He Confronted the Scammer Impersonating Him. It Only Got Weirder🎙Ep. 133: I'm the Real Connor

Connor Tumbleson got an email saying his identity was stolen. Hours later, he was scheduled for a job interview that he never applied for, using his resume and accomplishments. He decided to show up for it, and the rabbit hole only went deeper.
Visit darknetdiaries... for a list of sources, full transcripts, and to listen to all episodes.

[@johnward8356]

I was a casino dealer for six years, and they definitely ask you the same question about theft. You report anything suspicious; no matter who is stealing. Cute old ladies will take shots like nobody's business. Just because they don't look like a thief, it doesn't mean they are not a thief. Never get too comfortable.

[@AkashicLink]

looking at good thieves, you would swear they would never steal.

[@johnward8356]

@@AkashicLink Right. No doubt.

[@parafitality2730]

I love the story of the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary, done by retirees

[@Mix1mum]

Over a decade experience myself, every position inside a pit (table games, dice, wheel) and/or poker room. Both large and small houses. Casino employees are essentially wards of the state. In my state, failure of the custodian to report a witnessed crime becomes a gross misdemeanor, job loss and permanent barred from every casino, including tribal, in the state. Ymmv. Card counters are obvious. I can deal 8 shoe Blackjack (pick your variety, ie lucky ladies) to a full table, run it fast, cracking jokes, egging on splits, hitting on your girlfriend in front of you and I know the count. You can't count on me without me knowing. Regardless, if you know counting, you know it's a betting strategy, so when you jump from table min to table max multiple hands. Yea. That's super dumb duper, i already know why the pit phone is ringing, obvious. Btw. Before that call, your pictures been taken, in high resolution, cross referenced to a known counter list (yeeeeeep), and if your on it, surrounding casinos are getting called right after the pit. Dead serious. Hawkeye knows all the other Hawkeyes. Their livelihood depends on it. Card counters, in theory, could bankrupt the casino. Theyre an existential threat, and they're treated as such. Myself? Buddy idc. You can play. 25$ a hand. Every hand. No deviation. Sorry guy. It IS like that. You can still double and split, I'm not killing all the fun. Naw? Ain't feeling it now? No worries my man. Cage is over yonder. Do me a personal favor hermoso, as your done there. Wink and give a coy smile to Mila as you leave, she'll blush, you'll make her night. She's got some heavy family shit going on, she needs it, know what I mean? Stay classy bud. Does the experience show?

[@whisperingadventurespnw]

I’m a developer. Sometimes I get hit up by people on LinkedIn who straight up tell me they need someone to go to interviews to get jobs that they will then outsource to people in India. So folks would think they are hiring me, but then the real man behind the curtains send the real work to a team in India. I always say no, but sometimes I wish I knew what they were doing.

[@OriginalAustinOblivion]

I’m a soldier, a signal support specialist, studying heavily in cybersecurity because I’m trying to get a CS job when I get out. I have been on LinkedIn for a whole 6 hours and I discovered a buddy of mine’s going through the same stuff Connor is in the story. The funny thing is, he is ACTUALLY looking for a better job actively, like at this moment. 😂 I alerted him to the phony people claiming to be him, (I built his actual resume, so, yeah) it’s ironic that I discovered this video after getting off the phone with him. Thanks google for telling me you’re listening 😂😭 I’d love to know what those dweebs are up to myself now after witnessing that fiasco

[@kadenbuck4314]

If I had to guess...I would imagine they impersonate someone to get an interview, then recruit someone with knowledge in that field to get the job. Then you outsource the work to somewhere with cheap labour and pocket the extra wage because I doubt they would pay them the full salary. A middle man of sorts This is just a guess, and I haven't finished the video yet so idk if they go over the why. Might be completely off here.

[@KiinaSu]

With the recent indictment with over 300 US companies getting duped into hiring North Koreans, it's a lot more clear whats going on here.

[@jjann54321]

Ahh... "Jiggler," the hardest working WFH/remote worker any employer has ever hired. A few years ago I had a friend that was "double dipping" employers and he came up with all kinds of ways to keep his sessions from going idle (many companies will generate alarms to managers if your status goes to "idle/away" too many times during a work day). I showed him Jiggler, it was like he just looked into the eyes of his first born child. Truly changed his life.

[@Codeaholic1]

I don't understand why Connor seems so confused by this? It seems pretty simple and straight forward. They stole his identity to gain credibility. They wanted to use the reputation Connor had gained. Dishonest, yes. But not difficult to understand. And why is he so interested in talking to them about why they're doing it? It's simple greed, laziness, and wanting to take the easy way out.

