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I had someone who was targeting junior developers posting on Who Wants to Be Hired threads here on Hacker news. They reached out saying they liked my projects a

I had someone who was targeting junior developers posting on Who Wants to Be Hired threads here on Hacker news. They reached out saying they liked my projects and had something I might be interested in, then set up an interview where they tried to get me to install malware.

PyWoody 1y ago
Name and shame. It's the only way to help others.
- atropoles 1y ago
  Unfortunately there is not much to name. Someone going by Xin Jia reached out to me over email saying they had seen some of my work and that they had something similar they were working on and asked if I'd like to meet to discuss. He sent me a calendly link to schedule a time. The start of the meeting was relatively normal. I introduced my background and some things I am interested in. It became clear that it was a scam when I started asking about the project. He said they were a software consulting company mostly based out of China and Malaysia that was looking to expand into the US and that they focused on "backend, frontend, and AI development" which made no sense as I have no experience in any of those (my who wants to be hired post was about ML and scientific computing stuff). He said as part of my evaluation they were going to have me work on something for a client and that I would have to install some software so that one of their senior engineers could pair with me. At this point he also sent me their website and very pointedly showed me that his name was on there and this was real. After that I left. I'll look for the site they sent me but I'd imagine it's probably down. It just looked like a generic corporate website.
  - jibal 1y ago
    > saying they had seen some of my work No one does this. It's invariably a scammer manipulating by appeal to ego.
- atropoles 1y ago
  I will say that it was good enough that with some improvement I could see that it might be very successful against people like me who are new to the software job market. A combination of being unfamiliar with what is normal for that kind of situation and a strong desire for things to go well is quite dangerous. Also goes to show that anywhere there is desperation there will be people preying on it.
jacquesm 1y ago
HN has harbored fugitive hackers knowingly, this does not surprise me at all.
- ctxc 1y ago
  - people post because they want to be hired - info is public - random person reaches out with public info - ??? - HN harbours fugitive hackers
  - VBprogrammer 1y ago
    I think, if you take jacquesm's posting history here, into consideration it was probably a joke. Maybe not his best work but I don't think he was serious.
UI_at_80x24 1y ago
Name and shame.
ludicrousdispla 1y ago
even some of the submissions on 'who is hiring?' can be sketchy
dylan604 1y ago
Maybe I should implement this as a weed out question during interviews. If the applicant is willing to download something without questioning it, then the interview can be ended there. Don't need someone working with me that will just blindly install anything just because.
- baobun 1y ago
  Bad idea. Competent candidates might also disqualify you as employer right there. Plus you'll be part of normalizing hazardous behavior.
  - dylan604 1y ago
    strong disagree. it's very similar to anti-phishing training/tests. also, being tagged as a company that cares that its potential new hires are not lazy programmers that just copy&paste because someone told them too would more than likely be taken as a positive not a negative.
    - baobun 1y ago
      It's also a disingenious shit test which doesn't reflect well on team culture. Pass. > it's very similar to anti-phishing training/tests With the crucial difference that the candidate is someone external who never consented to or was informed of this activity.
      - dylan604 1y ago
        it's much better than asking why a soap bubble is round
    - horseradish7k 1y ago
      anti phishing tests are stupid in a similar manner, clicking a link should not fail you
      - dylan604 1y ago

PyWoody 1y ago

Name and shame. It's the only way to help others.

atropoles 1y ago
Unfortunately there is not much to name. Someone going by Xin Jia reached out to me over email saying they had seen some of my work and that they had something similar they were working on and asked if I'd like to meet to discuss. He sent me a calendly link to schedule a time. The start of the meeting was relatively normal. I introduced my background and some things I am interested in. It became clear that it was a scam when I started asking about the project. He said they were a software consulting company mostly based out of China and Malaysia that was looking to expand into the US and that they focused on "backend, frontend, and AI development" which made no sense as I have no experience in any of those (my who wants to be hired post was about ML and scientific computing stuff). He said as part of my evaluation they were going to have me work on something for a client and that I would have to install some software so that one of their senior engineers could pair with me. At this point he also sent me their website and very pointedly showed me that his name was on there and this was real. After that I left. I'll look for the site they sent me but I'd imagine it's probably down. It just looked like a generic corporate website.
- jibal 1y ago
  > saying they had seen some of my work No one does this. It's invariably a scammer manipulating by appeal to ego.
atropoles 1y ago
I will say that it was good enough that with some improvement I could see that it might be very successful against people like me who are new to the software job market. A combination of being unfamiliar with what is normal for that kind of situation and a strong desire for things to go well is quite dangerous. Also goes to show that anywhere there is desperation there will be people preying on it.

jacquesm 1y ago

HN has harbored fugitive hackers knowingly, this does not surprise me at all.

ctxc 1y ago
- people post because they want to be hired - info is public - random person reaches out with public info - ??? - HN harbours fugitive hackers
- VBprogrammer 1y ago
  I think, if you take jacquesm's posting history here, into consideration it was probably a joke. Maybe not his best work but I don't think he was serious.

UI_at_80x24 1y ago

Name and shame.

ludicrousdispla 1y ago

even some of the submissions on 'who is hiring?' can be sketchy

dylan604 1y ago

Maybe I should implement this as a weed out question during interviews. If the applicant is willing to download something without questioning it, then the interview can be ended there. Don't need someone working with me that will just blindly install anything just because.

baobun 1y ago
Bad idea. Competent candidates might also disqualify you as employer right there. Plus you'll be part of normalizing hazardous behavior.
- dylan604 1y ago
  strong disagree. it's very similar to anti-phishing training/tests. also, being tagged as a company that cares that its potential new hires are not lazy programmers that just copy&paste because someone told them too would more than likely be taken as a positive not a negative.
  - baobun 1y ago
    It's also a disingenious shit test which doesn't reflect well on team culture. Pass. > it's very similar to anti-phishing training/tests With the crucial difference that the candidate is someone external who never consented to or was informed of this activity.
    - dylan604 1y ago
      it's much better than asking why a soap bubble is round
  - horseradish7k 1y ago
    anti phishing tests are stupid in a similar manner, clicking a link should not fail you
    - dylan604 1y ago