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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 -

by devy 1y ago

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 might contain serious flaws and security vulnerabilities that Cyber criminals are relying on that checkmark to scam more people. Basically, don't trust any profile who's been less than 1yr history even though their work history dated way back, who has Personal checkmark, that should do it. [1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/mykola-yanchii-430883368/overlay/about-this-profile/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mykola-yanchii-430883368/overlay...

koakuma-chan 1y ago
You can click on the verification badge and see if the person has job verification. If not, that's a red flag. I never paid attention to this myself but I will in the future.
- ohman876 1y ago
  Interesting, I didn't know there is such thing on Li! Is this done by past employers?
  - koakuma-chan 1y ago
    You have to add it yourself and verify with your work email.
  - input_sh 1y ago
    You just verify that you have access to an email address that belongs to a company (@example.com) by entering a six digit code they send to your work email. This in theory verifies that you work there, but obviously nothing else like your actual position at the company. From an attacker standpoint, if an attacker gains access to any email address with @example.com, they could pretend to be the CEO of example.com even if they compromised the lowest level employee.
    - devy 1y ago
      This is a optional/invite only feature. LinkedIn doesn't provide that work email validation feature for all employers on their platform. Why did I know that? Because my past startup was requesting LinkedIn to enable that so that we can enable that feature but they said it's an invite only feature. Internally, I think they are only invite those employers who has certain amount of employees and/or revenues to turn it on. Apple / Google developer program uses Dun&Bradstreet to verify company and developer identities. That's another way. But LinkedIn doesn't have that feature (yet).
    - reaperducer 1y ago
      You just verify that you have access to an email address that belongs to a company (@example.com) Bad idea. I never had my work e-mail address on LinkedIn, but then I made the mistake of doing this, and LinkedIn sold my work e-mail address to several dozen companies that are still spamming me a year later.
- tracker1 1y ago
  I honestly didn't even know about the feature until my most recent job when LI offered to verify.
- weinzierl 1y ago
  Some companies don't do job verification (for good reasons).
zahlman 1y ago
How am I supposed to become a real, trustable person on LinkedIn if I'm not already there?
- Aurornis 1y ago
  Create an account and let it age. Seasoned accounts are a positive heuristic in many domains, not just LinkedIn. For example, I some times use web.archive.org to check a company's domain to see how far back they've been on the web. Even here on HN, young accounts (green text) are more likely to be griefing, trolling, or spreading misinformation at a higher rate than someone who has been here for years.
  - devy 1y ago
    > Seasoned accounts are a positive heuristic in many domains, not just LinkedIn. Yep. This is how the 3 major credit bureaus is the United States to verify your identity. Your residence history and your presences on the distributed Internet is the HARDES to fake.
    - megous 1y ago
      That's why you don't fake it. You steal it.
    - flerchin 1y ago
      But account takeover gives all these bona fides.
    - ljm 1y ago
      Same in the UK (which is currenty a contentious issue again with Digital ID), because there is no concept of having a cryptographic signature tied to your identity in the way it is done in other EU countries. Instead you need: - five years of address history - a recent utility bill or a council tax bill that has your full address - maybe a bank statement - passport or driving license It just so happens that Experian, etc. have all of that, and even background checking agencies will depend on it.
bitwize 1y ago
Whoever was operating that profile DFE'd. This is why you archive.
- eli-talktalk 1y ago
  what is dfe
  - fsckboy 1y ago
    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dfe https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dfe DFE "deleted everything"
    - sethammons 1y ago
      Why censor your answer? The F is for Fucking. DFE: Delete Fucking Everything.
      - neilv 1y ago
        Th y w r ele ing ev ryt ng ve y sl wly.
      - jfengel 1y ago
        It's a joke. An older version of the joke, from Usenet, is that RTFM stands for "Read The Manual". The gag is that the newbie asking the question will wonder why the F wasn't included in the expansion, and rapidly figure it out. Or they ask, and you make fun of them for it. The joke is either kinda cerebral or really juvenile... and the tension between the two is part of the joke.
        deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
        Exoristos 1y ago
        Or there were those on Usenet with what at the time was considered basic professionalism.
lawlessone 1y ago
LMAO this post on his page has to be an AI generated map, it puts the UAE in Bangladesh. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mykola-yanchii-430883368_hiring-blockchaindevelopers-web3jobs-activity-7335678978218774528-AYDb https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mykola-yanchii-430883368_hiri... Anyway I think we can add OP's experience to the many reasons why being asked to do work/tasks/projects for interviews is bad.
- bwfan123 1y ago
  yea, And this team-bonding pic has a ghost finger -https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7379209110719983616/ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7379209... On linkedin company pics, look for extra fingers.
  - testplzignore 1y ago
    Prompt: Stereotypical engineers pretending to celebrate. Add 2 points to hotness scale. Whites only.
  - pllbnk 1y ago
    I think this is a real picture. I can't explain the ghost finger, probably just a weird angle but it doesn't give off the generated vibe. The poster of the photo seems to be a real person as well as the person who left a comment. Probably in the OP's case the company was real but the person was impersonating. I had been involved in a couple of these scams recently and the patterns are very similar but approaches slightly different.
kernc 1y ago
> This might be a red flag for Persona service itself as it might contain serious flaws and security vulnerabilities that Cyber criminals are relying on Persona seems to rely solely on NFC with a national passport/ID, so simply stolen documents would work for a certain duration ...
weinzierl 1y ago
"Page Not Found" Someone apparently deleted the profile.
pllbnk 1y ago
Exactly. There are at least several different modes these scammers are operating in but eventually it all boils down to some "technical" part in the interviews where the developer is supposed to run some code from an unknown repository. Nowadays just to be sure, I verify nearly every person's LinkedIn profile's creation date. If the profile has been created less than a few years ago, then most likely our interaction will be over.
- zeven7 1y ago
  I just spin up an EC2 instance for the interview
  - pllbnk 1y ago
    That's the right approach. On the other hand, do you even want to participate in a scam interview?
    - zeven7 1y ago
      Even for legit interviews I don’t want all the random NPM dependencies they’re using running on my computer
georgecmu 1y ago
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 https://life.ru/p/1490942
- physicsguy 1y ago
  You can change a setting so that you only show up as a view but not who you are.
  - blindriver 1y ago
    Unless they pay for it and then they can see everyone who clicks on your profile again.
    - layman51 1y ago
      I don't think this is accurate. I believe if you go into your privacy settings, you can put yourself into a semi-private or a private mode so that your views aren't shown even when you click to view someone who is a LinkedIn Premium member. However, the big disadvantage is that when you put yourself in a private mode, if you are a non-subscribed user, you will not have access to these analytics for your own profile at all. This is covered in this help article, especially the bullet points at the end[0]. [0]: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a568195/ https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a568195/
      - bix6 1y ago
        Is this confirmed? I always thought premium overrode anyone’s privacy. The page doesn’t explicitly say.
        Archonical 1y ago
        I have premium. I can confirm this. Whatever your private browsing page shows is what I see. If you're fully private, all that registers is that someone has looked at my profile but nothing identifying, just a bump in profile views.
Beijinger 1y ago
"LinkedIn Verified Checkmark" I never managed to pass the verification check. Phone always freezes.
awesome_dude 1y ago
> -> Joined May 2025 -> Contact information Updated less than 6 months ago -> Profile photo Updated less than 6 months ago It's a red flag to be a new entrant on a platform. FTR Wikipedia/Stak Overflow have also encountered this problem (with no real solution in sight) and new market entrants (new products) struggle with traction because they're "new" and untested, which is why marketing is such a big thing, and one of the biggest upfront costs for companies entering a market
realaaa 1y ago
ha ha so typical ! verified profile - oh Persona, you had ONE job ! :)

