I'm confused about what such applicants hope to gain by this. What's their business model? They're going to have to give you a SS# or EIN (if they're a self-employed consultant) before you can send them a paycheck, right? And the Social Security Administration has a website where you can verify SS numbers. So what's the play here?
The applicant is actually three people involved in a scam. One is an US person that can provide valid US SSN or other magic numbers, but otherwise doesn't know first thing about anything. Second is the person running the scam, located anywhere. Third is a person from low-cost country that's skilled enough to pass the interview pretending to be the first person, who might also be responsible for doing the actual job such the interviews succeed. The fat US salary is split between the three parties.
This is actually the case of a thing you mentioned, just sadly in reverse. A phone number may indeed not identify a single person. It may represent three unrelated individuals at the same time.
FWIW, I'm 100% with you on your list. Even if it's only 1% of false positives, it's a massive number of people at global scale, and frankly also a big percentage. Outside of tech, hardly anyone is allowed this kind of error rate.
This is a good description of the problem - kinda from both sides. Thank you! But based on this, wouldn't the right defense be to insist for some camera feed?
1) Most phones have a camera now - besides the plausible excuse of the candidate's computer not having a working one. 2) When no camera is working, it usually shouldn't be a big problem to postpose the interview for a few days. The time for a camera solution to be procured by the candidate. 3) For an extra test of the candidate being able to engineer their way around a broken or missing camera in less than a week.
Of course. The conversations point out that one frequent problem is the hiring process managed, interviewed and finally filled by different persons.
Place of residence is a different issue. Many people connect behind a VPN. A video feed during the interview would at least hint at the time zone they are in.
Third different issue is right to work in the US. This is an issue you have even in person in the US. Solved with legal documents. Social Security card, green card, US passport... then tax ID, then ongoing tax filings by the employer - Which may be a little easy to forge when presented in pictures but seem to still be sufficient legally. (And here camera helps with "person doesn't match ID".)
Anyway. You are right! Camera solves only part of the problem.
Basically you are getting a mole infiltrated into your company. There was even an US govt warning about North Korean IT workers, heuristics included.
> The hiring or supporting of DPRK IT workers continues to pose many risks, ranging from theft of intellectual property, data, and funds, to reputational harm and legal consequences, including sanctions under U.S., ROK, and United Nations (UN) authorities.
This is the funniest part:
> Repeated requests for prepayment; anger or aggression when the request is denied.
