Scams on LinkedIn, things to watch out for online, and debating the importance of consistent usernames across different platforms.
✍🏻 View the transcript for this episode on our website.
Scams on LinkedIn, things to watch out for online, and debating the importance of consistent usernames across different platforms.
Mat Honan’s epic hacking: https://www.wired.com/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/
Email us! toastroastpod@pm.me
Georgie 0:09
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Toast & Roast. I'm your co host, Georgie and as always, I'm here with
Geoff 0:17
the Jeff the one and only Jeff.
Georgie 0:20
I know, I know one other Jeff. At work and then I know Jeff from the wiggles but I don't know him.
Geoff 0:27
I mean, Jeff from the Wiggles is actually the spelled je FF. That's correct. That's a distinct. That's a distinction that I would like to make as Jeff with that. Gee,
Georgie 0:41
yeah, no one.
Geoff 0:46
Did I tell you that I changed my slack handle at work from like, jet? Like, usually, it's the whole name Geoffrey Chong. Did you do? Oh, yeah, I put it to G. shortened it to Jeff because I was the only Jeff in the entire company. And I was like, You know what? I'm gonna assert dominance. I'll good good. G.
Georgie 1:05
I did that when I first started working or currently work? She's like, yes, nine years ago, but some bloody person? Well, actually, firstly, if someone were to write EG, like, for example, e dot g dot, yeah. pinged? No. And then, like, we had this person who used to work with us, I cannot blame them necessarily. But when they pasted code to show like, these are the tokens we have or whatever. It was, like every time something dash g dash because it was global. Yeah. And I get paid. And the reason I can't blame that person is because we also use a similar convention now. Like with ng for like a global
Geoff 1:48
What do you get it? Why are you getting pinged for the letter G?
Georgie 1:53
Because it's the same as the handle, even without battle, and there is an option to be notified. But I think I was I think, I think I still even when I turned off, maybe, no,
Geoff 2:10
I don't get paid from GE for GE. Maybe it's like a legacy setting.
Georgie 2:13
Maybe it was Yeah, because but now what you can do is say like, you can get pinged for certain keywords. So my handle is actually emoji queen. And, and I still get pinged for if someone writes Georgie, because I am the early Georgie at the company. So if someone says, Georgie and then didn't mention mentioned me, I'd be like, I know you're talking about me. But in a community slack I'm in I did make my handle j because I was like, no one's going to be using EG and writing variables and pinging me. Yeah,
Geoff 2:51
I wonder, I wonder how many times someone would mess up. Autocomplete if we both worked at the same place? Because we both have the same starting three letters. So usually, is Yeah, yeah. People only start with the first three letters of anyone's name and just like they find since John or Matthew, like, you obviously need to sift through those, but G O is probably like a safe bet. That's
Georgie 3:19
what the handle is for. Yeah,
Geoff 3:21
exactly. Yeah. But I mean, for slack, you can you can actually search the name specifically. And then over place with the handle.
Georgie 3:28
Yeah. How do you display your in your slack at work? Do you display show people's full names?
Geoff 3:34
Yeah, yeah, I, well, actually, in the texts. It's like, show people's handles. But sidebar, it's show people's full name. Yeah. So
Georgie 3:45
I do the same. But I've noticed that a lot of other people I work with when I see their screens and stuff, they don't do that. They grew by handles, so they see shit like emoji, queen, blacksmith, G. And then it's like some people put their handles as their names. I'm like, No, oh,
Geoff 4:02
that's so valid. As your professionalism that's what I would say, like nicknames as your first name and last name, then that's that's just for for like, you can't for any, like medium to large organization. She just can't put the letter in your first name.
Georgie 4:28
Think of something like,
Geoff 4:29
oh, I mean, like, No, I mean, like, you can have your handle as anything you want. But at least for your profile. Put Geoffrey Chong. So you so if you go at Geoffrey, and then No, it'll change, Geoffrey.
Georgie 4:43
But what I mean is handle they'll just put their name like Geoffrey Chong.
Geoff 4:47
Yeah. And then yeah, I mean, my handles g of course, I don't think that that's a problem. But yeah, if people are not putting their full names in their profile that's a bit wild. Also not having the DM like having a D am says the handle some names also wild. Yeah, that
Georgie 5:02
is what is wild to me because I'm like what? I don't know.
Geoff 5:05
Yeah this guy call him a hairy ta like is as an Asian person he has the last name is Ta Yeah, but every time at heart Harry ta it gets replaced with his handle, which is Harry Styles. Adult styles and I'm like, That's pretty clever because he's a front end Dev. So he's styles, but also Harry Styles is like a person. Singer, right? Yes, singer, person, personality.
