Working With Credential Evaluators to Combat Fraud: AI and the Changing Threat Landscape
Credential fraud continues to pose a challenge. Operation Nightingale is one illustration of its persistent nature; in 2023, the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services disrupted a scheme to produce and sell more than 7,600 fraudulent nursing credentials. It has been estimated that 2,800 individuals were able to access and pass the licensure examination based on these fake credentials (Whitford and Novack 2023). Unqualified health care providers, unfortunately, pose a huge risk to patient safety, making clear the importance of our vigilance.
Fraud has become easier to commit and harder to combat because generative artificial intelligence is evolving rapidly and is increasingly available to anyone with internet access. Generative AI makes it possible for job applicants to create false credentials, documents, references and personal histories. It enables “deepfake” real-time voice and video conversations that present very convincing illusions of people who do not exist. And it is very easy to fabricate convincing transcripts, diplomas and other documents that may be challenging for even the most experienced eye to catch. Gartner predicts that, by 2028, a quarter of job candidate profiles worldwide will be faked (Gartner 2025).
Credential Evaluation
Credential evaluation is one of several vital layers of security that ensure the utility and trustworthiness of credentials. Educational opportunities and labor markets are increasingly global, as more people move from one country to another for work or education. It is not uncommon for people to earn degrees overseas. They may have gone abroad to study, or they may be a foreign national who was born and raised abroad and earned their credentials elsewhere before reaching their current destination. Whatever the case may be, these instances typically call for credential evaluation: the assessment of one’s international qualifications for comparability with locally recognized credentials or other requirements. It is becoming increasingly urgent for credential evaluators to grapple with the impact that AI is having on the credentialing and employment landscape.
Credential evaluation demands specific expertise in educational systems around the world. The differences are vast, from accreditation practices to professional regulatory frameworks. Qualifications required for entry into a particular profession can change over time, as well as the educational institutions that teach them. Schools can close, merge or be upgraded to degree-awarding status. Schools can also be faked and are otherwise known as diploma mills. Educational records also vary and change over time. At present, educational recordkeeping is experiencing a transformation from paper-based credentials to digitally issued ones.
Professional credential evaluators have the knowledge and tools to navigate all these aspects of world educational systems and advise as to whether, and to what degree, a credential from one country is comparable to a credential from another. For this reason, many organizations rely on and require a credential evaluation report from their applicants that can contextualize their international credentials. Organizations, individuals and bodies that might request or require a credential evaluation report include immigration authorities, professional licensing and certification bodies, schools and employers. For example, even aspiring cosmetologists in many instances need to demonstrate that they have completed the U.S. equivalent of high school. An evaluation report, produced upon receipt and review of their educational credentials, is then used by the receiving authority to determine their applicants’ eligibility for entry into the country, profession, school, etc. However, the credential evaluation report is typically one of many criteria that must be satisfied.
Where Credential Evaluation and Certification Intersect
Many certification and licensure bodies also require a credential's evaluation report for candidates with overseas qualifications. Credentials are meaningful in part because they are trustworthy statements about an individual’s qualifications. Credential evaluation affirms that a credential offered by a candidate is in fact authentic and does represent the qualifications that the candidate claims. Credential evaluation helps ensure that the eligibility requirements have been met and enables the candidate to advance to the next step of the application process. For example, applicants may need to demonstrate that they hold a certain degree (or comparable degree) before being able to take the certifying or licensing examination.
This effort also applies to accreditation programs. For instance, an international clinical laboratory may be applying for accreditation and during the process, it will need to prove that its international staff meet certain educational standards. Whatever the case may be, certification, licensure and accreditation bodies must make their eligibility requirements clear and clarify that the components of the evaluation report, and language used therein, will meet their needs. Misinterpretations of the evaluation report would be potentially costly.
Certification and licensure bodies should also actively engage with credential evaluators at the end of the credentialing life cycle. For example, credential evaluators, here and abroad, may be called upon to assess the very certifications that they have awarded. As such, evaluators will need to verify these credentials and understand what they represent as part of their comparative analysis. Continued communication will be key between the two groups, including verification options, updates in the credentials’ content and award format and notifications of any confirmed threats of fraud. In this way, evaluation agencies can participate in any needed efforts to inform regulators who are recipients of the evaluation reports of the corresponding credentials.
Such coordination and communication will protect the integrity of the certification process and prevent activities that can eventually lead to employment fraud. Certification, licensure and accreditation signal that certain standards have been met, and the expertise of the certified individual or entity can be relied upon. Threats of fraud erode trust, damage workforce quality and risk public safety. Newly emerging AI capabilities that can be used by even the most unsophisticated fraudsters demand our attention.
The Changing Threat Landscape
The rise of AI like ChatGPT, which anyone can access from their home computer, has significantly expanded the threat landscape in credentialing. Certification and licensing bodies need to not only worry about test security but also attend to new and rapidly emerging threats. These include bad actors selling bogus certificates, diplomas and other documents in the name of legitimate issuers, or bad actors selling entirely false credentials that compete with legitimate certification and licensing bodies. There are readily available AI tools that can create fake diplomas and certifications in just about any topic, easily and at scale. They can also create websites for fake credential-issuing bodies that look legitimate.
Deepfakes make it challenging for employers to independently verify credentials and employment history. Unfortunately, fraud committed at any stage of the certification process has long-term effects, which can include eroding trust, damaging workforce quality and harming public safety. Now more than ever, threats of AI-enabled fraud call for certification and licensing bodies and credential evaluators to work closely together.
References
- Gartner (2025) “Voice of the Candidate Survey Analysis (2025): Competition, Talent Attractors and Candidate Fraud.” https://www.gartner.com/document-reader/document/6762034
- Whitford, Emma and Janet Novack (2023). “How Thousands of Nurses Got Licensed with Fake Degrees.” Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2023/02/21/how-thousands-of-nurses-got-licensed-with-fake-degrees/