tofu

Candidate fraud detection for security and hiring teams.

[Jason Zoltak @thetofudude]

Curious what a day in the life of a DPRK IT worker looks like?
We researched and documented it all.

Last week I spoke with an investigative journalist on DPRK IT worker fraud.
- It made me realize.. there's an overabundance of reports and articles with the same statistics.

But nobody has gone deep on how the bad actor you end up on a call with gets to that point.

- How are suitable workers are identified?
- How are they procured into the job?
- How are they organized?
- What their day is like?

It's highly deliberate, organized and meticulous.
And for those curious, it's detailed in this weeks blog post. https://t.co/hfDgFijiPJ

[tofu @hiretofu]

We put the name's of the people who tried espionage-ing tofu in this week's Brian episode :)

Candidate fraud is a highly coordinated operation.. but even then, fraudsters mess up and expose themselves.

This week's episode of Brian takes us through exactly that...

Enjoy

[Between Two Brunettes @twobrunettespod]

Jason Zoltak shares the weekly habit that landed him his lead investor in @hiretofu’s pre-seed round back in 2024. The team has since raised a $5M seed round earlier this year.

CC: @carterkev

Listen to the full convo👇🏻

Youtube 👉🏻 https://t.co/RE7nS2Gqd5
Spotify 👉🏻 https://t.co/oj1WD4xuyt
Apple Podcasts 👉🏻 https://t.co/VpVU50fPDI

#founderlife #fundraising #venturecapital #investors #seedround #betweentwobrunettes

[tofu @hiretofu]

The part of North Korean IT worker fraud that still blows my mind:
There are managers that oversee everything.

They are not rogue freelancers independently applying to remote jobs.
- It’s an operation.
- Managers run teams.
- Workers have revenue quotas.

[Between Two Brunettes @twobrunettespod]

We sat down with @JasonZoltak, Co-Founder of @hiretofu, to talk through how customer feedback led him straight into a $96 billion fraud problem.

In this conversation we get into the pivot that changed everything, the North Korean IT worker scams targeting hiring teams, and what it took to build a fraud platform.

Full episode with Jason out now! Links in the comments👇🏻

#tofu #fraudprevention #hrtech #recruitingtech #startupfounders #cybersecurity #jasonzoltak #betweentwobrunettes

[tofu @hiretofu]

Episode 2: The operation

Episode 2 of the Brian series revolves around the actual teams that help run the operation, see how they all work together to bring it to life!

If you're interested in learning more, come talk to us: https://t.co/58zR00uxMd

[tofu @hiretofu]

Tofu launched a sitcom… because what tech company doesn’t have their own show?

We’re calling it ‘The Brian Series’.

Candidate fraud still needs education despite the noise its in the media.

This is our part to educate those that are still unaware.

Episode 1. Enjoy.

[Jason Zoltak @thetofudude]

My tech startup just spent our whole seed round on producing a TV show...
crazy?
you're crazy for thinking it's not crazy.
@hiretofu
@mehakgrover21
@lessin
@carterkev
@chrisfhoward
@micahjay1

[Jason Zoltak @thetofudude]

@hiretofu is building its own deepfake models.
We bid for an RFP against some the top deepfake detectors on the market.
tofu outperformed them all.
mass appeal begets results.
we're focused on the interview setting.
im excited.

[tofu @hiretofu]

So we started building our own.

Deepfakes in interviews are getting really good, really fast.

Genuinely believe in 12 months we'll be close to indistinguishable from real or fake. Maybe not 100% there but close.

More here - https://t.co/QSGjiY44zv

3/3

[tofu @hiretofu]

tofu is building its own deepfake detection models for the interview setting.

Why?

General deepfake companies are trained on media -- news clips, social video, public footage. The signals they look for aren't designed for interviews.

1/3

[tofu @hiretofu]

Candidly, our plan was to build on top of an existing vendor. When we dug into the quality, it confirmed nobody was optimizing for the hiring use case. It also made us and our customers highly vulnerable. We had one vendor sunset their API while we built on top of it.

2/3

[tofu @hiretofu]

2/2
Deepfake fraud attempts in hiring jumped 1,300% from 2023 to 2024, and the tools hiring teams have been using weren't built for it, so the reception makes sense.
If your hiring team is also seeing things that don't add up - come talk to us!

[tofu @hiretofu]

1/2
A few weeks ago, we launched deepfake detection for live interviews.

The response has been… a lot.

We're getting demo requests from companies we've never spoken to, and recruiting leaders are zeroing in on our seat-swap detection in particular.

[tofu @hiretofu]

Dig into our blog for this week to learn more -
https://t.co/EkhnuFn3gl

[tofu @hiretofu]

We spend a lot of time talking about how to catch hiring fraud. The signals, the tools, the checks etc.

What we talk about less is the other side of it, the steps fraudsters take to pull it off in the first place. You can't fully understand one without the other.

[tofu @hiretofu]

We put together this deepfake version of a real video in a few minutes, using free tools and no effort.

The fraudulent candidates in fraud rings however, have access to real tools, time and money to do this. Now think how they are faking their identity?

[tofu @hiretofu]

Deepfakes without a doubt are going to be the new wave of fraud.

However, candidate swapping is the one to be on the lookout for, especially if you're hiring in the thousands. And where the likelihood of colleagues talking about a candidates appearance and voice are low.

[tofu @hiretofu]

…and we would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for Tofu.

Interview Deepfake & Candidate Swap Detection — now live. https://t.co/qKGwXJCzfd

#Deepfake #Fraud #Hiring #Security

[tofu @hiretofu]

You can't see the difference, your recruiter can't see the difference and neither can your ATS.

But...Tofu can.

We catch what everyone else misses. Your next REAL hire starts at https://t.co/U5j2FGuMqn #hiring

#applicantfraud #Recruitment #deepfake