Georgie 5:41
But the thing that the thing that I find funny is there's people who do have the handles showing Yeah, whenever they like I'm sitting next to them or I'm like, Oh, they're sharing screen and they'll say or send it to you on Slack. There their actions are do the Command K, you know? Yeah, whatever. And then I'll stop writing E mo J. Because of that, you actually look me up as emerging.
Geoff 6:12
Oh, that's so bad. You can just type Georgie. I know. Probably easier. I don't know what's easier G O or emoji. But the
Georgie 6:21
other funny thing is I used to be rebased clean and confused people when I changed it to murder queen and that title type rebound. Just gone.
Geoff 6:32
I don't know what I said discord. I think discord actually keeps a history of all of your previous like nicknames. So handles. So if you search rebase queen, and now you change it to emoji, emoji green. It would it would actually map to the same person. That's, yeah, that's kind of good. But I've also had people starting to call me just Chi in in like zoom meetings. Hey, Jay. How's it going? Yeah. Hey, I feel a bit iffy about it. I don't know like it. But I also Yeah, so maybe it's fine. But it's kind of weird. It's just in a weird spot for me
Georgie 7:18
a nickname and it has the same syllables as Jeff. Yeah.
Geoff 7:22
And you're like, maybe it's maybe it's flattering. You feel like oh, gee, you know, the original gangsta but like, hey, gee,
Unknown Speaker 7:31
gee, you're
Geoff 7:35
a rapper. Yeah, it's a rap band. G.
Georgie 7:39
G. Oh,
Geoff 7:41
yeah. It's a G unit is American hip hop group. Yeah, it's a group. It's a it's a unit. Gorilla unit. Yeah, I've had G Unit. Yeah. I've had have had Oh, G. Which is fine. But I don't know just the word je is it's like this. I know. It's Fe Girls Generation song. Yeah, it does. But they don't mean it. GG, GG. GG, baby. So yeah, I'm a bit on the fence about GE. But so so the company that I work for, took my my preferred name and my last name and made it my email. So it's now Jeff Chang. It's been that it's been like that for a while. And I don't particularly like my short form. They subdivided my child. You said it sounds like Yeah, I think I've mentioned on the pod before. Remember, it just sounds weird. So if you're if you're putting my last name on my first name, like it's always got to be the full the full length one. No, no idea why? It's just like formal formality. Like you're putting my last name there. So it's got to be formal thing got to be the whole thing's got to be formal. You don't just tack on a nickname with your last name and it's like informal plus formal. It's like I'll make up your mind.
Georgie 9:18
It depends. It depends on the person though. But yeah, I
Geoff 9:22
have a short you don't have a short form for you. Georgie
Georgie 9:26
Georgie is the short one. All right.
Geoff 9:31
Yeah, yeah. Was it Celeste?
Georgie 9:33
No. That's the shortfall
Geoff 9:39
Joy Joy Gina Celeste.
Georgie 9:41
That's me on this pod.
Geoff 9:46
See even your middle name makes it closer to
Georgie 9:49
no I think people know your GCC I am GCC. That's
Geoff 9:55
because you're from for something right? GCC like global is it yeah it's terrible copyright. GCC Oh these Yeah, you know me. General Computer Corporation.
Georgie 10:11
Oh that's boring. What?
Geoff 10:15
I think it's General General amino acid
Georgie 10:19
alanine okay
Geoff 10:25
GCC I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be I mean, I think I know that this
Georgie 10:30
Oh GNU Compiler Collection. Yeah, I think
Geoff 10:33
this is what I remember GCC vs wait copyright something just like general copyright, GCC copyright anyways, anyways
Georgie 10:44
on handles? Yeah, what's your take on like changing handles on like any platform
Geoff 10:53
changing? I don't know about that. I mean, I It's fine. I mean, I've used the same handle, since I found out that my initials plus my last name is pretty unique. And I can get it anywhere I want. So I've stuck with that for a while for a long time. But obviously for privacy reasons. You don't want the handle for everything you own to be the same one.
Georgie 11:22
Yeah, in case someone like tries to hack, like, based on the same
Geoff 11:25
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was really cool. When we started out right, you could get off the fucking Yeah, reserve all the handles and like, be the first one to get.
