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I almost got hacked by a 'job interview'

blog.daviddodda.com

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Re: I almost got hacked by a 'job interview'

#161

Post by ep103 »

kwar13 wrote: post #134

I had a very similar experience: https://kaveh.page/blog/job-interview-scam I would never agree to run someone's code on my own machine that didn't come from a channel I initiated. The odd time I've ran someone else's code, ALWAYS USE A VM!

How are you guys spinning up vms, specifically windows vms, so quickly? I used to use virtual box back in the day, but that was a pain and required a manual windows OS install.

I'm a few years out of the loop, and would love a quick point in the right direction : )

Re: I almost got hacked by a 'job interview'

#162

Post by oasisbob »

DavidDodda wrote: post #68
nubg wrote: post #9

This article was written by an LLM. I get that the author might be self-conscious about his English writing skills, but I would still much rather read the original prompt that the author put into ChatGPT, instead of the slop that came out. The story - if true - is very interesting of course. Big bummer therefore that the author decided to sloppify it. David, could you share as a response to this comment the original…

thanks for the feedback. just fyi - this went though 11 different versions before reaching this point. so I am not able to share the full chat because i used Claude with google docs integration. but hears the google doc i started with https://docs.google.com/document/d/1of_uWXw-CppnFtWoehIrr1ir... this and the following prompt ``` 'help me turn this into a blog post. keep things interesting, also make sure you take a…

Normally I would be coming here to complain about how distasteful AI writing is, and how frequently authors accidentally destroy their voice and rhetoric by using it.

Thanks for sharing your process. This is interesting to see

Re: I almost got hacked by a 'job interview'

#163

Post by nradov »

blactuary wrote: post #96

"transforming real estate with blockchain" is the only red flag needed

Right, any sort of "blockchain" company is assumed to be a scam by default. I'm not trying to blame the victim here but anyone unaware of that reality has been living in a cave for the past few years.

Re: I almost got hacked by a 'job interview'

#165

Post by cortesoft »

devy wrote: post #66
Aurornis wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Create an account and let it age. Seasoned accounts are a positive heuristic in many domains, not just LinkedIn. For example, I some times use web.archive.org to check a company's domain to see how far back they've been on the web. Even here on HN, young accounts (green text) are more likely to be griefing, trolling, or spreading misinformation at a higher rate than someone who has been here for years.

> Seasoned accounts are a positive heuristic in many domains, not just LinkedIn. Yep. This is how the 3 major credit bureaus is the United States to verify your identity. Your residence history and your presences on the distributed Internet is the HARDES to fake.

> Your residence history and your presences on the distributed Internet is the HARDEST to fake.

Only if you don’t plan ahead. I can’t remember which book/movie/show it was from, but there was a character who spent decades building identities by registering for credit cards, signing up for services, signing leases, posting to social media, etc so that they could sell them in the future. Seems like it would be trivial to automate this for digital only things.

Re: I almost got hacked by a 'job interview'

#166

Post by neilv »

sethammons wrote: post #137
fsckboy wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dfe DFE "deleted everything"

Why censor your answer? The F is for Fucking. DFE: Delete Fucking Everything.

  Th y w r   ele ing ev ryt  ng ve y sl wly.

Re: I almost got hacked by a 'job interview'

#167

Post by rjsw »

ljm wrote: post #135
devy wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seasoned accounts are a positive heuristic in many domains, not just LinkedIn. Yep. This is how the 3 major credit bureaus is the United States to verify your identity. Your residence history and your presences on the distributed Internet is the HARDES to fake.

Same in the UK (which is currenty a contentious issue again with Digital ID), because there is no concept of having a cryptographic signature tied to your identity in the way it is done in other EU countries. Instead you need: - five years of address history - a recent utility bill or a council tax bill that has your full address - maybe a bank statement - passport or driving license It just so happens that Experian,…

Council Tax bills may be possible to fake. I received a paper one yesterday for an unknown name, someone had registered online that they were moving to my address which cancelled my own account, I guess they could have asked for a copy of the bill to be emailed to them.

Re: I almost got hacked by a 'job interview'

#168

Post by culll_kuprey »

devy wrote: post #66
Aurornis wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Create an account and let it age. Seasoned accounts are a positive heuristic in many domains, not just LinkedIn. For example, I some times use web.archive.org to check a company's domain to see how far back they've been on the web. Even here on HN, young accounts (green text) are more likely to be griefing, trolling, or spreading misinformation at a higher rate than someone who has been here for years.

> Seasoned accounts are a positive heuristic in many domains, not just LinkedIn. Yep. This is how the 3 major credit bureaus is the United States to verify your identity. Your residence history and your presences on the distributed Internet is the HARDES to fake.

> Your residence history and your presences on the distributed Internet is the HARDES to fake.

When I was 18 with little to no credit trying to do things. Financial institutions would often hit me with security questions like this.

But, I was incredibly confused because many of the questions had no valid answer. Somehow these institutions got the idea that I was my stepmother or something and started asking me about address and vehicles she owned before I ever knew her.

Re: I almost got hacked by a 'job interview'

#169

Post by culll_kuprey »

mapt wrote: post #130
Aurornis wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Create an account and let it age. Seasoned accounts are a positive heuristic in many domains, not just LinkedIn. For example, I some times use web.archive.org to check a company's domain to see how far back they've been on the web. Even here on HN, young accounts (green text) are more likely to be griefing, trolling, or spreading misinformation at a higher rate than someone who has been here for years.

All of the Year 1 Facebook accounts with more than a decade of activity that have been inexplicably banned and deleted in 2025 salute you.

Somehow though they can’t ban all the 1 month old accounts running real estate scams from marketplace.

Re: I almost got hacked by a 'job interview'

#170

Post by kwar13 »

ep103 wrote: post #161
kwar13 wrote: post #134

I had a very similar experience: https://kaveh.page/blog/job-interview-scam I would never agree to run someone's code on my own machine that didn't come from a channel I initiated. The odd time I've ran someone else's code, ALWAYS USE A VM!

How are you guys spinning up vms, specifically windows vms, so quickly? I used to use virtual box back in the day, but that was a pain and required a manual windows OS install. I'm a few years out of the loop, and would love a quick point in the right direction : )

For coding I normally run Linux VMs. But Windows should be doable as well. If you do a fresh install every time then sure it takes a lot of time, but if you keep the install in VirtualBox then it's almost as fast as you rebooting a computer.
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