[@MMOchAForPrez]

I was also wondering the whole time "You literally just explained all of the facts you knew up to this point, and you can't understand how there is a third Connor???" It's like he thought it'd make for a better story. I can't believe anybody would be so mystified

[@sumofat5]

lololol

[@martdedub]

2 short ones for your amusement: I worked a Project in Russia years ago. We had a load of "Mechanical Engineers" show up from India.. long story short, 6 had identical rèsumes. The only difference were their personal details.... totally useless (honestly, at the time my 8yo knew more than them) we were told to "shut up and hide them" so they ended up with sweeping brushes... which was about all they were good for. I dont blame them, they were desperate for work and were seriously taken advantage of. The fact they made it through getting a work visa in Russia was astonishing until you realized how corrupt they are as well. 2nd one, working a project in Canada and was handed a Commissioning Document for a HPU (Hydraulic Power Unit) I started reading through it and was told the engineer had "spent 5 weeks working on it" (1st Red Flag) I got one page in and realized it was one of mine from the Russian job... word for word😂 I pointed it out and was told prove it.... OK, the reference number on the bottom was my moblie number for Ireland and the dotted line between the paragraphs.... highlight it and increase font size to 12.... and behold in all caps "PREPARED BY (my name) COMM MECH ENG FOR SEIC OPF2 SEPTEMBER 16TH 2008" As we had a few dimwits plagiarize work on the job, some of us put these in with underline fonts size 2. That "engineer" had used 10 hours a day for 5 weeks @ around $115 per hour. I laughed as i pointed out it took me less than 2 days to write the original 😂 he was fired and i was told the client recovered the cost from the agency he was in through.

[@slowercuber7767]

Not exactly stealing a helicopter from a hospital, but definitely closer to home. GREAT VID.

[@jsimo1431]

this kind of reminds me of the coder who outsourced his job to like vietnam or some place like that. was making like 100k a year, and only had to pay the people actually doing the work 25k a year. so he cleared 75k.

[@TheKpow]

Wow

[@jeremyivy2753]

😮 You have a link to that?

[@Goodpizzaa]

Aww i wish this one were longer this was super interesting. Glad to see the podcast thriving Jack.

[@ryanm2693]

I love the timing of the uploads, who need sleep anyway. 😂 thanks for the quality material friend. It’s very appreciated.

[@JamesJansson]

32:30 just a clarification, you CAN make your github look like you contributed for much longer than you actually have. The commit dates can be set to whatever the person making the commit wants it to be. In fact there are programs you can use to put designs on your github chart.

[@alan5506]

No you can't. Unless you can also create 10000 other accounts to create issues, discussions, star your projects and etc. Otherwise you would have a very big history with big project that got absolutely 0 traction which would be weird.

[@neddreadmaynard]

😂 I'd like to see someone try this with me! They're welcome to steal my identity, and I hope they make a better go of it than I did!

[@ryanm2693]

Steal mine, maybe it will help my credit score 🥸

[@rolandcucicea6006]

Many of us aren’t American and we’d love even mediocre identities lol. Can I get one?

[@georgekurgansky5986]

Lol

[@georgekurgansky5986]

@@rolandcucicea6006 You could just get hired and charge more

[@beaujamespomare-clarke3102]

Tax man gown eat them up😂

[@Lodeous]

I had a guy reach out to me on LinkedIn asking me to make am Upwork and let their team code pretending to be me. Apparently there's a lot of lucrative freelance coding jobs you can only get as a US citizen.

[@max_ishere]

Now this is content! Glad to have you back

[@marvsiceslice]

This is truly the greatest podcast on KZbin. Thank you for the great content

[@Mattipedersen]

I'm sure most people know this, especially as the get older, but of course, any time you're asked a question about whether you would turn an authority figure in for stealing (or some other offense), the answer they are always looking for is "Yes".

[@Laszlo34]

Turned out..as _ALWAYS_ .. great story! Thanks so much! :)

[@mainlinemitch]

are u my dad?

[@YouTubeDoxedMyRealName]

Sounds like a way to simply exfiltrate information from companies.

[@hackfaultcomms]

ty for the late night unwinding timings the past while o7

[@DursunX]

ah, the good old ' "let's con Connor" con '

[@ArcturusBitcoin]

I just got that after watching the whole video. cute. Con-er

[@pythoneatssquirrel]

One of the greatest stories until now. Cheers!

[@PeacelordApropos]

Wow. Just wow. Full pops to you!!!! Thank you for not allowing me that rabbit hole.... Now for that playlist.

