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Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

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Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#311

Post by JayJee »

snerbles wrote: post #280
Animats wrote: post #105

The fake wire transfer receipt is fraud. That's a criminal offense. Have a talk with the local DA. California has a large prison system, with cell space available. I've never heard of a startup going that far.

Overcrowding is still a problem with California's prisons [0], to the point where inmates are getting dumped into smaller communities through realignment under AB 109 [1]. Hopefully the perps involved will get plenty of hotbunking time, though. [0] www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24980457/california-prison-overcrowding-governor-asks-court-more-time [1] http://patch.com/california/gilroy/bp--ab-109-californias-fe.…

-_-

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#312

Post by astrodust »

einhverfr wrote: post #182
choiwisely wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are very few ways to tell accurately from the outset at first who's going to screw you over Pay close attention to how they treat others.

Totally second this. Particularly look at: 1 How they treat their customers 2 How they treat their affiliates 3 How they encourage their affiliates to treat their customers.

How they treat wait staff in a restaurant is often extremely illuminating.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#313

Post by jomamaxx »

dalke wrote: post #264
jomamaxx wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nonononono. You're hired as an employee. There is a legal and ethical agreement for them to pay you at the intervals agreed upon in your contract. There are no ifs or buts about it, no invoicing them, no excuses for 'just started'. Payroll is NOT hard." No - you are completely wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong - or even remotely immoral - about paying using invoicing while a company gets going. It's common an…

Could you enlighten me as to the mechanics? If my contract says I'll be paid monthly on the 15th, when do I send in the invoice? Are the payment terms net-10, net-30, or longer? Do I need to break out sick or vacation days as its own line item? What about the deductions? Who is responsible for figuring out and paying the payroll tax? Because it sounds like asking for an invoice is a way for the company to avoid payin…

"Could you enlighten me as to the mechanics? If my contract says I'll be paid monthly on the 15th, when do

I send in the invoice? Are the payment terms net-10, net-30, or longer?

Do I need to break out sick or vacation days as its own line item? What about the deductions?"

If you are having difficulty grasping this - you should not work for an early stage startup that is pre-funding. You are expecting very standard 'employeeship'.

If you are an 'employee' of the company - yes - you are required to be paid with W2's etc. - of course.

But if you're not obligated to be an employee of a company to accept equity - or other kinds of payment for services rendered.

As far as 'invoicing' - either you're being sarcastic or you've never done such a thing. You send an invoice, and you get paid. You have to claim it yourself in terms of taxation. As far as 'terms' - I'm hoping you are kidding. Either you get paid or you don't.

The company in this article I think was well past the time wherein they should have had had payroll set up - no doubt about it.

At the same time - it's absurd how confused many of you seem to be about the simple mechanics of getting paid.

You do not need a payroll system (i.e. W2s) while you are in the most early stages of a company.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#314

Post by 20yrs_no_equity »

awinder wrote: post #259
jomamaxx wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Startup or not, you don't offload the risks of making payroll onto your employees." What are you talking about? Invoicing your startup for a payment is perfectly normal, and has nothing to do with 'offloading the risks of making payroll'. Again - getting paid without a pay stub is utterly irrelevant to a new startup. What matters is getting paid and hopefully it's done in an above the board manner, but the transfer…

"If you are getting paid consistently - through invoicing or whatever means, this is a good signal." But that's not what happened, because they were late, enough so that people were filing their rent late. How about -- "Startup or not, don't take your employees for 'free credit'"? Or, more brief: "Fake it till you make it, but don't break the flippin' law".

No, don't fake it. The reality is, investors know you are starting out. It's not a problem to write checks. All you need is a business account. Yes, make the pay stubs but they can be made on a typewriter.

Just don't fake it. Don't fake anything. Don't sell products that don't exist. Don't lie to your employees about your financial state (I see this happen a lot because people are ashamed to admit that the company is having troubles... this is a bad strategy). Don't lie about the state of the product (something that happens when people are naive enough to not realize how much testing is needed.)