Georgie 11:39
I think people still do that though. They're like, Oh, I'm I'm Jeff everywhere, or whatever. Yeah,
Geoff 11:44
yeah. I mean, if you could get Jeff as I handle on every platform, that would that would have been amazing. Yeah, but nowadays people don't give a shit. They put they have to put numbers. I think that's the that's the problem with these days. Right. We started at the beginning of the internet. So we think it's cool to have unique Yes. Nowadays, it's so saturated that they people have to put numbers and they just don't care anymore. Yeah, yeah.
Georgie 12:15
Well, they think of some they have to be creative and think of something completely. Yeah. Like, I don't know, chamber pot.
Geoff 12:25
See, but I think there's still value in the unique name because like the wired author that got hacked, just because they wanted that was that map? Yeah, I think Matt Yeah, he
Georgie 12:39
said odd. daisy chained all of my accounts.
Geoff 12:43
Same thing gets hacked. So Matt Honan. Right. This guy, Matt. Matt hook. Yeah. Matt Honan. Matt with Ma T. 110. His handle was handle on Twitter was something like add Matt. And then they he got hacked for
Georgie 13:06
it. Yeah. Because people the hackers just they just wanted his Twitter handle that was Yeah. But in trying to obtain it. They got hacked, they just other accounts and ended up deleting shit. That was actually not the original intent.
Geoff 13:17
Yeah, they the three character Twitter handle. They just wanted it and then they decimated his entire online life to get to get to it. Yeah. Because obviously, for you to access someone's Twitter account, you need to know their email and their password. So basically, the hackers found a way to get to into his Gmail and then reset his Twitter password and then and then took over his handle. But of course, every step along the way, like gain the more access Yes, yeah, getting them his apple cloud or whatever. Yeah, so they, I think they started at an Amazon. So by gaining access to Amazon, they the short form I think summarizing I think they got the how they did it. Yeah, the last four digits of his credit card by calling Amazon help Amazon services to say I've I've made an incorrect purchase or whatever. And they said they actually read back his last four numbers of his credit card for billing purposes. And then he they they took that for four numbers and then found out like they use the phone numbers to verify their identification with Apple service for services. And then and then apples like oh yeah, you know your first your last four numbers so we you must be you and then they decimated is iCloud. They shut down all of his Apple devices like remote wiped all of his Apple devices so he couldn't stop them from getting into his Gmail. And then resetting his password and Twitter. Yeah,
Georgie 15:02
it's a it's a really good article, but it's like, holy shit. Yeah,
Geoff 15:07
it's harrowing, for sure. So I mean, yeah. So for those who think that they won't have me because I'm unimportant, to be to be honest, they can hacky for any reason they want, no matter how little and they can hack you. Yeah, no matter who you are. And I have a friend who actually had their identity stolen just this. Yeah. Just so that they could register of Telstra account and get a new phone under her name. Yeah, and not pay for it. Yeah, there just wasn't a new phone. So they stole our identity. And then, and now she's blacklisted from Telstra, but we steal their identity. And I think that's sort of like indicative of, you don't have to be anyone. And, and it's actually good that you're no one. Because if they hack anyone, like if they hack a nobody, then nobody can't fight them. But if they hack somebody important, that's gonna make it harder for them to escape the law. So it's actually really bad that you're a nobody in the world of hacking anyways. And they can, they can blame all sorts of shit on you. Because like, who are you? Who are you to fight? Fight them back?
Georgie 16:28
Yeah.
Geoff 16:29
So have
Georgie 16:30
you seen those Instagram accounts that get that get made? Impersonating? Anyone, you know? No. So yeah, there was someone I used to work with. It looked like she made a new account. I haven't talked to her in ages. We just have each other on social media on Instagram. And it looked like she made a new account, because the same profile picture, some of the same pictures were posted on the, on the profile. So I thought she was weird. They followed me. So I followed back. And then they messaged me asking how I was going. And at this point, I was not suspicious. And I said, Oh, yeah, like, long time no talk. It's going fine or whatever. Like, how are you basically like, I think I might have something very generic about maybe the weather or something like that. Like, yeah, I'm enjoying the sun or some shit. And then they say, Yeah, I'm good. I'm wondering if you could help me. And they're like, oh, no, not even that. Not before it went there. They said, Oh, yeah, I've been getting into like baking recently. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's cool. And then I shared a little bit more information, like, again, not suspicious. And I, I said, I've, I have, I'm not really into baking, but I've been cooking so and so. And they were like, Oh, cool. And then they said, Hey, I'm entering this competition. And can you vote for me like, baking a cake or one and that was where I was, like, hang on a minute, this is kind of fucked. And they sent me a link, which I didn't click. But I was like, This is really weird. And the link just looks sauce. So I Yeah, and then I went back and looked for that person's account in my following, like, and then I was like, Oh, wait, hang on. She's still around. So I think this person is just copied her. So then I that I messaged her, I was like, Hey, there's this account with this username. And I think it's impersonating you and she's like, oh, yeah, that's not me. And I'm like, Oh, okay. And then she said, someone else, like, one of her friends. Same thing also happened and was they were just trying to guess while Yeah. And then I've seen this happen a couple of times, and it's super weird. And I guess, what, are they trying to get? Money? Probably like, what would they ask? Like? For the I don't know, I'll just ask. I think it's, I think it might be access to Mike cow count. Maybe. I remember looking it up and then I've forgotten.
