3 ms·

I have no reason to push a narrative, and I can tell you the same thing happened to my boss hiring someone for the team I’m on.

boltzmann-brain 4y ago
It's happened to everyone. I'm not even saying you made this up. You definitely have something to say about this, as it is a common occurrence. What I'm saying is that it's worrying that there are many front-page posts that /ask specifically about this/. It's like facebook groups being flooded with "Ask FB: anyone live close to a 5G tower and get headaches?" Most people in cities do. It's the /question/ that builds the narrative. Not your anecdote. So again, why is this specific point being dredged up this often recently?
- imron 4y ago
  > So again, why is this specific point being dredged up this often recently? This sort of fraud has always been around, however covid-19 changed the equation dramatically in favour of the scammers, due to many more companies being willing and able to hire remote employees. This has allowed the scammers to scale in ways that were previously not possible. As the profitability increases due to scale, more scammers are attracted to it, which leads to more people experiencing it, which leads to more people talking and posting about it, which leads to those posts ending up on the front page of HN. I don't think it's a driven narrative, however one of the consequences will be companies lowering their appetite for remote-only work.
  - boltzmann-brain 4y ago
    > covid-19 changed the equation dramatically in favour of the scammers I disagree. The same scam could be pulled any day of the year before the pandemic. And eventually those who saw the extreme profitability of this made a "plausibly deniable" outsourcing shop and ran things that way.
    - imron 4y ago
      Yes, the scammers could have pulled this scam any day of the year before the pandemic, and I’m sure they did, but that’s only one side of the equation. Now consider how many companies were willing to hire fully remote workers before the pandemic, and how many were willing to hire fully remote workers during and after the pandemic, and that will answer why the scammers have been able to scale.

boltzmann-brain 4y ago

It's happened to everyone. I'm not even saying you made this up. You definitely have something to say about this, as it is a common occurrence. What I'm saying is that it's worrying that there are many front-page posts that /ask specifically about this/. It's like facebook groups being flooded with "Ask FB: anyone live close to a 5G tower and get headaches?" Most people in cities do. It's the /question/ that builds the narrative. Not your anecdote. So again, why is this specific point being dredged up this often recently?

imron 4y ago
> So again, why is this specific point being dredged up this often recently? This sort of fraud has always been around, however covid-19 changed the equation dramatically in favour of the scammers, due to many more companies being willing and able to hire remote employees. This has allowed the scammers to scale in ways that were previously not possible. As the profitability increases due to scale, more scammers are attracted to it, which leads to more people experiencing it, which leads to more people talking and posting about it, which leads to those posts ending up on the front page of HN. I don't think it's a driven narrative, however one of the consequences will be companies lowering their appetite for remote-only work.
- boltzmann-brain 4y ago
  > covid-19 changed the equation dramatically in favour of the scammers I disagree. The same scam could be pulled any day of the year before the pandemic. And eventually those who saw the extreme profitability of this made a "plausibly deniable" outsourcing shop and ran things that way.
  - imron 4y ago
    Yes, the scammers could have pulled this scam any day of the year before the pandemic, and I’m sure they did, but that’s only one side of the equation. Now consider how many companies were willing to hire fully remote workers before the pandemic, and how many were willing to hire fully remote workers during and after the pandemic, and that will answer why the scammers have been able to scale.