The Proxy Interview Scam: When Someone Else Takes Your Interview

There is a new kind of problem quietly changing the way companies think about online hiring in India. A candidate applies for a technical role, clears the screening, performs exceptionally well in a video interview, answers difficult questions confidently, and appears to have exactly the experience the company is looking for. The company makes an offer. Then the person actually joining the team turns out to be very different from the person who impressed everyone during the interview.

Sometimes the explanation is not an exaggerated experience or a bad résumé. Someone else took the interview.

This is known as a proxy interview. The actual candidate hires or arranges for another person with stronger technical skills to appear in their place during an interview or assessment. The problem existed before remote hiring, but online recruitment has made impersonation much easier to attempt at scale. In India, the issue became particularly visible in 2026 when Infosys deferred online assessments and in-person evaluations for more than 20,000 applicants after detecting cases of impersonation and assessment malpractice. The Times of India

The story is bigger than one company, however. It raises an uncomfortable question about modern recruitment: when an interview happens through a screen, how does a company know that the person answering the questions is actually the person it is hiring?

What Exactly Is a Proxy Interview?

A proxy interview happens when someone other than the actual job applicant participates in an interview or assessment on that person's behalf. The substitute may have stronger technical knowledge, better communication skills, or simply more experience with the type of questions being asked. The hiring team believes it is evaluating the applicant, but it is actually evaluating someone else.

The important distinction is that this is not the same as preparing for an interview. Reading interview questions, practising coding problems, taking a course, getting feedback on a résumé, or preparing answers beforehand are normal parts of job hunting. A proxy interview crosses a completely different line because the person being evaluated is not the person who is supposed to be evaluated.

That distinction becomes particularly important in technical hiring. A company may be hiring someone because they claim to understand Java, Python, cloud architecture, data science, cybersecurity or system design. If another person demonstrates those skills during the interview, the company has not actually verified the candidate's ability at all.

Why Remote Hiring Made the Problem Easier

Traditional hiring had a very simple advantage: people were physically in the same room.

A recruiter could see the candidate arrive, check their documents, speak with them directly and later introduce the same person to the hiring manager. That did not make fraud impossible, but it created a natural identity check that was difficult to ignore.

Remote hiring removed much of that friction. A person can now apply from one city, interview from another environment, complete several rounds through video calls and receive an offer without ever meeting the hiring team physically. The convenience is enormous, but the identity problem is equally obvious.

Research and industry reporting increasingly describe candidate identity fraud as a broader problem in remote recruitment. Gartner's 2025 survey of 3,000 job candidates found that 6% admitted participating in interview fraud, either by posing as someone else or having someone else pose as them. Gartner also predicted that one in four candidate profiles worldwide could be fake by 2028. The latter is a forecast, not a measurement of today's hiring market, and it should not be interpreted as saying that one in four current applicants are fraudulent. Gartner

The Infosys Incident Shows How Serious This Has Become

The most striking recent Indian example came from Infosys.

In June 2026, the company deferred online assessment tests and in-person evaluations for more than 20,000 job applicants after detecting multiple instances of impersonation and assessment malpractice. The affected applicants were being considered for Specialist Programmer and Digital Specialist Engineer trainee roles. Infosys said additional safeguards and verification measures were being introduced before the assessments were rescheduled. The Times of India

The scale matters because this was not a small hiring exercise involving a few dozen applicants. The company reported receiving approximately 5.8 million job applications during FY26, interviewing more than 450,000 candidates and making more than 87,000 offers, excluding subsidiaries. At that scale, even a relatively small percentage of fraudulent activity can create a significant operational problem. The Times of India

There is another important point here. Infosys did not say that all 20,000 affected candidates were fraudulent. The assessments were deferred after impersonation and malpractice were detected, and the company introduced additional safeguards. That distinction matters because a hiring crackdown should not turn into an assumption that every remote candidate is suspicious.

What Happens When the Wrong Person Gets Hired?

The most obvious consequence is a bad hire.

But a proxy hire can be more damaging than an ordinary bad hire because the company may have made the wrong decision based on completely false evidence. The person who appeared during the interview demonstrated skills that the actual employee may not possess.

The problem can become obvious within days. A new developer who appeared comfortable discussing system architecture may struggle with basic implementation. Someone who answered data-science questions confidently may find routine analytical work difficult. A candidate who seemed highly experienced during several technical rounds may suddenly require help with tasks that should have been familiar.

