Tell HN: Remote Work Scam

This year, I retired from a FAANG job, but I have a profile on a freelancing website to coach people for tech interviews. (Unlike many, I always enjoyed the interview process, and have been told many times I'm a great interviewer.) This provides a small amount of income and keeps my brain occupied.

Recently, I was contacted to participate in a remote work scam, where I would pose as the face of a remote worker. They offered 20%, all I needed to do would be attend the interviews, meetings, and pose as this person. The scammer already had a fake linkedin profile, interviews lined up, and just needed a willing participant.

I've contacted my local Attorney General to file a complaint, and am investigating how to let the freelancing site know this is taking place.

While I've known things like this could exist, this is the first time I've seen one play out in real-time. I'm posting this informationally to let people know this is actually starting to happen.

Good luck with hiring out there, people.

There have been some interesting stories and posts about this on HN in the past few months, with someone even going along with the scam for a bit to alert the employer and call out the scammer etc..

I contemplated doing that, but I don't want to waste people's time.

brother, people did this forever, and not just with jobs. interviewing for college is a big one too.

Or actually do work? Clearly the output would be different from what they expect based on the interview. Maybe it's just about that first paycheck and they do it in parallel to multiple companies.