Fake job seekers are flooding US companies that are hiring for remote positions

This could be solved by companies charging $1 to apply for a given position. Same as charging people a small amount to send emails. Turn the economics in your favor.

Undoubtedly there would be many who would say "I would never spend even one cent to apply for a job position". However, given that such positions tend to pay tens of dollars per hour, and given that a proper application takes at least a few minutes to fill out, I think this is economically unviable. And, of course, if I'm wrong and you now have thousands of applicants anyway, you then have a small fund to draw from for other recruiting activities like in-person interviews.