This creates an especially strange situation for managers. The résumé appears legitimate. The background check may be legitimate. The educational qualifications may be legitimate. The previous employment history may even be genuine. The deception occurred at the point where the company was trying to determine whether this particular person could actually perform the job.

That is why proxy interviews are different from ordinary résumé exaggeration. The documents can be real while the person being evaluated is not.

How Companies Start Realising Something Is Wrong

One of the most revealing signs often appears after hiring rather than during the interview.

A candidate may have demonstrated sophisticated knowledge during the technical rounds but struggle with basic tasks once they join. Their communication style may also be noticeably different from what interviewers remember. Their technical depth may fluctuate dramatically. A manager might discover that the person who confidently explained a concept during the interview now needs extensive help understanding it.

There can also be inconsistencies between different stages of the recruitment process. A candidate may appear unusually strong in one technical round and significantly weaker in another. Their communication style may change. Their understanding of their own résumé may suddenly seem surprisingly shallow.

None of these things automatically proves fraud. A nervous candidate can perform badly after performing well in an interview. Someone can be excellent at explaining concepts but slower at implementing them. Poor internet connections, stress and unfamiliarity with a new workplace can also create inconsistencies.

That is why responsible hiring teams should treat these signals as reasons to verify, not reasons to accuse.

Why Background Checks Alone Cannot Solve the Problem

This is where proxy interviews create an unusual challenge.

A normal background check asks whether the candidate's information is genuine. Did this person attend the university they mentioned? Did they work for the companies listed on their résumé? Are their documents authentic?

A proxy interview asks a different question: Was this actually the person who demonstrated those skills during the interview?

Those are not the same question.

A candidate can have a completely genuine résumé and still arrange for someone else to take an interview. That means a company can perform an excellent background check and still miss the most important part of the deception.

The solution therefore cannot depend entirely on documents. Companies need some form of identity continuity across the hiring process, particularly for roles where technical ability is central to the hiring decision.

Why Technical Roles Are Especially Vulnerable

Technical interviews are attractive targets because the difference between average and exceptional performance can be significant.

A strong technical candidate may be expected to solve coding problems, explain architecture, discuss databases, troubleshoot systems or reason through unfamiliar problems. Someone who has spent years doing that work can make those conversations look effortless.

For a candidate who does not actually possess those skills, paying someone else to demonstrate them can appear like a shortcut to a job that would otherwise be difficult to obtain.

But the shortcut has an obvious problem: the job still needs to be performed after the interview ends.

That is why proxy fraud can create an unusual gap between recruitment performance and workplace performance. The interview may look excellent because the skills are real. They just belong to someone else.

The AI Problem Is Making Identity Fraud Even More Complicated

Proxy interviews are only one part of a much larger problem emerging in online hiring.

Candidates can now use real-time AI tools during interviews to generate responses, explain technical concepts, solve coding problems and provide assistance during behavioural questions. The New Indian Express reported in April 2026 that recruiters and hiring managers across India's IT services and product ecosystem were seeing increased use of real-time AI assistants during virtual interviews. The New Indian Express

That creates a spectrum rather than a single form of cheating. At one end, there is legitimate preparation. In the middle, there may be undisclosed AI assistance during an assessment. At the extreme end, there is a completely different person appearing as the candidate.

The hiring challenge is therefore no longer only "Can this person answer the question?" It is also becoming "Who is answering, and how are they answering?"

That is a much harder problem for a recruitment system designed around résumés, online tests and video calls.

How Companies Can Reduce Proxy Interview Fraud

The answer is not to make every interview feel like a police interrogation.

Companies can begin with something much simpler: identity continuity. The person who applies should be the person who completes the important assessments, participates in the interview and ultimately joins the organisation.

One practical approach is to combine different forms of verification at different stages. Companies can use identity checks where appropriate, compare the candidate across stages, include live interaction, and use practical assessments that require the candidate to demonstrate their own reasoning rather than simply repeat prepared answers. Gartner has recommended multi-layered approaches to candidate-fraud mitigation, including clearer expectations around acceptable AI use, assessments designed to detect fraud, and stronger validation after the hiring stage. Gartner

Another useful approach is to validate skills after the offer. A short practical task during onboarding or the first week can help confirm that the person's actual abilities broadly match what was demonstrated during the recruitment process.

