Your New Coworker Might Be Fake: AI Hiring Scams and North Korean IT Workers

North Korean IT workers used stolen identities, AI-generated faces, and AI-assisted interview answers to get hired by real US companies. In Hong Kong, deepfake versions of a CFO and senior colleagues convinced an Arup finance worker to transfer $25 million.This episode is about what happens when AI makes remote hiring easier to fake and harder to verify.We break down the North Korean IT worker operation that submitted roughly 167,000 job applications in 10 months, the deepfake video call behind the $25 million Arup fraud, and the US facilitators who helped overseas workers appear to be working from inside the country.The larger problem is that AI now works on both sides of the hiring process. Companies use it to screen résumés and move candidates through the process faster. Candidates can use it to coach themselves through interviews, generate fake identities, and impersonate someone else entirely.The tools that made remote hiring faster and cheaper also made verification harder. Seeing someone on Zoom is no longer proof they are who they claim to be.

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AI news with receipts. Juan Faisal and Kate Cook fact-check the claims Big Tech is making about AI, follow the money, and break down what it actually means for your job, your data, and your daily life.

From leaked data and corporate cover-ups to AI schools, stolen identities, and layoff headlines that don’t add up, we cover the AI stories that everyone’s hyping but nobody’s verifying.

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DISCLAIMER

All content is commentary and opinion based on publicly available documents, interviews, and verifiable sources. References to “scams,” “grifts,” or related terms reflect our editorial opinion, not legal conclusions. Anyone featured who believes a statement is inaccurate may contact us.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Is Your Coworker Real, or an AI Hiring Scam?

01:04 How Gen Z Is Using AI to Juggle Multiple Jobs

03:33 The $25 Million Deepfake CFO Scam

06:27 North Korean IT Workers: 167,000 Applications

08:58 Why This Scam Needs a US Accomplice

10:00 When Fake Workers Steal Real Identities

11:56 How a Stolen ID and ChatGPT Build a Fake Worker

14:55 Why "Human in the Loop" Isn't Working

16:05 Can AI Tools Catch Fake Job Applicants?

17:25 Trust Is the Real Cost of AI Hiring