Job seeker urges law to ban AI-driven fake interview listings

While interviewing with an AI-powered hiring bot, Charlie Maclean experienced a rushed, keyword-driven questioning style that left little time for thoughtful answers, prompting concerns that the interaction was a data-collection scheme rather than a genuine recruitment effort. After researching the posting, she believes the company had no intention of filling the role and was instead harvesting her résumé details. Senior lecturers Ben Walker and Andrew Lensen, as well as recruitment executives Bruce Pilbrow and others, note that similar ghost job listings have been reported, particularly on LinkedIn, and warn that they could be used to amass valuable personal data for AI models.

Although recruiters have not seen widespread instances locally, they acknowledge the practice as a growing overseas concern. Maclean’s experience has led her to launch a petition urging Parliament to explicitly prohibit such fraudulent job ads, citing examples of inflated remote-work offers that never materialised. The move aligns with international calls to curb data-driven recruitment scams.