collect evidence.
Role or setting
Use the authoritative regulator, register, safeguarding or professional source.
Placement rule
Record what the hirer requires, what evidence it accepts and who can resolve exceptions.
Operational safeguard
Preserve identity continuity, evidence status, challenge and accountable progression.
Identity continuity
One candidate identity from application to onboarding.
| Checkpoint | Evidence and control | Exception requiring human review |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Application identity | Record the candidate-supplied identity, contact route, source, consent/privacy information and material changes. | Conflicting names, contact routes, unexplained duplicate profiles or material record changes. |
| 2. Application material | Keep the submitted CV, answers, portfolio and declared use of permitted AI tools as separate evidence. | Contradictory chronology, unverifiable claims or content that cannot be explained by the candidate. |
| 3. Interview identity | Define how the interviewer connects the person present to the applicant record without relying on appearance alone. | Unexpected participant, suspected prompting, voice/video inconsistency, substituted device or unexplained interruption. |
| 4. Remote impersonation and deepfake risk | Use proportionate liveness, challenge and escalation controls appropriate to the role and risk; document limitations. | Failed or inconclusive checks must stop progression rather than create an automatic accusation. |
| 5. Evidence integrity | Record issuer, source, date, document status and verification route separately from uploaded files. | Alteration indicators, mismatch, expired evidence or inability to validate against an authoritative source. |
| 6. Right-to-work interaction | Use the current Home Office route. A digital identity check does not remove the employer’s responsibility to follow the prescribed process. | No valid route, mismatch between result and candidate, time-limited permission or follow-up requirement. |
| 7. Pre-onboarding continuity | Reconnect the verified person, accepted offer, worker record, bank/contact changes and access provisioning. | Late identity or payment-detail change, new device/contact route or inconsistency with verified evidence. |
| 8. Human decision and audit | Name the reviewer, evidence considered, challenge made, exception outcome, decision, date and retention rule. | No consequential fraud or suitability conclusion should rest only on an AI flag or opaque score. |
Practical response
Detect, pause, verify, decide and retain the basis.
Detect a discrepancy
Record the signal and source without prematurely labelling the candidate fraudulent.
Pause the affected progression
Protect the process and candidate while preventing a questionable identity or document from advancing.
Use an approved verification route
Recheck against the authoritative source or proportionate identity method.
Human review and recorded outcome
An authorised person considers the context, correction route, evidence and next action.
Authoritative references
Validate current requirements at the source.
- Home Office: Right to work checks — employer’s guide.
- UK Government: supplementary code for digital right-to-work checks.
- ICO: fair and responsible automation in recruitment.
- ICO: AI tools in recruitment outcomes report.
- Northern Ireland Audit Office: internal fraud risk guide.
Source set reviewed 19 September 2026. This operational resource is not legal advice.
Turn the controls into a workflow
Keep identity evidence and human authority connected.
SOS can implement customer-specific identity and fraud-control workflows around approved providers, risk policy and accountable review.