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I almost got hacked by a 'job interview'

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

#221

Post by oofbey »

teiferer wrote: post #213
codingdave wrote: post #174

I'm seeing red flags all over the story. "Blockchain" being the first one. The use cases for that are so small, it is a red flag in and of itself. Then asking you to run code before a meeting? No, that doesn't "save time", that is driving you to take actions when you don't yet know who is asking. Still, I appreciate the write-up. It is a great example of a clever attack, and I'm going to watch out more for such thing…

Doing this in the context of blockchain is probably a filter. Only folks who don't think his is all a scam anyway would apply there. So you filter for getting the more gullible folks. That are more likely to have a wallet somewhere. Just like nigerian prince scams are always full of typos and grammar issues. Because only those not recognizing that as obvious scams click the link and thereby this is a filter to increa…

That’s a rude way to put it. I think crypto is full on BS but I have many very smart, self aware friends who are into blockchain.

What this is a strong filter for people likely to have crypto wallets on their dev machines.

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

#222

Post by oofbey »

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 : )

A docker container isn’t as bulletproof as a VM but it would certainly block this kind of attack. They’re super fast and easy to spin up.

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

#223

Post by georgecmu »

devy wrote: post #16

The pseudonym "Mykola Yanchii" on LinkedIn [1] doesn't look real at all. Click "More" button -> "About this profile", RED FLAGS ALL OVER. -> Joined May 2025 -> Contact information Updated less than 6 months ago -> Profile photo Updated less than 6 months ago Funny things, this profile has the LinkedIn Verified Checkmark and was verified by Persona ?!?! -> This might be a red flag for Persona service itself as it migh…

PSA: If you are logged in to LinkedIn, then clicking on a LinkedIn profile registers your visit with the owner -- it's a great way for someone to harvest new people to target.

On another note, what's unreal about the pseudonym? It's a Ukrainian transliteration of Николай Янчий (Nikolay Yanchiy). Here's a real person with this name: https://life.ru/p/1490942

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

#225

Post by oofbey »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #18
jzebedee wrote: post #7

The article never really addresses if it was a totally fake setup or a real crypto company scamming interviewees. Does "Symfa" exist? Does the "Chief Blockchain Officer"?

I think it's a real company. https://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/SearchRe... ~~Scammers probably got access to the guy's account.~~ (how to make strikethrough...) He changed his LinkedIn to a different company. I guess check verifications when you get messages from "recruiters."

On LinkedIn can’t you create an account and claim to be an employee of any company? They don’t do email verification to make you prove employment do they?

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

#226

Post by palmotea »

zamadatix wrote: post #116
palmotea wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It looks like the LinkedIn account and site are really the same person to me, just keep in mind it's not uncommon for Indian IT workers to adopt an anglicized name in this kind of context. I've never encountered an Indian IT worker who does that, but I'd say a majority of Chinese IT workers go by an English name.

It's definitely significantly more common from China. I think part of it is Indian names can often be made easier for English speakers to work with anyways + cultural trends in recent times have made having unfamiliar sounding names less of a big deal over time. One of our teams is in Bangaluru with ~100 folks and maybe 8 of them bother using anglicized names in calls/emails.

> One of our teams is in Bangaluru with ~100 folks and maybe 8 of them bother using anglicized names in calls/emails.

Also I've gotten the impression that at least a few my coworkers in Bangalore with anglicized names are Christian. I haven't pried to confirm, but in a couple cases their names don't fit the pattern of being adopted for working with foreigners (e.g. their last name is biblical).

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

#227

Post by silexia »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #40
silexia wrote: post #2

I own a company and get contacted daily by tons of applicants who scammers took advantage of using fake similar domains and such. My opinion is that scammers, wherever they are in the world, should get bombed. Criminals only stop when the risks are higher than the rewards. And we need to stop victim blaming companies and individuals.

>> Criminals only stop when the risks are higher than the rewards. I would say they just transition to something else where there is a lower risk with the same reward.

Transition to lower risk, lower reward pursuits like a real job that performs a service or creates a good and thus helps others.

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

#228

Post by silexia »

throwaway48476 wrote: post #22
silexia wrote: post #2

I own a company and get contacted daily by tons of applicants who scammers took advantage of using fake similar domains and such. My opinion is that scammers, wherever they are in the world, should get bombed. Criminals only stop when the risks are higher than the rewards. And we need to stop victim blaming companies and individuals.

Scams are de facto legal. In many countries the economy is dependent on scamming.

Hence bombing scammers wherever they are.

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

#229

Post by pants2 »

oofbey wrote: post #221
teiferer wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing this in the context of blockchain is probably a filter. Only folks who don't think his is all a scam anyway would apply there. So you filter for getting the more gullible folks. That are more likely to have a wallet somewhere. Just like nigerian prince scams are always full of typos and grammar issues. Because only those not recognizing that as obvious scams click the link and thereby this is a filter to increa…

That’s a rude way to put it. I think crypto is full on BS but I have many very smart, self aware friends who are into blockchain. What this is a strong filter for people likely to have crypto wallets on their dev machines.

A freelance crypto developer is likely to have access to repos of other Blockchain projects, once his machine is compromised the attackers may be able to push malicious code to other repos and spread the virus or execute an attack like the one on Safe.

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

#230

Post by CobrastanJorji »

codingdave wrote: post #174

I'm seeing red flags all over the story. "Blockchain" being the first one. The use cases for that are so small, it is a red flag in and of itself. Then asking you to run code before a meeting? No, that doesn't "save time", that is driving you to take actions when you don't yet know who is asking. Still, I appreciate the write-up. It is a great example of a clever attack, and I'm going to watch out more for such thing…

During the height of blockchain, there were plenty of good, legitimate jobs. The things they were building were some combination of inane, criminal, or stupid, but the jobs themselves were often quite real. I knew more than one person being paid $300k+/yr building something completely stupid like a collectible pet dragon breeding simulator because a VC thought it had a decent chance of being the next monkey coin or something. Sure, you had to get a new job every six months as each VC ran out of money, and sure you were making the world a worse place, but hey, it's a living.
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