There were clues from the start that it was too good to be true. A headhunter emailed me with a job prospect – a journalist role with “a leading US technology and markets editorial team”. The opportunity, she said, was part of a confidential expansion and hadn’t been publicly posted.
My spidey-sense was tingling, but the timing was auspicious. I was on the lookout for new work as my maternity leave was coming to an end. Initially, the email seemed legitimate. When I Googled the sender, I found a headhunter with the same name and profile picture on LinkedIn, and the message was clearly tailored to me: It referenced several roles I’d previously held and identified my specific areas of expertise. “Your focus on the real-world impacts of AI, digital culture and the gig economy aligns perfectly with an internal, high-priority mandate I’m managing,” the headhunter wrote.
I emailed back. The headhunter asked me to send over my CV, along with my salary expectations, preferred work structure (remote, hybrid, or on-site), and geographic flexibility. In return, she shared a more detailed job description. The role was, indeed, perfect for me. Too perfect – as if someone had put my CV into ChatGPT and asked it to create a job description based directly on my experience. It was located in the city in which I live and offered a hybrid working arrangement, just as I’d requested. The biggest tell: I’d been ambitious with my salary suggestion, but this was offering significantly more.
By this point I was fairly sure I was being taken for a ride, but I still couldn’t figure out the scam. I found myself trying to justify the anomalies. It’s an American company, and salaries are generally higher there, aren’t they? I asked about next steps. Then the headhunter gave me feedback. My CV undersold my leadership skills, she said; it needed refining. If I liked, she could connect me with a specialist who would make my profile more compelling. They would discuss pricing directly with me.
I fell for a “resume help” scam a couple of years ago via LinkedIn. I don’t even use the site anymore.
I straight up deleted LinkedIn. It’s too much information thats made publically available, it’s a constant pipeline to the black market for compromising info (and it’s already too late), and it’s just literally the most straight up annoying thing I’ve ever used. The people are fake (I mean they are real but they are straight up annoying), the jobs are mostly fake, and it’s a constant stream of scams, recruiters trying to mine your info and mislead you, salespeople peddling their crap constantly.
No thanks. Seriously give it a try, because that shit is toxic
When I received the first email from my “headhunter”, I was drawn in by how professional and customised it seemed. The writing was of a good standard and the sender was clearly familiar with my profile. It felt personal. Even five years ago, says Rosser, you could often spot a scam just by looking at the grammar. “But they’re so clever now.”
“The growing accessibility of AI means that criminals have way more leverage than they ever did before,” Webb says. “They can produce these scams much faster. They can make them more relevant, and there’s a much higher level of sophistication.”
This was the most interesting part, to me.
In the past, scammers deliberately made their pitches obvious, so only “suckers” would fall for them. With AI, it’s now scalable to make the whole thing targeted enough to be believable.
And that’s truly scary.
I don’t think this is something new, there has always been “spear phishing”, i.e. targeted scams. The scattergun approach to spam still exists separately, it’s just that the targeted scams are now easier to set up.
Fully automated targeted scams are new. That wasn’t possible before. The cheap scalability is the scary part.
Wow that is fucked up.
I hate LinkedIn. Feels so scammy and fake.
It was located in the city in which I live
“Hot singles in your area!”
I get Linked in emails from recruiters constantly offering “Data Technician” (my title) jobs in my city.
Like dude, my city is like, 60k people, 99% work for one of the 3 giant AG companies. Ain’t no other data centers here besides mine.
Anything that asks me for stuff then they will send more details gets the response. Details now and if I like it I will send you more. Its kinda funny with me as I list the stuff im doing while unemployed. So I will get. We need a guru tech guy with in depth and recent substitute teaching experience. blah blah to get more details. im always like, please pray tell me this postion where this part of my background is so important.