[@langmod]

32:00 This is exactly right. I personally know someone involved with a similar scheme on upwork.

[@dong6839]

It's a good thing you didn't get the job, if you even had to think about it, and that's the answer you came up with, then you clearly weren't ready for a job in security.

[@KeitaroTsurugi]

Not to mention, a fake person, can inject vulnerabilities in the code for the company who thinks hired a local real person, and instead are hiring an identity thief that's sending them code from not just a bad actor, but one that possibly has worse intentions in mind than just limiting themselves to identity theft for the sake of a higher payout, but someone who will try to slowly either get insider information or even giving them bits of malicious code.

[@effyjonz]

I feel like so many people have that similar experience where they land the interview but, they trip up on the trick question. 2 posts this week and I feel special. I'm always here for the worst puns on the internet! hah XD!

[@saltysailor537]

Lol! Jack! When you said you wanted to outsource jobs and take half the cut. That’s literally temp agencies in the us….. they already do that and yes it’s unethical

[@retrofitter]

So having call centres that make outbound overseas calls to rip off the elderly in wealthier countries gives your fellow countrymen a bad reputation? Say it ain't so

[@donaldduck2663]

Excellent work and videos by the way ... As well as interviews with personnel.

[@jibrildaudamuhammad3832]

This is darknet diaries.... thanks Jack

[@ZingaraJoe]

Easy answer, YES, now head of security knows he needs to do his thing on another watch. .

[@rationalbushcraft]

This sucks as they will be killing the work at home thing for everyone. You will start to see contracts that include something like "if you work a second job you will have to pay everything back" or something like that.

[@alan5506]

But is that clause even enforcable? They can put anything in a contract, it doesn't make it legal.

[@steven_003]

@@alan5506Where I am from (no clue if this is some European or just a national law) they can if it’s in the same line of business and interferes with company interests. You can’t work at one company and also for their competitor for example.

[@morisn]

Hey buddy, I am not listening to these shows chronologically, but it feels as though the more I listen, the more impressed I am. This show in particular, hits very close to home, I'm starting to wonder if it's not actually happening right now and I am not aware of that, and not that I am a big shot, nothing close to that but for these type of people, who knows eh?

[@VitalTechnology_]

Perfect timing 🎉

[@iamheretojudgeyou]

If your a nation that has sanctions preventing you from trading or working for foreign companies this would be one way of being able to , just so happens 2 countries with exceptional teams of programmers/engineers/hackers sit quite high on that sanctions list

[@w花b]

And act like a kid that didn't get what they wanted by launching more and more nuclear test above your neighboring countries. That way they will say "okay, you've won NK, here's some humanitarian aid"

[@jeremyk7213]

Hey dude, just want to put this in before you get too big to check out comments. Your material is fantastic and I am glad I stumbled across it.

[@seetheious9879]

Could be a way to escape localized salaries. You might want to check out if there is pattern in where these targets live in addition to their resume.

[@thelikebutton4405]

Someone at one point applied for jobs under my name and information, I tried to track them down and actually found the culprit. It was me, I was the asshole that wanted a job.

[@ScorpioHR]

Lying to score a CONtract is totally in-character

[@mastrotentaculopapichulo]

I must be careful not to get hooked on your videos mane... ❤

[@Aloha_XERO]

Knowing this story now makes me understand why a Technical Job I did through a recruiter company I once worked for way back in 2000 and they still had my information but was asking for way more information after I did the job that I wasn’t comfortable with and so I walked away not getting paid cuz of I didn’t want to cooperate with the stipulations of getting paid.. but that was so weird… so hyped me up on a video call in my state supposedly for a job that I really wanted but never heard back from her and when I contacted her she was like what job and who are you… the guy with a absolutely uncommon name … that is unique and memorable to say the least

[@abigalanderson7494]

Funny how scamers have the word con in their fake name

[@kaiyuVFX]

Waited til morning to watch, fuckin worth it. Amazing work Jack 💪🏽

[@dazed7257]

same lmao, saw this right before i went to sleep last night and i knew i had to watch as soon as i woke up haha

[@georgekurgansky5986]

Oh my god what a deal! A whole DEVteam for the price of one employee!!! that's not even a scam, that's just an outstanding deal for the employer, the worker and the team lol. Who is actually a victim here? You can add fake persons job to your CV, you could team up.

[@mateuszzimon8216]

I think this is double edge blade, because they can turn on you. Also sometimes u need a security clearance for some parts of job.