The purpose should not be to catch people through tricks. It should be to make the hiring process harder to manipulate while keeping it fair for legitimate candidates.

But Companies Also Have to Be Careful

There is a danger on the other side.

If recruiters begin treating every nervous candidate, every poor internet connection or every unusual eye movement as proof of fraud, honest applicants can get punished for circumstances that have nothing to do with cheating.

A candidate looking away from the camera might simply be thinking. Someone speaking slowly might be nervous. A temporary audio delay can make a completely honest interview look strange. Even differences in appearance can occur because of lighting, camera quality, glasses, hairstyles or several months between interview and onboarding.

Recent guidance on proxy interviews has emphasised exactly this problem: suspicious signals should be treated as prompts for additional verification rather than automatic proof of fraud. Easy Interview

This matters because a hiring system that catches fraud by rejecting large numbers of genuine candidates is not a successful hiring system. The goal is not maximum suspicion. The goal is better verification.

What Happens to Candidates Who Get Caught?

The consequences depend on the circumstances, the employer, the contract and the nature of the deception.

At a minimum, the candidate can lose the job opportunity. If someone is discovered after joining, the employment relationship can be terminated, particularly where the hiring decision was based on deliberate misrepresentation or impersonation.

There can also be broader professional consequences. Hiring managers communicate with each other. Recruitment firms maintain records. A candidate caught deliberately impersonating someone else may find future opportunities much harder to obtain.

The most important point is that proxy interviewing is not a clever shortcut around a difficult technical round. It creates a mismatch that eventually has to be lived with. The company still expects the person who was hired to perform the work.

Why Would Someone Risk It?

The obvious answer is pressure.

India's technology sector is highly competitive, and the difference between getting a job and remaining unemployed can feel enormous to someone who has spent months applying. A candidate who repeatedly fails technical interviews may eventually start looking for shortcuts.

There is also the psychological distance created by remote hiring. Asking a stranger to impersonate you through a screen can feel less serious than physically walking into a company and having someone else sit in your chair. The screen creates separation between the action and its consequences.

But the underlying problem remains the same. The candidate is not simply cheating on an exam. They are trying to obtain a professional position by demonstrating skills that they do not possess.

And that can eventually affect teammates, managers, clients and the candidate themselves.

The Bigger Problem Is Trust

The most interesting part of the proxy interview problem is not actually the technology.

It is trust.

Hiring is fundamentally an exchange of trust. A company says, "We believe you can do this job." The candidate says, "These are my skills, my experience and my ability." The interview is supposed to create enough evidence for both sides to make a decision.

When someone else takes the interview, that entire exchange becomes meaningless.

And when companies start encountering enough fraud, they naturally respond by adding more checks. More identity verification. More in-person rounds. More proctoring. More assessments. More monitoring.

The irony is that honest candidates then experience a longer and more complicated hiring process because other people tried to cheat it.

That is one reason the proxy interview problem matters even to people who would never consider doing it.

The Future of Indian Hiring May Become More Human Again

For several years, the direction of recruitment seemed obvious. More online assessments, more video interviews, more automated screening and fewer physical interactions.

Proxy interviews and AI-assisted cheating are forcing companies to reconsider that assumption.

Infosys had already moved from a fully virtual recruitment model toward a hybrid approach combining virtual and in-person evaluations, while its June 2026 deferment showed how seriously assessment integrity can affect large-scale hiring. The Times of India

This does not mean remote hiring is going away. It is too convenient and too valuable for companies hiring across cities and countries. But it may mean that certain points in the recruitment process become deliberately human again.

A five-minute face-to-face conversation. A live practical task. A real interaction with the hiring manager. An onboarding verification. A problem that requires genuine reasoning rather than a memorised answer.

The future of hiring may not be entirely digital or entirely physical.

It may simply become more difficult to fake.

What Candidates Should Understand

If you are a genuine candidate struggling with technical interviews, the temptation to find a shortcut can be understandable. But the interview is not the final obstacle. It is the beginning of the job.

If another person clears the technical round for you, you still have to write the code. You still have to attend meetings. You still have to solve problems. You still have to answer questions from colleagues who assume you know what your résumé and interview suggested you know.

The better strategy is to treat every failed interview as information. Identify the technical areas you are missing, practise explaining your thinking, work through real problems, build projects and learn how to communicate what you actually know.

A difficult interview can delay a job.

A fraudulent interview can create a job you cannot actually perform.

