Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Someone is pretending to be me

connortumbleson.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 395 posts

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#101

Post by yellowstuff »

darau1 wrote: post #81

Someone messaged me on reddit once, and straight up asked me to do exactly this. Below is the message, but I haven't included their name because I think they were at least trying to seem sincere. --- Hi, hope you're doing well. We are looking for a professional interviewee. I'm not sure if you've heard similar thing somewhere. We are a talented developer group specialized in web and mobile software development. We ha…

I've heard of large consulting companies that do a "bait and switch" where the client initially talks to a fantastic technical person prior to signing a contract, then never hears from them again.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#102

Post by Joel_Mckay »

A long while back I was sitting in a coffee shop, and happened to meet a guy recounting his work history to a client. The hilarious part was hearing my life plagiarized off my web CV at the time. Seeing the con describe climbing an antenna mast where I worked was awe inspiring given he was over 350lbs. I tipped off the client to do his own verification after, as there was no way that guy was part of our small team at that time.

Some people are certifiably insane, and will con anyone to make money. Note, confronting psychopaths with proof they are liars is extremely dangerous. These are the people that will hold grudges for decades if they feel you owe them something, or do something nasty.

Weak Stenography in your CV is also good for auto-screening/blacklisting those engaged in social-engineering workers. You would be surprised who shows up. ;)

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#103

Post by darau1 »

jawns wrote: post #99
darau1 wrote: post #81

Someone messaged me on reddit once, and straight up asked me to do exactly this. Below is the message, but I haven't included their name because I think they were at least trying to seem sincere. --- Hi, hope you're doing well. We are looking for a professional interviewee. I'm not sure if you've heard similar thing somewhere. We are a talented developer group specialized in web and mobile software development. We ha…

If it were really true that this development group could deliver according to client expectations, they would do what many other groups do: form a consultancy and hire an English-language speaker not as a fake interview candidate but as a liason. I worked with a firm that did this. Basically, they had one project manager who could speak decent English and about six developers who couldn't. The English-speaking PM was…

I interviewed one guy that seemed to fit this description -- he didn't speak much, and when he did his accent was strong. He had someone with him, that seemed to speak on his behalf.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#104

Post by datavirtue »

mrandypratt37 wrote: post #86

I'm a US-based accountant who is currently interviewing for his first job in software and I was approached by someone on on LinkedIn about an opportunity. Seemed fishy, but figured I could risk 15 minutes. The person set up a meeting between me and a Taiwanese Developer for this exact thing. He said he had 7 years experience and had a contract drafted for he and I to become "business partner" where I would take the m…

We blew "morals" out the air lock long ago. Not to mention, morals are subjective.

I don't understand why corporations are not embracing and encouraging such arrangements.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#105

Post by jjslocum3 »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #69
fatjokes wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, when you put it like that, I can totally see why the interviewer was "awesome" and let the guy stay on. He was totally there for the drama.

Now that I think about it, I bet you could put together a pretty successful YouTube series of messing with zoom interviews in ways just like this. Get someone's identical twin to join the call and make them fight over who's the real one. Bring time travel into it. Make outlandish demands of the interviewer to prove that they're not a Zorblaxian spy.

The US TV series "Impractical Jokers" ran a few sketches in the last few years where they did exactly this...you'd probably enjoy.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#106

Post by travisjungroth »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #76
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #37

This story is much more fun when you come at it from the interviewer's position. You've been doing interviews every week. They're mostly rejections. They're the same questions over and over with minor variation. You're about to repeat the experience for the 18th time and you're 100% on autopilot. But suddenly you're in a spy thriller. This is the greatest thing that's ever happened. Is it a good legal/corporate decis…

> Is it a good legal/corporate decision to hide the person who claims to be the original and let him listen to the interview with the other candidate? Consider the situation from the perspective of the interviewer: They don't have all of the background we did while reading this blog. They haven't even had time to process what Connor #1 said by the time that Connor #2 arrives. The decision to hear them both out for a…

Letting them both in the same room at the same time was probably the safer thing. Maybe there’s an argument, or maybe one bounces, clearing it up.

But having one person hide is riskier. It means a random person could eaves drop on my interview by just pretending to me and telling this story.

I mean, super cool though. I imagine my adrenaline would be going as the interviewer. I’d probably chill out when I realized this was identity theft with extra steps, not a Kyle Reese situation.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#107

Post by dont__panic »

mrandypratt37 wrote: post #86

I'm a US-based accountant who is currently interviewing for his first job in software and I was approached by someone on on LinkedIn about an opportunity. Seemed fishy, but figured I could risk 15 minutes. The person set up a meeting between me and a Taiwanese Developer for this exact thing. He said he had 7 years experience and had a contract drafted for he and I to become "business partner" where I would take the m…

If I can play devil's advocate for a moment...

if the company gets decent work, the non-US participant gets better (and fairer, globally) pay compared to what they'd get locally, and the US participant takes care of the "soft" side of the operation... who's getting hurt?

I can't deny that something smells skeevy about this and I don't think I could ever trust a random foreign developer who I haven't built up a solid relationship with to execute reliably "as me" in the coding side of a role. But if I had a good friend from college who couldn't get a VISA to the US? I dunno, I might be tempted to collaborate. If everybody wins, I'm not sure it's inherently bad. But maybe I'm missing something.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#108

Post by pasc1878 »

yellowstuff wrote: post #101
darau1 wrote: post #81

Someone messaged me on reddit once, and straight up asked me to do exactly this. Below is the message, but I haven't included their name because I think they were at least trying to seem sincere. --- Hi, hope you're doing well. We are looking for a professional interviewee. I'm not sure if you've heard similar thing somewhere. We are a talented developer group specialized in web and mobile software development. We ha…

I've heard of large consulting companies that do a "bait and switch" where the client initially talks to a fantastic technical person prior to signing a contract, then never hears from them again.

That is normal - you have to add to the interview a requirement that you interview and have to approve each person assigned to work for you.

It is amazing how many managers I have worked for who don't do that.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#109

Post by biermic »

Had this happen to me as a client on Upwork.

Interviewed some Italian guy, but when the job started a Russian guy with Asian roots was on the cam.

Somehow I understand his situation, but nevertheless ended the call after one minute.

Post reply on HN