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Comment by mistrial9 | Hacker News Reader

from this point of view -- it says more about the "job market" and forgery-for-pay than the deepfakes .. it was one year ago I saw a video documentary on young men from various places, in the keep of handlers who charged them rent and maintenance while they applied for remote tech jobs. The handlers were show to clean-up or embellish skill sets, claim English skills or write responses for the applicants, and other fraudulent activity. Meanwhile, on the other side of that, investors have put money into hiring companies who want to follow in the Monster dot com path but more specialized skills or particular clients. The work of outsourcing is just never done it seems, and apparently pays investors and handlers well enough to do these things. Deepfakes makes it part show-business, which is not new either, really.

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I was recently approached by a firm that it seems does a similar thing to what you've described. As a native english speaking tech professional, they wanted me to assist others in initial video interviews for tech positions. I don't know how any amount of spin or perspective could sell such a thing as anything but fraud. I honestly couldn't even put together how it would work long term, but I suppose with the nature of some remote work, it might be possible by a committed actor or agency. It's creepy as heck, and reminds me of that movie "Gattica."

> I don't know how any amount of spin or perspective could sell such a thing as anything but fraud.

It might be fraud, it might not. This sounds like SOP for literally every "recruitment" outfit I've ever encountered. Every single one encouraged candidates to tailor their credentials to the job requirements.

I was being asked to pretend to be someone I was not, in order to fool a company to which an applicant was applying. I may not have described it well and perhaps this lead to the confusion, but what I was approached for was most definitely fraud.

Tailoring applications certainly makes sense, so long as the output still reflects the skills and qualifications of the applicant.

I think that documentary was published in 2009:

https://www.theonion.com/more-american-workers-outsourcing-o...

not that one -- will look for links; definitely in covid-19 era, the one I saw

I think I remember the same one. There were like 4 or 5 guys living in an apartment that the employer had set up. And somehow the guy interviewed for the story saw the resume that had been submitted and it was nothing like his actual experience.

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