“The findings from our latest discrepancy report underscore the pressing need for change across the industry. In an increasingly competitive job market, candidates are under immense pressure, leading many to misrepresent their credentials. This not only impacts a company’s bottom line but also raises serious concerns about workplace safety and customer trust” said Ajay Trehan, Founder & CEO, AuthBridge.

AuthBridge’s latest Workforce Fraud Files 2025, featured by ANI, highlights the rising challenge of misrepresentation in India’s workforce. The report found a 6% discrepancy rate among white-collar hires and 4% among gig workers, exposing risks from inflated resumes and fake degrees to moonlighting and impersonation in delivery roles.

With pharma, BFSI, telecom, and IT/ITES sectors showing some of the highest discrepancy rates, the report stresses the urgent need for instant and ongoing verification models tailored to specific roles and risks.

“AuthBridge’s latest report reveals 6% discrepancy in white-collar hires and 4% in gig workers, urging instant and ongoing verification”

New Delhi, India – August 20, 2025 – AuthBridge, the country’s leading trust and authentication technology company, today released its Workforce Fraud Files 2025, a discrepancy report which analyses six months of background verification data from October 2024 to March 2025. The report reveals a widespread issue of misrepresentation and fraud in the Indian workforce, with significant discrepancy rates found across both the white-collar and gig economies. The report highlights a 6% discrepancy rate for white-collar employees and a 4% rate for gig workers, raising alarms for businesses across various sectors. According to the findings, a bad hire can cost up to one-third of an employee’s first-year salary.

Mr. Ajay Trehan, CEO & Founder, AuthBridge, said, “The findings from our latest ‘Workforce Fraud Files 2025’ discrepancy report underscore the pressing need for change across the industry. In an increasingly competitive job market, candidates are under immense pressure, leading many to misrepresent their credentials. This not only impacts a company’s bottom line but also raises serious concerns about workplace safety and customer trust. It’s clear that relying on outdated hiring practices is no longer an option. The data from the report shows that discrepancies often emerge after a job offer is made, leading to significant time and budget waste. The time has come for organisations to move towards instant and ongoing verification models that are tailored to the specific role and its associated risks”.

Key Findings: A Deeper Look into Workforce Fraud

• White-Collar Workforce: An overall discrepancy rate of 6% was found, with the IT, banking, and telecom sectors being the hardest hit. The most common issues include:

• Resume Mismatches: 17% of resumes did not match the candidates’ actual credentials.
• Employment Verification: 13% of employment checks failed due to inflated salaries, fabricated work experience, and contract violations.
• Moonlighting: 5% of white-collar employees were found to be moonlighting, particularly in the tech and startup sectors.
• Education Checks: 5% of education checks flagged discrepancies, with fake certificates and degrees from blacklisted institutions being the primary issues.
• Court Records: 2% of court record checks revealed issues such as assault, theft, and fraud.

• Gig Economy: Gig workers showed an overall discrepancy rate of 4%. The findings point to serious concerns for customer safety in industries such as e-commerce, food delivery, and transport, due to issues including court record offences and fake identities. Noteworthy discrepancies include:

• Address Verification: 20% of cases failed address verification checks, often due to temporary accommodations or frequent relocations.
• Legal History: 3.5% of gig workers were found to have a legal history, with the most common offences being assault, theft, and traffic-related violations.
• Impersonation: The report identifies impersonation as a major challenge, in which a different individual completes the delivery than the one who checked in at the warehouse. This practice has resulted in issues such as pilferage, missing cargo, and fraud.

• Leadership Risks: High-profile cases, such as financial misreporting in senior hires, emphasise the need for deeper due diligence beyond referrals.

• Pharma reported the highest discrepancy rate at 16%, driven by inflated experience claims and unverifiable referrals.
• BFSI/Financial Services recorded an overall discrepancy rate of 11.69%. The most alarming finding was that 29% of cases showed employment misrepresentation, with candidates inflating tenure or company names, or failing to disclose a history of termination.
• Telecom recorded 11.34%, with frequent address mismatches and instances of moonlighting.
• IT/ITES had an overall discrepancy rate of 9.46%. The report found that nearly 1 in 5 candidates in the IT sector lied on their resumes, with common red flags including inflated job titles and exaggerated tenures. The sector also recorded 5% dual employment, especially in remote roles.

Strengthening Verification Practices

• Adopting instant and ongoing verification to detect risks such as moonlighting or criminal activity without delay.
• Designing role-based verification protocols with deeper checks for sensitive or leadership positions, including financial integrity and behavioural assessments.
• Implementing real-time facial recognition and device binding to prevent impersonation in gig and delivery-based roles.
• Using early warning tools like UAN checks at advanced hiring stages to flag fraudulent applications before offers are made.