Geoff 19:00
So the most common scam that I found is like that's going around? Is I think I talked about it before on the pod. Yeah, it's it is that thing where they try to say that it's kind of like a different different scenario because usually this happens over the phone, you kind of get a phone call from Amazon saying that you've been if you don't either you've made a purchase or purchase that you that they recognize that may be fraudulent. And then, and then they get you on to like support services and they're like, oh, to have to reverse this charge will will need to have like access remote access to your desktop.
Georgie 19:55
That's where I'd be like, No, yeah,
Geoff 19:59
I mean, like I like Oh, no. Why would I? They use a lot of technobabble and because obviously I know it's bullshit. It kind of like I just let it play out because I also received scam calls. So I'm like, okay, so. So you, you have recognized the fraudulent purchase on my account. But in my head I'm like, so if you recognize it, you then you just reverse it, and they'll be happy days. Like, why do you need to do any of this? Did you say this? No, I saw I was like, Yeah, thinking this is like, just doesn't make sense. But the the idea is that they want to refund you. So they'll get you to open the bank account and bank your bank account on with the permissions with the remote access permissions. But yeah, yeah. So, the end goal is that is is the purpose of doing all this is so that when they give you the refund, they will they will try to distract you from looking at the screen? Oh, wait, no. So so they give you the refund, and they want to check that you got the correct amount, right. So you got so you got you gotta go, you gotta go into your bank account. And, and then you have to you get a you get the, the amount they refunded. So a receipt or whatever. And what they'll do is they'll try to distract you away from looking at the amount and they'll edit. They'll go into the HTML and refunded 10 Like, yeah, $10,000 or something like that when it's only $1 Because they weren't actually refunded you for anything. So they'll they'll refund you like, they'll change the number to $10,000. And they were like, oh my god, I'm so sorry. I sent you too much money. You have to give me back the money. Otherwise, my family will starve. Oh, that is so wrecked. So you imagine like how many older people would be like, Oh, I don't want you to starve my stars. And you're like, and then the but you can't give you can't give me back the money because it's like official refund. So you can't give me back the money through a direct debit. You have to go out and get gift cards and mail it to me. And so and so it becomes like a YouTube video on this.
Georgie 22:35
Yeah. If if at that point, you're just like, oh, no, you fuck with? I'm done. Can you just disconnect the thing? And you'd still like,
Geoff 22:43
oh, yeah, I mean, like, they'll harass you. The they'll keep calling you and obviously, you know, most people don't know how to block a number.
Georgie 22:52
Yeah. But at that point, you could still bail before you
Geoff 22:55
buy gift cards and do all this crud. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. But they'll make you feel bad for not doing it. And so and it gets even wilder because I stopped at the Oh, you want to remote control of my computer? Hell no. But I watched a YouTube video of of a person going through this whole process. Were they trying
Georgie 23:19
to like educate people with the video? Were they wanting to like know
Geoff 23:23
that? They're like, they're like a revenge hacker. So oh my god. Yeah,
Georgie 23:27
I may have seen this person. But yeah, yes. So they
Geoff 23:29
give you like the I mean, they let the hacker have remote access of virtual machine, which is a computer within a computer, but they don't want to go into machines on the spot. But essentially, it's a safe place and they can't access anything. So this guy, let it all play out. It's actually really, really twisted. Because not only are they asking you to mail, mail, these gift cards, their courier is also a person that got scammed. So yeah, so you put it in a mail, the mail bag and you'll die like okay, you're gonna hand it to the courier which comes to your door. And that courier is actually been coerced by the same scammers to carry out the mutual like new or these gifts so
Georgie 24:19
that they get paid.
