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Someone is pretending to be me

connortumbleson.com

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Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#41

Post by stewarts »

hinkley wrote: post #18
djitz wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A company I was working for wanted to bring on a couple of freelance devs for a short-term project and I had to handle the interviews. I ended up uncovering a whole scheme where an experienced dev in the US would hop on the calls/video interview and then the actual work would be handed off to some other people based overseas. If you tried to contact the “dev” for something, your call would be routed to a google voice…

I was once pulled in to observe (in the “are you seeing this shit?” sense) an interview where someone off screen was answering questions and the person on camera was moving his lips. I’m not sure if they wanted me to share in the joke, or verify that there was no form of latency that would make lips and audio fail so badly to line up. I’m pretty good at pattern matching. There was no pattern. It was two guys pulling…

Had similar while hiring for a Sr Dev. The person who first joined the call was not able to articulate any of the frontend or backend work they had done at the previous contracted company.

Call goes static, call drops.

"Person" rejoins. Who is obviously a completely different person who was able to thoroughly fill in the previous details missed.

We ended the call there. Mistake: didn't require video for the session when the first individual proclaimed they were having issues with video.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#42

Post by sarchertech »

Gh0stRAT wrote: post #33
KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #15

Why didn't they make a up totally fake person with a fake history instead of using a real person? I feel like it's possible to do, even fake a github.

If they want to actually start and collect a few paychecks, then they'll need to pass a background check from HireRight or whoever. This'll probably include transcript checks, verifying past employment, etc. Much easier to just use a real person's identity.

They would also need to steal the persons SSN and likely need to get through one of those identity check questionnaires from credit agencies. And they’d probably need to fake an ID as well.

Non trivial stuff for a specific target.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#43

Post by ryandrake »

macintux wrote: post #3

I could sure use a flowchart to follow this story. Baffling level of fraud.

Whenever I read these kinds of super-complicated scams, I can't help but think if the scammer would have instead invested all that time and effort into legitimate tech and interviewing skills, he/she could have just come in the front door! It's like the person who spends hundreds of hours putting together the perfect exam cheating scheme, where they could have instead put in half of that time actually studying!

Or, in video form, the Kay & Peele Bank Heist[1]

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgYYOUC10aM

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#44

Post by hmm-interesting »

iBotPeaches wrote: post #26

I submitted my own blog here, but then my intentionally configured HN timeouts locked me out. I was wondering why my little Linode was dying. Yeah this was an incredibly odd and creepy experience that I continue to investigate here and there. I really appreciate the interviewer for letting me stay on and confront the imposter.

Username seems familiar. I have spent a lot time with your apktool, few years ago. For the first time, I saw your real name and photo. Thank you for this amazing tool.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#45

Post by throwawaysleep »

hinkley wrote: post #18
djitz wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A company I was working for wanted to bring on a couple of freelance devs for a short-term project and I had to handle the interviews. I ended up uncovering a whole scheme where an experienced dev in the US would hop on the calls/video interview and then the actual work would be handed off to some other people based overseas. If you tried to contact the “dev” for something, your call would be routed to a google voice…

I was once pulled in to observe (in the “are you seeing this shit?” sense) an interview where someone off screen was answering questions and the person on camera was moving his lips. I’m not sure if they wanted me to share in the joke, or verify that there was no form of latency that would make lips and audio fail so badly to line up. I’m pretty good at pattern matching. There was no pattern. It was two guys pulling…

I did this for a friend to help him land a job. We got away with it.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#46

Post by Ancapistani »

I wonder how widespread this really is?

If it's reasonably common, there might be a place for a "reputation protection" service in the tech community - a service that watches various contracting and hiring sites for its members names, then notifies the real person when their name is used.

I could see it being a real issue in the future if someone's professional reputation is tarnished this way. If a prospective employer searched for a candidate and found multiple profiles with very different skills listed, that would be a huge red flag. Worse, if the fraudulent person was hired and then fired, that information could find its way to places where the real person is applying.

If they were able to successfully land a job like this, I could also see that messing with the real person's tax situation.

... I'm off to look for my name on Upwork, I guess.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#47

Post by enviclash »

This exposes the truth about showcasing who we are all the time all around the internet, why too many details are needed out there anyway? I will keep posting my CV online, but really, it makes me feel like I should not.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#48

Post by fatjokes »

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…

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.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#49

Post by lazide »

victorclf wrote: post #6

These kind of frauds are really bad for legitimate remote workers. Hope employers don't get burned and start cutting back on remote opportunities.

A big reason why a lot of companies are trying to push people back to the office is they have low confidence that line managers will catch these kinds of problems, and many more - including 'the guys working 4 jobs and barely doing anything for us', the 'guy starting his own company that competes with us at the same time as working for us', the 'guy who farms out all his work to subs in India', etc.

It's easy to say 'if they don't notice, then clearly it's not a problem' - but it has downstream effects, like broken products, huge legal liabilities for the company including often scary handling of customer data to make it work, and morale hits as other folks pick up on things like this happening and being uncaught.

These are real, albeit currently low percentage/high risk things that happen. The more people get away with it, the higher the percentages of people who will try (people rationalize it to themselves as 'everyone else is doing it', and 'I'd be foolish to not do the same thing everyone else is'.).

The biggest issue I've seen with remote work (in practice), is it makes it really hard for a manager to see and actually understand what's happening (not just what people SAY is happening, which is rarely the same thing), and makes it easier for employees to hide things they don't want others to see. Which leads to more of everything from undiscovered-until-too-late burnout, to team members who have no idea what to do or how to do it, to opportunists grifting.

Re: Someone is pretending to be me

#50

Post by lazide »

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #31
probably_wrong wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the other thread [1] is to be believed there is no guarantee that the developers on the other side has similar skills. No need to dig up arbitrage when it could simply be a scam. Even the person they hired here to pretend to be Connor said himself that's he's just a junior that would pretend to be a senior. Maybe the idea is simply to get a well-paid job, work a couple months, get fired (maybe even with a generous…

Yeah it could be "just" a scam though the arbitrage is really a scam too. The other thread's doesn't make sense because the dev is still trying to work despite being immediately id'ed as a different person on zoom. This scam only makes sense to me to be doing something like stealing the signing bonus but actually trying to be a dev is curiously naive or stupid.

If the scammers found a naive patsy to be the 'employee' and used an experienced dev to do the interview, it makes sense.

At many companies, they wouldn't necessarily notice the difference right away too, if someone was pretending to work. Management is often overloaded or checked out. Depending on ethnicity, they might also be unwilling to bring up the issue.

For example, if the patsy sticks with it, who is going to call the bluff - especially if no one took a picture?

They could claim the manager was being racist by not being able to recognize them or something. If someone IS not great at recognizing/telling apart, say, Indians, it could sow doubt that would make it harder to address. And that is a lot of people in the US.

The longer the delay, and the more legal buttons get pushed, the more the company pays out before the scam is over, and the more lucrative it is.

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