AuthLead is a specialised tool for senior-level hiring that goes beyond basic checks to build a 360-degree leadership profile, including independent references, financial integrity reviews, litigation history, and cultural fit assessments, helping organisations appoint trustworthy, well-aligned leaders.

Its newly introduced GroundCheck.ai, India’s first AI-powered platform for instant, on-ground customer, merchant, and vendor verification, covers 20,000+ PIN codes and tackles challenges such as fragmented networks and slow turnaround times, delivering speed, scale, and accuracy in one solution. As India’s workforce adapts to new models of working and employee onboarding, such as hybrid or remote work and gig economies, Workforce Fraud Files 2025 emphasises a significant challenge for employers to prioritise speed, scrutiny, and innovation in their hiring practices. 

The full report is available for download at https://authbridge.com/workforce-fraud-files-2025/. 

With a global presence across 190+ countries and a track record of conducting 15 million verifications each month, AuthBridge continues to lead the global identity verification landscape—combining cutting-edge AI with responsible innovation.  About AuthBridge For over 20 years, AuthBridge has been a leader in identity management, onboarding & verification, and business intelligence. Our future-ready, AI-powered technology and alternative-data analytics serve over 3,000 clients in 30+ industries, from Fortune 500 giants to India’s fastest-growing unicorns, ensuring secure, seamless operations worldwide.

With its presence in 140+ countries and an operational scale of 15 million verifications monthly, AuthBridge continues to lead the global identity verification landscape — combining cutting-edge AI technology with responsible innovation.

About AuthBridge

AuthBridge is India’s leading authentication and background screening company, trusted by enterprises across sectors for over 20 years. Through proprietary technology, alternate data analysis, and AI-powered solutions, AuthBridge enables businesses to verify, onboard, and build trust at scale — empowering organisations to mitigate risks and unlock growth.

In recognition of Digital Adoption Professionals Day, Ajay Trehan, Founder and CEO of AuthBridge, shared insights with The Hans India on how digital verification is evolving as the cornerstone of trust in regulated industries.

“Digital adoption is no longer just about tools—it’s about embedding trust, transparency, and real-time compliance across operations,” said Ajay.

With over two decades of experience in identity verification, Trehan explained how AuthBridge’s AI-powered solutions are enabling businesses in high-risk industries like BFSI, staffing, and fintech to onboard users faster, prevent fraud, and stay audit-ready.

He emphasized that risks such as identity fraud, deepfakes, and document tampering are no longer edge cases—they’re systemic threats. To tackle these, leading firms are adopting real-time verification frameworks that proactively detect fraud and ensure regulatory compliance.

In an exclusive feature with Tech Achieve Media, Ajay Trehan, Founder and CEO of AuthBridge, sheds light on how the company is redefining onboarding and fraud prevention for the BFSI sector through its advanced suite of 160+ APIs and AI-powered verification tools.

As regulatory pressure mounts and fraud incidents rise, AuthBridge’s cutting-edge verification infrastructure is helping financial institutions accelerate digital onboarding, comply with evolving norms, and mitigate identity-related risks at scale.

India’s online gaming industry is experiencing rapid growth, projected to reach USD 8.36 billion by 2030, fueled by affordable smartphones and widespread internet access. However, this expansion brings increased vulnerability to cyber threats, particularly deepfake-based identity fraud.

Understanding the Threat

Deepfakes—AI-generated synthetic media—pose significant risks in online gaming. Fraudsters use them to:

• Bypass facial recognition during player onboarding.

• Forge identity documents to exploit KYC processes.

• Create synthetic accounts for bonus abuse or money laundering.

These tactics threaten platform integrity and compliance with India’s IT Rules (2023), which mandate stringent verification for real-money gaming.

The Role of AI & ML in Defense

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning offer robust solutions:

• Deepfake Detection Engines analyze facial anomalies to flag altered media.

• Advanced Liveness Detection ensures the presence of a live user through 3D face mapping and eye tracking.

• AI-Powered Document Verification validates metadata and detects tampering in ID proofs.

• Behavioral Biometrics monitor user behaviors to distinguish humans from bots.

These technologies enable platforms to:

• Block fraudulent onboarding attempts.

• Prevent multi-accounting by cross-verifying biometric data.

• Mitigate payout fraud through stringent verification protocols.

• Ensure fair play in competitive gaming by detecting non-human participants.

Balancing Innovation with Responsibility

While AI and ML enhance security, ethical considerations are paramount. Compliance with India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, is essential to safeguard user data. Transparency in AI-driven decisions and bias mitigation in facial recognition tools are critical to maintaining user trust.