[@redwind3475]

The real twist, someone's rogue Auto-GPT was behind it all 😮😂🤖

[@mastrotentaculopapichulo]

Haha good one 😂

[@ReligionAndMaterialismDebunked]

Candid, nice. I looked it up. I've heard of it before.

[@bradleywhais7779]

Absolutely, yes. I might get some kind of sadistic joy out of reporting my boss for theft.

[@markussteiner1318]

Successful people don't become that way overnight. What most people see at a glance wealth, a great career and purpose is the result of hard work and hustle over time. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life

[@kurtmoser2039]

Most intelligent words I've heard.,

[@supportteam9106]

I love crypto currency cos its the safest and most reliable investment you can ever think of, crypto is the future of World's currency, DOGCOIN Holders are really lucky to have someone like Mr Elon musk

[@isauragierlach3707]

@@domingo5424 Saving money and making money is very ascension life. with crypto your plans can be accomplish, I really appreciate Elon musk trading platform influence during the global pandemic lock down.

[@erikmark143]

Hello, been trading on my own, haven't made a lot. Please how do I start trading with this platform.

[@benjaminjohn5784]

+843

[@Laszlo34]

"It's an impossible thing to answer!" Umm...I'm 1:28 into this, and I know I haven't heard the rest of this story, but I'm *SCREAMING* at my monitor with things like "The CASINO is your employer!! If he is your direct report manager and he is the one deciding whether to hire you and he is one level below 'owner' or 'CEO' or whatever...the answer is ***YES*** You report his arse!!!" OMFG why would you even pause on this? You are about to be employed by the _CASINO_ ... to STOP people from STEALING...from the CASINO... If it's HIM, you _REPORT HIM_!!! Why is this a question?? Why would you pause on this? You report him to...the owner...the police...the newspapers...anyone anywhere that you have to! To do anything less is violating your agreement, the word you gave when you were hired. Your word _should_ be your bond! Like I said, I'm 1:28 into this and...if you say anything other that "Yes!" I'll be very, VERY disappointed.

[@dataplet01]

this story is absolutely wild

[@Dan-codes]

It's a super easy question to answer, you follow the law.

[@essicShorts]

Through college I made quite a bit of money by taking graphic design work and website design work through eBay. All I did was outsource to fiverr for 15% of the price and keep the other 85%. This is so much more elaborate and so many other steps involved 🤣

[@DexieTheSheep]

can confirm, his github profile does look cute :)

[@billievillarreal9547]

Yep he's a qt3.14!

[@nikolaisafronov3452]

Yep, I as waiting for India to come up. It's all about the "white face names". "Look cute" is about it I guess.

[@GiddyThis]

You should have a HBO special for more than a couple of these stories.

[@PatRiot-]

My guy. The obvious answer was “yes I would turn you in” lolll

[@Chaos_God_of_Fate]

lol- i'm on the poker table as i watch this. That dude who interviewed you, when you changed your mind- that did more harm than just going on your way. When I heard that- instantly I'd have gotten up, told him there was no right answer and got tf out of there- those sort of questions reik of corruption.

[@redcloudrider5627]

It could be even worse. US companies love to outsource their electronic / phone based customer service to other countries, because they'll do it for far less money. What if the people who are willing to accept the contacts for far less money are pretending to be legit companies from those countries who are elite in customer service duties, but are actually those teams that your company never meets face to face, as they steal all the information you give a customer service rep? 🤔 Just a thought.

[@xxskizzumxx]

I'm confused on the running theory...... So if the job was successful, how would they get paid?

[@xxskizzumxx]

I have a different theory, they want access to the company's computers so they hack, steal info or do ransom attack

[@zac2577]

Wtf, connor is ibotpeaches!? Now i see why they wanted to impersonate him. Hes a legend

[@superleggera503]

how did you figure that out? i just found his git tho , pretty impressive?

[@zac2577]

@@superleggera503 he mentioned it one line.. but yeah used quite a few of his tools

[@yorisfreshie]

32:30 small nitpick: some people create a git repo locally with fake commits from 1990, then push it to a github private repo and thats how they get the pixel art tabs. So it's likely possible to fake a github work history.

[@whatsdappening7233]

I worked with a guy on Upwork named Conrad that turned out to be a fraud

[@randomdazz]

I would have said yes - seemed like a trick question - its like the police question - would you arrest your friend if you saw them committing a crime.

[@randomdazz]

Also just so you know if they ask would you give your mother a parking ticket if she parked wrong - answer to that is NO lol - you gotta have a heart too lol

[@mateuszzimon8216]

As LEO u should arrested anyone especially coworkers. All public position should be treated with same or greater punishment than regular citizen. Also u can reprimand people who park in wrong spots and give them chance to do better.