by devy 1y ago

koakuma-chan 1y ago

You can click on the verification badge and see if the person has job verification. If not, that's a red flag. I never paid attention to this myself but I will in the future.

ohman876 1y ago
Interesting, I didn't know there is such thing on Li! Is this done by past employers?
- koakuma-chan 1y ago
  You have to add it yourself and verify with your work email.
- input_sh 1y ago
  You just verify that you have access to an email address that belongs to a company (@example.com) by entering a six digit code they send to your work email. This in theory verifies that you work there, but obviously nothing else like your actual position at the company. From an attacker standpoint, if an attacker gains access to any email address with @example.com, they could pretend to be the CEO of example.com even if they compromised the lowest level employee.
  - devy 1y ago
    This is a optional/invite only feature. LinkedIn doesn't provide that work email validation feature for all employers on their platform. Why did I know that? Because my past startup was requesting LinkedIn to enable that so that we can enable that feature but they said it's an invite only feature. Internally, I think they are only invite those employers who has certain amount of employees and/or revenues to turn it on. Apple / Google developer program uses Dun&Bradstreet to verify company and developer identities. That's another way. But LinkedIn doesn't have that feature (yet).
  - reaperducer 1y ago
    You just verify that you have access to an email address that belongs to a company (@example.com) Bad idea. I never had my work e-mail address on LinkedIn, but then I made the mistake of doing this, and LinkedIn sold my work e-mail address to several dozen companies that are still spamming me a year later.
tracker1 1y ago
I honestly didn't even know about the feature until my most recent job when LI offered to verify.
weinzierl 1y ago
Some companies don't do job verification (for good reasons).

zahlman 1y ago

How am I supposed to become a real, trustable person on LinkedIn if I'm not already there?

