Clear Path step · Business · A team that's hard to fool
Confirm new hires, vendors and big new clients are who they say
Why it matters: AI makes fake job candidates, fake vendors and synthetic customers cheap to produce, including deepfaked video interviews. Checking through channels you choose catches what a polished application hides.
Do it
- For new vendors, confirm bank details by calling a number you found independently, not one on the invoice.
- For remote hires, verify identity documents through a trusted service or in person, and ship equipment only to a verified address.
- In video interviews, ask unscripted follow-ups and watch for mismatched audio and video; never rely on the video alone.
- For new clients who will move money through you, verify identity before the first transaction.
- Watch for remote workers who log in from unexpected places or refuse video.
Check it worked: New vendors' bank details, new remote hires' identities and new high-value clients are confirmed through independent channels, with at least one live, unscripted check.
Simply put
It's like checking a new contractor's references yourself instead of calling the numbers on their own business card. Fake candidates, vendors and clients are cheap to make; a channel you chose is hard to fake.
In detail
The FBI has warned repeatedly about North Korean IT workers using stolen or synthetic identities to get remote jobs and about deepfakes in interviews. Liveness checks help but are themselves a target; an independent channel is the durable control.
Points toward the Long View: an independent check that works however good the deepfake interview gets.