Trust at Speed: Hiring Fraud, Deepfakes, and the Identity Risks CHROs Can't Ignore

Most CHROs have a fraud problem they didn't sign up for. Deepfakes in video interviews. Synthetic IDs at the application stage. AI-generated credentials that pass every automated screen. Only 31% of CHROs say they're confident in their ability to prevent hiring fraud, and the technology making it easier gets more sophisticated every quarter.

Nik Daruwala, Vice President of Sales at Checkr, has spent 21 years in B2B technology sales, including thousands of direct conversations with HR leaders trying to protect their hiring funnels without losing speed. Checkr powers background verification for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart, and was the first API in the background check industry.

In this episode, he covers:

Why hiring fraud appears at every stage of the funnel, from the initial application through post-hire monitoring, and what a continuous identity verification strategy actually looks like in practice

How CHROs should be thinking about partnering with their CISO to address a risk that's moved from the cyber stack into the talent pipeline

https://thehrmixtape.com/episodes/trust-at-speed-hiring-fraud-deepfakes-and-the-identity-risks-chros-cant-ignore-with-nik-daruwala

Why the speed-versus-safety trade-off in hiring is a false choice, and what good looks like when both coexist in the same program

Timestamps

[00:00:39] Context: this conversation was recorded live at the Checkr booth at SHRM 2026

[00:01:01] How enterprise hiring changed over 24 years: global sourcing, the normalization of remote hiring, and why the explosion of application volume made quality screening harder

[00:02:50] The CHRO anxiety most people aren't talking about: making sure candidates throughout the funnel are actually who they claim to be

[00:04:13] Only 31% of CHROs have confidence in their ability to prevent hiring fraud, and why the AI tools now available to candidates are changing that threat surface fast