Марія Бровінська Work 21 March 2025, 14:26

AI clone of Ukrainian IT worker applies for three vacancies in Ukrainian IT companies. Deepfake pretending to be Head of Engineering applies for AI Engineer and AI Architect positions and to foreign employers

An interesting precedent has occurred in Ukrainian IT: recruiters mistook a deepfake video of a candidate for the real thing. The hero of this story was Philip Shurpyk, Head of Engineering at a Ukrainian AI startup.

As he told DOU, the man found out that he was supposedly applying for a job that he never applied for. Moreover, he allegedly went on a video call with recruiters, and his fake resume was selected.

Attention from recruiters

According to Philip, quoted by DOU, on March 19, a familiar recruiter from Kyiv-based MacPaw contacted the IT professional on Facebook to thank him for applying for the Staff AI Research Scientist position. The surprised man said that he had not applied for the position.

«I saw this vacancy and even liked it because it’s really cool. But it’s a bit out of my profile, and I just started working at a new company,» says Philip.

Moreover, at the time the recruiter said Philip had allegedly sent his resume, he was already asleep. «I even checked my browser history to make sure I hadn’t been online,» he continues.

Later, the IT guy saw the same resume — it turned out to be a compilation of his real LinkedIn profile. The resume included real links to Linkedin and GitHub, but a different phone number and email. Also, Philip notes, some details were made up — the wrong location of the company where he worked before.

Shurpyk thought that such actions could be a planned action by scammers. «I suspected that this could be an attack — either on me or on MacPaw because of the hiring of a top engineer. So I changed my LinkedIn password and enabled two-factor authentication for security,» the IT guy says.

Second attempt

And on March 20, a recruiter from another employer — Sigma Software — wrote a message on Telegram asking if he could reconnect to the interview because there were connection problems. That’s how Philip learned that someone had used a deepfake with his face during the interview. At Sigma Software, the specialist assures, he did not apply and did not pass any interviews.

«When she wrote to me, I was at an onsite meeting with my new company and talking to colleagues in person,» the IT worker is quoted as saying by DOU.

Interestingly, according to the recruiter, the scammer who posed as Philip had his microphone turned off during the interview. And the conversation itself lasted less than a minute. She noted that the deepfake was realistic and she did not realize that she was in front of another person, although she had already had experience with similar fakes.

«I think he disconnected because I started speaking Ukrainian. He obviously expected the interview to be in English,» the recruiter noted.

Third case

The story didn’t end there. On March 21, Filipa was unfollowed on LinkedIn by a company that was no longer Ukrainian. A representative of Senovo IT reported that he had received Filipa’s fake resume through the justjoin.it platform.

Not only fakes in recruiting

Philip also said that about a month ago, a former colleague told him that a profile followed him on Instagram, which contained photos of Philip, but with a changed part of his face.

The developer assumes that the person who stole his identity is applying for AI-related vacancies on IT recruitment sites. At first, Philip thought that the scammer’s target was MacPaw. But he later gave up on this idea. Resumes are submitted for AI Engineer and AI Architect positions in different companies and in different countries.

«I am not currently applying for any new positions or scheduling any interviews. This story should serve as another example of being careful and cautious with hiring and interviews,» Philip concludes.

In the Rivne region, scammers robbed a woman by creating a deepfake of her volunteer friend