Aurornis 1y ago
Create an account and let it age. Seasoned accounts are a positive heuristic in many domains, not just LinkedIn. For example, I some times use web.archive.org to check a company's domain to see how far back they've been on the web. Even here on HN, young accounts (green text) are more likely to be griefing, trolling, or spreading misinformation at a higher rate than someone who has been here for years.
- devy 1y ago
  > Seasoned accounts are a positive heuristic in many domains, not just LinkedIn. Yep. This is how the 3 major credit bureaus is the United States to verify your identity. Your residence history and your presences on the distributed Internet is the HARDES to fake.
  - megous 1y ago
    That's why you don't fake it. You steal it.
  - flerchin 1y ago
    But account takeover gives all these bona fides.
  - ljm 1y ago
    Same in the UK (which is currenty a contentious issue again with Digital ID), because there is no concept of having a cryptographic signature tied to your identity in the way it is done in other EU countries. Instead you need: - five years of address history - a recent utility bill or a council tax bill that has your full address - maybe a bank statement - passport or driving license It just so happens that Experian, etc. have all of that, and even background checking agencies will depend on it.

bitwize 1y ago

Whoever was operating that profile DFE'd. This is why you archive.

eli-talktalk 1y ago
what is dfe
- fsckboy 1y ago
  https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dfe https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dfe DFE "deleted everything"
  - sethammons 1y ago
    Why censor your answer? The F is for Fucking. DFE: Delete Fucking Everything.
    - neilv 1y ago
      Th y w r ele ing ev ryt ng ve y sl wly.
    - jfengel 1y ago
      It's a joke. An older version of the joke, from Usenet, is that RTFM stands for "Read The Manual". The gag is that the newbie asking the question will wonder why the F wasn't included in the expansion, and rapidly figure it out. Or they ask, and you make fun of them for it. The joke is either kinda cerebral or really juvenile... and the tension between the two is part of the joke.
      - deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
      - Exoristos 1y ago
        Or there were those on Usenet with what at the time was considered basic professionalism.

lawlessone 1y ago

LMAO this post on his page has to be an AI generated map, it puts the UAE in Bangladesh. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mykola-yanchii-430883368_hiring-blockchaindevelopers-web3jobs-activity-7335678978218774528-AYDb https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mykola-yanchii-430883368_hiri... Anyway I think we can add OP's experience to the many reasons why being asked to do work/tasks/projects for interviews is bad.

bwfan123 1y ago
yea, And this team-bonding pic has a ghost finger -https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7379209110719983616/ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7379209... On linkedin company pics, look for extra fingers.
- testplzignore 1y ago
  Prompt: Stereotypical engineers pretending to celebrate. Add 2 points to hotness scale. Whites only.
- pllbnk 1y ago
  I think this is a real picture. I can't explain the ghost finger, probably just a weird angle but it doesn't give off the generated vibe. The poster of the photo seems to be a real person as well as the person who left a comment. Probably in the OP's case the company was real but the person was impersonating. I had been involved in a couple of these scams recently and the patterns are very similar but approaches slightly different.

kernc 1y ago

> This might be a red flag for Persona service itself as it might contain serious flaws and security vulnerabilities that Cyber criminals are relying on Persona seems to rely solely on NFC with a national passport/ID, so simply stolen documents would work for a certain duration ...

weinzierl 1y ago

"Page Not Found" Someone apparently deleted the profile.

pllbnk 1y ago

Exactly. There are at least several different modes these scammers are operating in but eventually it all boils down to some "technical" part in the interviews where the developer is supposed to run some code from an unknown repository. Nowadays just to be sure, I verify nearly every person's LinkedIn profile's creation date. If the profile has been created less than a few years ago, then most likely our interaction will be over.

zeven7 1y ago
I just spin up an EC2 instance for the interview
- pllbnk 1y ago
  That's the right approach. On the other hand, do you even want to participate in a scam interview?
  - zeven7 1y ago
    Even for legit interviews I don’t want all the random NPM dependencies they’re using running on my computer

georgecmu 1y ago

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 https://life.ru/p/1490942

physicsguy 1y ago
You can change a setting so that you only show up as a view but not who you are.
- blindriver 1y ago
  Unless they pay for it and then they can see everyone who clicks on your profile again.
  - layman51 1y ago
    I don't think this is accurate. I believe if you go into your privacy settings, you can put yourself into a semi-private or a private mode so that your views aren't shown even when you click to view someone who is a LinkedIn Premium member. However, the big disadvantage is that when you put yourself in a private mode, if you are a non-subscribed user, you will not have access to these analytics for your own profile at all. This is covered in this help article, especially the bullet points at the end[0]. [0]: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a568195/ https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a568195/
    - bix6 1y ago
      Is this confirmed? I always thought premium overrode anyone’s privacy. The page doesn’t explicitly say.
      - Archonical 1y ago
        I have premium. I can confirm this. Whatever your private browsing page shows is what I see. If you're fully private, all that registers is that someone has looked at my profile but nothing identifying, just a bump in profile views.

Beijinger 1y ago

"LinkedIn Verified Checkmark" I never managed to pass the verification check. Phone always freezes.

awesome_dude 1y ago

> -> Joined May 2025 -> Contact information Updated less than 6 months ago -> Profile photo Updated less than 6 months ago It's a red flag to be a new entrant on a platform. FTR Wikipedia/Stak Overflow have also encountered this problem (with no real solution in sight) and new market entrants (new products) struggle with traction because they're "new" and untested, which is why marketing is such a big thing, and one of the biggest upfront costs for companies entering a market

realaaa 1y ago

ha ha so typical ! verified profile - oh Persona, you had ONE job ! :)