SmartRecruiters is a cloud-based talent acquisition platform that ensures hiring success through better candidate experiences, recruiter efficiency, and data-driven decisions. Its Cloud Security team turned to DataDome to combat a surge in bot-generated spam applications and other automated traffic. With DataDome’s Cyberfraud Protection Platform, the company significantly reduced fake traffic and lightened the workload of its technical & support teams. The solution’s fast implementation, accurate detection, and responsive support proved essential. Today, SmartRecruiters enjoys stronger bot protection, and can ensure applications are from genuine job seekers, not bots or automated scripts, effectively distinguishing human users from non‑human traffic at scale.

The challenge: A surge in fake applications leading to operational overload

As a leading talent acquisition platform, SmartRecruiters enables companies to attract, select, and hire top talent. With high visibility in the HR tech space and heavy traffic on its career portals, the company was a target for sophisticated bad bot activity and other automated tools.

Its main problem was an influx of spam applications — automated submissions generated by bots and scripts that clogged workflows. At this stage, the primary objective was to reliably distinguish real human candidates from automated systems, so that spammy, non‑human submissions would never mix with genuine applications.

“This high volume of fake applications created noise for our customers, making it hard to manage candidates,” explains the Cloud Security Engineer. “We had to perform a lot of additional tasks, such as removing fake applications and manually analyzing traffic. This mobilized the resources of several teams.”

Before DataDome, SmartRecruiters had tested another bot mitigation solution, which never delivered on its promise. “The product didn’t end up fitting our needs,” says the Cloud Security Engineer.

At the same time, the stakes were growing. The volume of spam disrupted internal teams but also impacted external stakeholders. Support tickets skyrocketed as customers flagged suspicious candidate profiles, further increasing the company’s operational workload.

The solution: Complete bot mitigation & easy integration with Cloudflare

Determined to find a more effective approach, SmartRecruiters conducted a thorough evaluation of the market. DataDome stood out for its accuracy, customization, and real-time detection capabilities — all critical to telling humans apart from automated traffic without adding friction for legitimate users.

The team chose to deploy DataDome via an out-of-the-box Cloudflare integration, focusing on certain endpoints where the risk was highest, such as registration and application flows. Exactly where it matters most to block non‑human scripts and bots while letting humans through seamlessly!

The ability to configure custom rules was a key feature. Some of SmartRecruiters’ customers use automation to submit applications legitimately. Instead of blocking these interactions, the team whitelisted them based on attributes like ASN or request patterns.

“We adjust the rules to ensure that traffic we trust is never misclassified,” adds the Cloud Security Engineer. “It’s a functionality we really value.”

Thanks to this flexible and targeted deployment, SmartRecruiters found the protection they needed without disrupting their customers’ experience, and with a clear separation between human behavior and non‑human, automated behavior.

The results: Drastic drop in fake applications, regained team efficiency, & industry-leading accuracy

A few weeks after deploying Bot Protect, SmartRecruiters saw a drastic reduction in the number of unwanted applications on its website. “The difference was noticeable almost immediately,” says the Cloud Security Engineer. “The volume dropped significantly.”

With over 6.8 million bad bots blocked every month, DataDome has proven its ability to prevent fake applications and automated threats, stopping bot traffic before it reaches critical hiring flows. Today, malicious bots account for around 10% of the company’s traffic, all of which is automatically filtered at the most sensitive endpoints.

That decrease translated into tangible business value. Support tickets related to spam fell sharply. Internal teams, particularly those responsible for support and security, regained the time they used to spend sorting and cleaning up after bad bots.

“It gave us peace of mind,” adds the Engineering Manager. “We’re happy to now be able to focus more on higher-value tasks.”

Proof of this performance lies in the continuous improvement of detection accuracy. SmartRecruiters recorded a false positive rate of 0.39% before using DataDome, and today, that figure has dropped to just 0.053%.

The Cloud Security team is full of praise for the quality of the cooperation with DataDome’s engineering team.

 “The collaboration has been excellent from the start,” notes the Cloud Security Engineer. “When we see something new or unexpected, we reach out and get a fast response. Usually within minutes, the model is adjusted, and the problem disappears.”

For the team, the return on investment was clear.

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