Those are very different problems.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What is a proxy interview?

A proxy interview is an interview or assessment in which someone other than the actual job candidate participates on their behalf. The substitute may attempt to demonstrate the technical or professional abilities that the candidate claims to have. It is a form of interview fraud because the employer is evaluating the wrong person. The problem has become more visible with remote hiring because video interviews and online assessments reduce the physical identity checks that naturally occurred in traditional recruitment.

Q2. Why are proxy interviews becoming a concern in India?

Remote and hybrid hiring have made it possible for companies to interview candidates without meeting them physically at every stage. At the same time, India's large technology and campus-hiring pipelines involve enormous numbers of applicants, making identity verification more difficult at scale. In June 2026, Infosys deferred assessments for more than 20,000 applicants after detecting impersonation and other assessment malpractice, showing that candidate verification has become a significant operational concern for large employers. The Times of India

Q3. How do companies detect proxy candidates?

Companies can use multiple forms of verification rather than relying on one signal. These can include identity checks, live interactions, consistency across interview stages, practical assessments and verification during onboarding. A significant mismatch between interview performance and subsequent practical ability can also lead to additional review. However, no single behaviour proves that someone is a proxy. Nervousness, poor connectivity, camera problems or differences in communication can have completely innocent explanations, so responsible employers should investigate rather than automatically reject candidates.

Q4. Is using someone else to take a technical interview illegal?

The legal consequences depend on the specific facts, jurisdiction, contracts and conduct involved. Regardless of the precise legal classification, impersonating another person during a hiring process is a serious form of deception and can lead to termination, loss of the job opportunity and potentially other consequences depending on what occurred. Candidates should not assume that because an interview happens online, impersonation is merely a harmless shortcut.

Q5. Can AI be considered a proxy interview?

AI-assisted cheating is related to proxy interviews but is not exactly the same thing. In a traditional proxy interview, another human performs the interview or supplies the answers. With AI-assisted cheating, the actual candidate may remain on camera while an undisclosed AI system generates or suggests responses. Both create the same fundamental problem for employers: the interview may no longer provide a reliable measurement of the candidate's own unaided abilities. Reporting from India in 2026 shows that real-time AI assistance during online interviews has become an emerging concern among recruiters. The New Indian Express

Q6. Why do companies care so much about proxy interviews after the candidate has already been hired?

Because the cost of the fraud continues after recruitment. A person who passed an interview through someone else's expertise may not possess the skills required for the job. This can create poor performance, additional training costs, missed deadlines, team disruption and potentially serious problems in technical or client-facing roles. The company is not simply dealing with a dishonest interview; it may have built an entire employment decision around skills that the employee does not actually have.

Q7. Will proxy interviews make Indian companies return to in-person interviews?

Probably not completely. Remote hiring remains useful because companies can reach candidates across cities and reduce logistical costs. However, the growth of identity and assessment fraud may encourage more companies to combine online screening with selected in-person evaluations, live practical assessments or stronger identity verification. Infosys's move toward a hybrid recruitment approach is one example of how large employers are trying to balance the convenience of digital hiring with the need for stronger assessment integrity. The Times of India

Q8. What should an honest candidate do if they keep failing technical interviews?

The best response is to identify the specific gap rather than trying to bypass the assessment. Review the questions you struggled with, practise solving problems without assistance, build projects that demonstrate the relevant skills and learn to explain your reasoning clearly. Technical interviews are also a form of feedback: repeated failure can reveal exactly which skills need work. A proxy may get someone through one interview, but it cannot permanently substitute for the ability to perform the job.

The Real Lesson Behind the Proxy Interview Scam

The proxy interview problem is ultimately not a story about one dishonest candidate or one clever fraud technique. It is a story about what happens when technology makes hiring easier to scale than it is to verify.

Companies wanted faster recruitment. Candidates wanted more accessible opportunities. Remote interviews solved real problems for both sides. But every time a process becomes more distant, automated and screen-based, there can be new ways to manipulate it.

That does not mean companies should stop trusting candidates.

It means they need to make sure that the person being evaluated is actually the person being hired.

The changing nature of Indian hiring is also reshaping the interview process itself. Interview Rounds in India: What Each Round of the Hiring Process Actually Tests explains how companies use different stages to evaluate candidates, while AI Agents Are Here: Why Indian Companies Are Quietly Replacing Freshers