Conclusion

In the fast-paced online gaming industry, AI and ML are indispensable for fortifying identity infrastructure against deepfake-based fraud. Investing in these technologies not only future-proofs platforms against emerging threats but also strengthens regulatory compliance and fosters a safe, trustworthy environment for millions of digital gamers.

“Investing in AI-driven TrustTech not only future-proofs platforms against emerging threats but also strengthens regulatory compliance and fosters a safe, trustworthy environment for millions of digital gamers

”
– Ajay Trehan, Founder & CEO, AuthBridge

As the BFSI sector accelerates its digital transformation journey, a critical focus has emerged: securing seamless, compliant, and fraud-resistant customer onboarding. In a landscape shaped by mobile-first users and regulatory shifts, traditional Know Your Customer (KYC) methods are giving way to intelligent, AI-powered solutions.

The Rise of Digital KYC

Legacy KYC systems—rooted in manual document collection and physical verification—are increasingly outpaced by customer expectations and market demands. Today’s digital KYC leverages OCR, biometrics, liveliness checks, and AI-driven workflows to enable real-time verification without compromising compliance or experience.

Balancing Speed with Security

While digital onboarding is fast becoming the norm, challenges persist. From fragmented infrastructure and privacy concerns to navigating evolving compliance mandates, BFSI institutions must rethink how they validate identities at scale. The stakes are high: a single onboarding lapse can expose institutions to financial fraud or regulatory penalties.

AI-Powered Risk Management

AI and automation have emerged as core enablers in modern KYC frameworks. Intelligent algorithms are now capable of triangulating address data, validating ID documents, matching faces, and flagging risk anomalies—all while reducing manual effort. These tools empower institutions to maintain accuracy and auditability across millions of verifications monthly.

A Future-Ready KYC Blueprint

Forward-thinking BFSI players are adopting hybrid models that combine digital, remote, and physical verification layers tailored to customer risk profiles. This risk-aligned approach not only strengthens trust but future-proofs institutions against compliance volatility.

“The time is now for BFSI to embrace real-time, AI-driven solutions and lead the way in building a future where security and customer confidence go hand in hand. ”
– Ajay Trehan, Founder & CEO, AuthBridge

India’s Global Capability Centre (GCC) ecosystem is undergoing a massive transformation, evolving from cost-centric hubs to strategic centres of innovation, digital operations, and product development. With over 1,580 active GCCs and more than 1.6 million professionals employed, the spotlight has now shifted to building a workforce that is not only skilled, but verified and future-ready.

In a recent feature on ET Edge Insights, Ajay Trehan, CEO of AuthBridge underscored the growing importance of digital identity verification and real-time onboarding as critical enablers of this growth story. The article highlights how GCCs are embracing AI-led verification solutions to meet compliance, scalability, and trust expectations as they expand across domains such as AI, cybersecurity, data analytics, and R&D.

As GCCs continue to scale operations in India, the margin for onboarding error is shrinking. A delayed or inaccurate background check can pose operational, legal, and reputational risks. AuthBridge’s AI-powered verification suite offers automated employment and education checks, AML/KYC compliance, and partner due diligence to ensure organisations can build secure, agile teams faster.

“GCCs operate in high-trust environments where accuracy, speed, and compliance are non-negotiable. Our solutions are designed to help organisations onboard the right talent and partners at scale, without compromising on risk or regulation,” noted AuthBridge in the article.

With 500–600 new GCCs projected to emerge by 2030, India is set to become the global headquarters of enterprise innovation. For this vision to materialise, it’s clear that building workforce trust through verified digital identities will be a cornerstone of sustainable growth.

We’re proud to announce that Ajay Trehan, Founder & CEO of AuthBridge, has been featured in YourStory’s coveted list of “Leaders & Brands to Watch 2025.”

Recognised for his visionary leadership and commitment to innovation, Ajay stands among a select group of entrepreneurs reshaping India’s digital and trust infrastructure across industries.

Building the Trust Economy

Ajay Trehan founded AuthBridge in 2005, inspired by the trust deficit global enterprises faced while working in India. Over the years, he has transformed the company from a pioneer in background screening into India’s leading provider of AI-powered identity intelligence and real-time verification solutions.

His mission: to help businesses build trust at scale through automation, analytics, and integrity-first design.

Driving Digital Transformation with Purpose

Under Ajay’s leadership, AuthBridge has continuously embraced change — from adopting AI and machine learning in verification workflows to navigating global shifts like the COVID-19 pandemic. With over 15 million verifications processed monthly, the platform now powers trust for 3,000+ enterprises across sectors including BFSI, gig economy, logistics, and healthcare.

As India’s digital and hiring landscape evolves, we are proud to see Ajay’s leadership and AuthBridge’s mission recognised by platforms like YourStory. This milestone underscores our commitment to building a safer, smarter, and more transparent future for organisations everywhere.