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#315

Post by AMC4x4 »

lemonghost wrote: post #17
bvanslyke wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Looks like it's now called "1for.one". Their CEO has a stock photo on LinkedIn and owned a mining corp.

I think 1for.one is the old name, then they changed it to jobsonic and, more recently, to wrkriot.com.

Yep. If you look on LinkedIn, you'll see most of the employees for JobSonic actually haven't updated their LinkedIn profiles. They still say 1for.one.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#316

Post by TechieKid »

morgosmaci wrote: post #292
TechieKid wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, what if we already opened the link on a 6.0 Android device? Can I check in some manner whether it's infected or do I just have to treat it as untrustworthy and trash it?

You would have to download the app they spammed with vibrates and let it install.

Thanks for the reply! This isn't very clear to me. I actually opened the link in a new tab with Firefox for Android, had Firefox ask me for permission to access my camera and mike(?), denied those and closed the tab as I read pascalmemories' comment i.e. I never actually saw the content, so "you would have to download the app they spammed with vibrates" doesn't mean anything to me. Perhaps that's a good thing? :)

I've turned off the phone for now, and it's not 6.0, rather it's 6.x (up to date with August 2016 patches IIRC), not sure if that makes a difference. I'm mostly worried about the malware being a drive-by download/infection.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#317

Post by CIPHERSTONE »

uiri wrote: post #37

I think the title should be changed back. The author glosses over the single, real biggest red flag: She never received any paystubs and the company was late on payroll as of before she was hired I have never, ever been paid without either a paystub (as an employee) or generating an invoice which the business then paid (as a freelancer). The outright refusal to share how they arrived at the figure on her cashier's ch…

I know this to be the biggest red flag from personal experience. Happened to me at a small start up in Illinois of all places 20+ years ago. I was fresh out of college the naive to things, trusted in the owner. Got royally screwed. It was a formative experience that I wouldn't wish on anyone but it taught me a very valuable lesson the result of which is that I have only worked at well established companies since.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#318

Post by st3v3r »

Chris2048 wrote: post #213
pyre wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "victim blaming" is a loaded term to avoid any examination of the responsibility of the person who got screwed. Are you claiming that "victim blaming" isn't a thing? There are plenty of people that want to shuttle blame/responsibility around, and will blame the victim for not making better choices, while absolving all others of guilt. Take this incident as an example: "Well, none of those employees are being forced…

> Are you claiming that "victim blaming" isn't a thing? I think the point is clear: "victim blaming" isn't a thing" isn't that claim, so why are you asking? Your example is one where some fault lies with the employee, namely employment due-diligence, although not entirely. Its possible for both parties to have partial blame for the totality of faults leading to a situation. A "victim" can also be at fault, as in the…

No. None of the fault whatsoever lies with the employee. None. Thus, your example is one of classic victim blaming, which is completely abhorrent.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#319

Post by jlian »

delwilliams wrote: post #310

The reason she did not see the red flags is because that's what being conned looks like. They don't call them con artist for nothing, and he seems up the chain on mastery.

I went through a similar experience. In hindsight the red flags were extremely obvious but I was also in extreme denial. I really wanted it to be true and was not willing to face whatever I would be able to dig up. So I didn't try. Paychecks were bouncing and I was still clasping onto the sliver of hope in order to not lose the job.

I was (am still am) a new grad with no experience but I had co-workers with families and responsibilities. We all wanted it to be true too badly and willfully ignored the warning signs.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#320

Post by mgkimsal »

blumentopf wrote: post #237

It was done in an afternoon according to its creator: https://mobile.twitter.com/WrkRiot/status/769357556762324992 https://mobile.twitter.com/tessstevens/status/76935690644803...

"Rebranded @wrkriot today into a killer, no frills modern brand identity. BTW you can build a new brand in an afternoon."

"Who says you can't build something amazing in an afternoon?"

Well, you can do something amazing in an afternoon. wrkriot just... isn't it.

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