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Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?

#61

Post by claytonjy »

bb88 wrote: post #30

It's a problem here too. Even if they use their camera, it doesn't mean they don't have someone feeding them answers to questions. Phone interviews are even more sketchy since the person who may be answering the questions is a completely different person who shows up on day 1. We had one person we hired as a contractor, but then her voice changed on the phone, and started calling people by their last names in chat. I…

> while he was supposed to be working for one company he was making public github commits for the second

If you're setting their hours, doesn't that make them an employee rather than a contractor, legally speaking?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?

#62

Post by ericol »

Some time ago (~6 months) my company was looking to hire a programmer.

We don't have a established process for this as it was some years since we hired a coder, but then we are in the industry (hiring) so published a couple of adverts here and there and we got the thing rolling.

Most of the applicants were seriously under qualified, and my colleagues had to go through a lot of rubbish in the form of CVs in order to find suitable candidates.

But a few of them were good enough to at least make it to the interview step, and off the invitations went.

One of'em candidates - Let's call him "Rajeed" - promptly accepted the meeting, and due to the small amount of people that made it that far - let me remind you, first interview - my colleagues were slightly excited, but at the same time also weary as our experience with coders from India is far from stellar.

You can imagine my colleagues surprise when they opened the Zoom session and Rajeed was nowhere to be found. Instead, there were two person of whom we knew nothing about - apparently they were running some sort of coding shop - and when my colleagues asked for Rajeed they just said "Oh, it's OK, it's OK. You can talk to us."

For obvious reasons the meeting didn't last long.

We ended up hiring a coder from Poland that, even thought he was decent, was miles ahead of the rest of the candidates.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?

#63

Post by inetknght »

janoc wrote: post #28
syngrog66 wrote: post #10

Quoted post unavailable.

You do realize that at some point you will actually need to go to the company your are interviewing with in person and to provide a lot more personal information than just a blurry mugshot from a Zoom call in order to be able to be employed and collect a salary?? Nobody collects "critical PII" using job interviews, no company has time for such nonsense. The companies that do collect such information don't do it using…

> You do realize that at some point you will actually need to go to the company your are interviewing with in person and to provide a lot more personal information than just a blurry mugshot from a Zoom call in order to be able to be employed and collect a salary?

HR these days can be done online -- sign the forms and post a picture of your identification to website that HR controls. 100% remote is a thing these days.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?

#64

Post by vsareto »

claytonjy wrote: post #61
bb88 wrote: post #30

It's a problem here too. Even if they use their camera, it doesn't mean they don't have someone feeding them answers to questions. Phone interviews are even more sketchy since the person who may be answering the questions is a completely different person who shows up on day 1. We had one person we hired as a contractor, but then her voice changed on the phone, and started calling people by their last names in chat. I…

> while he was supposed to be working for one company he was making public github commits for the second If you're setting their hours, doesn't that make them an employee rather than a contractor, legally speaking?

May have billed a specific time span, but also had commits during that span. Dunno how they proved the github account belonged to the contractor though unless they just admitted to it or used the company email to register.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?

#66

Post by fsckboy »

bb88 wrote: post #55
atrettel wrote: post #40

The FBI and other US federal agencies have attributed similar tactics to North Koreans looking to infiltrate particular industries [1-3]. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korean-crypto-job-cand... [2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/17/fbi_korea_freelancers... [3] https://www.wired.com/story/north-korean-it-scammer-alert/

This shit has been going on for the last 5 years or more. I've seen it with non-asian candidates.

China employs non-Chinese to track and interfere with dissidents and critics of China in the US https://news.artnet.com/art-world/us-blames-china-operatives...

and of course, plenty of Russians and Iranians are non-Asian (in appearance, Persia is in Asia of course)

Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?

#67

Post by guhcampos »

jamestimmins wrote: post #25

Once worked at a 3rd party coding interview company as an interviewer, and we had a bunch of grad students from a college who were all clearly cheating. They solved the problem from the top of the page down (rather than organically, as someone would when doing actual programming) in a very specific way. The company didn't want to disqualify those candidates, since we couldn't prove cheating, but it was pretty fascina…

I feel that most avid readers of the green book would behave like that. If you consider that cheating its probably better to find another interview method.

(I do hate code interviews)

Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?

#68

Post by rabuse »

kube-system wrote: post #24
paxys wrote: post #7

This is exactly why the technical interview process is what it is. No point wasting time asking about backgrounds and describing past projects (all of it can be easily faked). Make them write code in front of you live as part of the screening round.

I don't like making people write code live. Some really good coders just don't work well with people looking over their shoulder. I prefer giving people a take-home with an original problem to solve. Then, follow that up with a live call where you ask them some questions about it.

Yep, that's me. I feel like an experiment when people are watching what I'm doing, even if it's something as mundane as browsing the web.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?

#69

Post by yardie »

bb88 wrote: post #30

It's a problem here too. Even if they use their camera, it doesn't mean they don't have someone feeding them answers to questions. Phone interviews are even more sketchy since the person who may be answering the questions is a completely different person who shows up on day 1. We had one person we hired as a contractor, but then her voice changed on the phone, and started calling people by their last names in chat. I…

> A third contractor I knew was trying to do two jobs at the same time.

I mean this literally how contractors work. Unless they were taking your IP and using it for another company I don’t see the issue.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?

#70

Post by atdrummond »

We had an issue with a candidate who was attempting to use our access to processing networks to facilitate financial crime. It was a coordinated state actor tactic.

Happy to share more info with founders over email or IM; I don’t want to publicly draw the ire of those who attempted this.

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