Bobbie Johnson

We tried to keep it as sort of simple as possible. So I was just introduced as someone who was sitting on the call. We didn't want to alert them to obviously the fact that I was a journalist, because we didn't want to scare them away. We wanted to see what they had to say.

We tried to keep it as sort of simple as possible. So I was just introduced as someone who was sitting on the call. We didn't want to alert them to obviously the fact that I was a journalist, because we didn't want to scare them away. We wanted to see what they had to say.

We tried to keep it as sort of simple as possible. So I was just introduced as someone who was sitting on the call. We didn't want to alert them to obviously the fact that I was a journalist, because we didn't want to scare them away. We wanted to see what they had to say.

And so one evening, I bumped into this young entrepreneur called Simon Weikmans at an event in San Francisco. And I shared with him what I'd heard about and asked if he'd heard about anything. And he said, well, you'll never guess what happened to me recently.

And so one evening, I bumped into this young entrepreneur called Simon Weikmans at an event in San Francisco. And I shared with him what I'd heard about and asked if he'd heard about anything. And he said, well, you'll never guess what happened to me recently.

And so one evening, I bumped into this young entrepreneur called Simon Weikmans at an event in San Francisco. And I shared with him what I'd heard about and asked if he'd heard about anything. And he said, well, you'll never guess what happened to me recently.

It turned out that Simon runs a web security company, and he'd been interviewing people for a software engineering job, a remote software engineering job, so people not based near HQ. And In interviewing, he'd seen a bunch of deeply suspicious activity. You know, he was worried that people were trying to fraudulently get jobs or something.

It turned out that Simon runs a web security company, and he'd been interviewing people for a software engineering job, a remote software engineering job, so people not based near HQ. And In interviewing, he'd seen a bunch of deeply suspicious activity. You know, he was worried that people were trying to fraudulently get jobs or something.

It turned out that Simon runs a web security company, and he'd been interviewing people for a software engineering job, a remote software engineering job, so people not based near HQ. And In interviewing, he'd seen a bunch of deeply suspicious activity. You know, he was worried that people were trying to fraudulently get jobs or something.

And it turned out to be far more complicated and weirder than we expected. So what Simon spotted in the first place was that the job was bombarded with candidates, right? So there were hundreds of applications, way more than was typical. Then he started getting on video interviews with people and strange things kept coming up.

And it turned out to be far more complicated and weirder than we expected. So what Simon spotted in the first place was that the job was bombarded with candidates, right? So there were hundreds of applications, way more than was typical. Then he started getting on video interviews with people and strange things kept coming up.

And it turned out to be far more complicated and weirder than we expected. So what Simon spotted in the first place was that the job was bombarded with candidates, right? So there were hundreds of applications, way more than was typical. Then he started getting on video interviews with people and strange things kept coming up.

Lots of the applicants had resumes that didn't really match what he saw on screen. You know, maybe they had Anglo names, but were ethnically Asian. A lot of them said they were born and raised in America, in Tennessee or in Brooklyn, but they had really, really thick foreign accents.

Lots of the applicants had resumes that didn't really match what he saw on screen. You know, maybe they had Anglo names, but were ethnically Asian. A lot of them said they were born and raised in America, in Tennessee or in Brooklyn, but they had really, really thick foreign accents.

Lots of the applicants had resumes that didn't really match what he saw on screen. You know, maybe they had Anglo names, but were ethnically Asian. A lot of them said they were born and raised in America, in Tennessee or in Brooklyn, but they had really, really thick foreign accents.

They all aced their coding tests in almost exactly the same ways, but when he was talking with them they often gave stilted answers and asked questions just about salary but nothing else. And there were other things too, so they all used similar default video background images.

They all aced their coding tests in almost exactly the same ways, but when he was talking with them they often gave stilted answers and asked questions just about salary but nothing else. And there were other things too, so they all used similar default video background images.

They all aced their coding tests in almost exactly the same ways, but when he was talking with them they often gave stilted answers and asked questions just about salary but nothing else. And there were other things too, so they all used similar default video background images.

They had laggy internet connections and in the background he could hear noise, so it sounded like they were in a busy room, not a call, like a call centre maybe, not what you would normally do a job interview in. So these things, you know, individually, he didn't see any of these as a major red flag because you can imagine why somebody's name doesn't fit their face in your conception, right?

They had laggy internet connections and in the background he could hear noise, so it sounded like they were in a busy room, not a call, like a call centre maybe, not what you would normally do a job interview in. So these things, you know, individually, he didn't see any of these as a major red flag because you can imagine why somebody's name doesn't fit their face in your conception, right?