In the past month we've seen a dramatic, seemingly coordinated, increase in engineering applicants whose resumés and backgrounds appear qualified, but who refuse to use their cameras during Zoom interviews and who often can't answer specific questions about their backgrounds. We've wasted a significant amount of time on comms and interviews with over a dozen of these candidates. Anyone else experiencing anything similar?
Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?
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Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?
#2what exactly is the endgame?
Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?
#3About 5 years ago at a previous company we had someone who interviewed well, and then the person who showed up was totally not the same quality person we had talked to previously. I guess the placement strategy at some low quality placement agencies is to just put someone good on the interview and hope the hiring company doesn't notice.
I haven't seen it recently, but I am now in a position where we have good recruiters who filter people before I ever see them.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?
#4what exactly is the endgame?
Good question. As an educational note, please be careful and tell your kids some - unbalanced - people have no other endgame than to annoy you and play with your emotions. To destroy you mentally (sometimes physically as well). Thats their kick. Pretty sure this applies in this case as well. Dont get me wrong, they are humans and deserve respect.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?
#5what exactly is the endgame?
I imagine either:
a) Get hired, collect a paycheck or two while doing the absolute bare minimum (filling out onboarding forms, etc - no real work) and then move on to the next victim company.
or
b) Get hired with the goal of getting access to improperly secured company or user data.
I imagine a) is vastly more common than b).
Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?
#6what exactly is the endgame?
Good question. As an educational note, please be careful and tell your kids some - unbalanced - people have no other endgame than to annoy you and play with your emotions. To destroy you mentally (sometimes physically as well). Thats their kick. Pretty sure this applies in this case as well. Dont get me wrong, they are humans and deserve respect.
> Dont get me wrong, they are humans and deserve respect.
But why? I feel like we devalue true respect by repeating phrases like this. I'm not saying they deserve to be abused, but why do they deserve respect for solely existing?
EDIT: All the replies seem to be conflating dignity with respect. Your birth gave you the right to your dignity, and no should be able to take that from you. Respect must be earned, and can only be given to you by others.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?
#7This 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.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?
#8what exactly is the endgame?
Good question. As an educational note, please be careful and tell your kids some - unbalanced - people have no other endgame than to annoy you and play with your emotions. To destroy you mentally (sometimes physically as well). Thats their kick. Pretty sure this applies in this case as well. Dont get me wrong, they are humans and deserve respect.
Ironically, this is similar to how regular people think of "hackers"
Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?
#9Curious where the candidates are being sourced from - my hunch is that whatever source they're coming from is suddenly being exploited by such people for some reason. I've seen a general increase over the last 1-2 years (so, post-COVID) of candidates who exhibit similar behavior, but it hasn't been the majority of the candidates. I've just chalked it up to remote work being more normal and some people actually being able to get away with this for some time: Googling their way into a few months of employment before being found out for good.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone having issues with job applicant fraud?
#10No post body was provided.