[@randomdazz]

@@mateuszzimon8216 arrest yes. A parking ticket not so much lol

[@KittenKatja]

I once saw another me on Facebook, my exact legal name, but the pictures were nothing like me, because I'm white/asian, and the person depicted was white. (and like 5 years younger)

[@Bullminator]

You know you can do this even better now. You can call the real person, get their voice, put it into ai program and use this voice to call for jobs.

[@sprobertson]

Or get them to go on a podcast...

[@elfkind5590]

one minute in and the answer is YES.... Yes I would. NO ONE is above the law

[@fss1704]

i'd say you specifically no because you might be doing something i don't know yet.

[@elfkind5590]

@@fss1704 I know because there is a natural order to the world and if I get hired to do a job... I keep my word. It ain't rocket science. If You wanna rise up in the world, you don't fish for facebook likes. You do what you say. People like to see you coming with no surprises.Have a code. It's security.... not kinda security. His choice tells me a lot about him. I wouldn't hire him either. He's a sucker.

[@justintaylor4614]

Great video

[@jamescollier3]

Lawyers routinely bill over "40" hours.

[@bykurt_is]

Idk I wanted to only watch a few minutes and save it for later but couldn’t lol. Every episode is amazing

[@toooes]

Ah. I remember his blog post from Hackernews a few months ago

[@jchastain789]

Can't wait to hear this

[@alpark3024]

The reason for joining in the zoom call is to get personal information, driver's license, ssi card since the fake conner doesn't have it.

[@DestoFlix]

My answer: If the moment comes up you'll find out lol🤣

[@whatwhat9519]

I guess he could use what they did to get his next job

[@YoanGonzalez-yr2rf]

A lot of crazy shit happens in tampa sometimes

[@zazu3006]

great episode! I wonder where The Real Connor is btw😅

[@Kevin-cw8of]

I remebered a case of this happening with someone posing as a pharmacist. 🤔

[@kwinter2541]

Na , i can lay a vape pen flat across my shin just fine in here .

[@DELERY2.0]

Somebody wanted to get someone inside that company

[@JonathanHernandez-nd4ir]

What if the Connor in the your video is the fake Connor?

[@goldnutter412]

15:42 can he DM the interviewer.. Say this "oh so I see you uploaded some new code to that github, can you run that on your phone now and show me whats so special?"

[@paradox_1729]

Pretty sure this was from India. Lotsa unemployed tech educated people there, its pretty desperate sometimes. Quality of work can be pretty wildly all over the place.

[@raschillie6443]

I feel like when it come to work, companies are willing to employ only US based workers even though a foreigner can do the exact same thing and sometimes better so a way for them to enter the US market is to lie about who they are, this isn’t ethical but I think they are trying to make a living. But it’s so not ethical

[@DrRajReddy]

Pakistan is where there are max number of independent developers who work on projects from sites like upwork. I believe having an american as a front face would help.

[@solidsteal]

I also "overwork", however I actually work. Tech is often slow--sans code review 😕

[@Dex_Lulz]

Welp a great thing before bed

[@financedetective0603]

Fascinating

[@code-inc]

Make an episode about indian call center scam syndicate

[@neutron417]

Imagine this happening to yourself while applying for a remote job

[@ArcturusBitcoin]

This must happen alot for Github to have 200,000 fake accounts. I wonder how much Bitcoin the indian scammers make from this hiring noobs scam.

[@thenotoriousvlog5986]

Wild story

[@smartduck904]

Wow I didn't realize when this was published I was like there's only 19 likes!?

[@spicychad55]

The beginning sounds a lot like fraud/spear phishing of the seasoned programmer.

[@jchastain789]

This is actually scary what if someone was doin this to be sinister. Goin to the police would do nothing. Nobody would believe anything you said ever. Idk lots of air tight aspects

[@computernerd8157]

I saw a job that seem sketchty. They might have been a similar fake company but who knows.

[@creatingdeath3409]

You shoulda emailed. I want in. They might have replied

[@MrKrezol]

I have just googled the name and the site actually exists and it is actually made by another company/person

[@ArcturusBitcoin]

Am I the only one who thinks the newly hired fake employee outsources his work to Marisa/PND design for a large portion of the paycheck? Maybe paid in Bitcoin?

[@JesseS.]

just hit the halfway point i have no idea whats goin on

[@ap701]

Word!

[@greganthony9514]

I swear I’m listening to guy raz on this.

[@firdovsiismayilov542]

I mean Jack you are super !

[@Wreckz_Tea]

Dude sounds schizophrenic