Geoff 24:20
So that they so that they I mean the money is also being scammed. So she's like they're basically indebted and to the scammers in do in doing their dirty dirty work essentially. So it's a big chain of people being scammed and being forced into into working for the scammers because they don't want don't want that blackmail material or whatever or the money that they heard. Yeah, so like it's really wild the network that they the efforts that these that these telemarketers go through And I was like really impressed. You know, they actually got people like you would you first automate the first message, but when you call back, yeah, well, you you actually pick up the phone. It's a real person and they're there. And they're being really helpful because they're supposed to be support staff. And they're trying to do this right. Yeah, they're trained to do it. I'm like, you actually have a you have a person here. It's not just automated stuff. And it's a really in depth.
Georgie 25:29
Yeah. Impressive. Have you have you heard of Have you heard that, um, reply all podcast episode where they? Well, yeah. They've told a full story where they wanted to get back at like, the scours by asking like, where are you? Where are you actually, like, Are you being paid to do this? I think it was like, I can't remember. I think it was like basically a teenager being made to work for these scammers. And, but I'm not doing the story, proper justice, but it's just looking fascinating the way that it's told and that they tried to basically make friends with the scammers to find out more information about just how they how they worked. And
Geoff 26:09
this guy this guy did funny stuff like sent that found where their addresses so the call center and
Georgie 26:16
into the camera on shit like have you seen Yeah. Yeah. Like this is this UFMG on Facebook?
Geoff 26:21
Yeah, yeah, this that's so wild. But I think it's a little too much like, styling on them. For my tastes anyways, like it's funny, but you're also messing with call centers that hire people to do this work, necessarily. Yeah, exactly. They're doing it to feed their families. Yeah. They're not intentionally scamming. But they are intentionally scamming, but it's sort of like a weird, weird spot to be in. Anyways, watch out for scammers. There's a lot of them. Oh, wait, wait. I remember something about Oh, yeah. So have you. You've come across LinkedIn scamming. I feel like I didn't actually think LinkedIn could be a place for scammers. I don't even know why. Wait,
Georgie 27:20
let me think about this for a sec. So you're saying there's a scam that's based on LinkedIn?
Geoff 27:27
No, it's It's like through LinkedIn. So Okay. Can I guess? Yeah. Okay.
Georgie 27:33
Is it potentially that there are people there who aren't super real? And they reach out and say, we've got an opening role or something? And then you get, like scammed that way?
Geoff 27:47
Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Cuz, because you give a lot of information on LinkedIn. And if they have a fake opening role, they can they basically can get you to answer a lot of questions because the you want the roll. And you're kind of like, in the mindset. So let's,
Georgie 28:08
let's think, Okay, well, your money isn't money.
Geoff 28:10
I don't know what the goal is. I'm gonna gonna look maybe we look this up, because I didn't actually look, I didn't look into what a LinkedIn scam is, but it was, it was it was brought to my attention that scams happen over LinkedIn. I'm like, Oh, my God, I didn't actually think it was uh, I was so naive.
Georgie 28:28
That they have a help page. That's good. Yeah,
Geoff 28:31
so fishing, cat fishing. Anyway,
Georgie 28:33
let's pick one. What is the most interesting? Or
Geoff 28:37
employment lead generation? Okay, maybe employment is probably the most common thing. Fishing and
Georgie 28:43
romance. Yeah, I mean, I mean, we can't go over and all these other ones that can happen anywhere, right. But yeah.
Geoff 28:52
Romance. I feel like you should know that LinkedIn is not a romance. But it does happen. Oh,
Georgie 28:59
that happened on meetup meetup. Oh, really? Yeah, I had this guy messaging me going like, Oh, hey, beautiful some shit. I was like, Oh my God. I think it wasn't one of making may have been the sin CSS group or some shit. While man.
Geoff 29:13
I mean, I can get I can see how people could make fake meetups just to just to go Oh, my God tells jokes and stuff like
Georgie 29:23
that? I don't know. That is actually that's kind of fucked. Like, in this day and age of the internet. How do you know that anything is like believable and real, right? Imagine if like when we were running code bar, like yeah, come here and learn how to code for free but we were like some fucking on the ground.
Geoff 29:39
Where we're actually kidnapping you and forcing you to slave labor.
Georgie 29:44
What if we were like, on legit and we didn't actually have expertise. We do that we're doing for free.
Geoff 29:52
Oh, wait. It could be. It could be that we're trying to. So we're code by We're helping people transition from their existing job into tech that teaches you how to code. But actually, you're doing work. We're doing Yeah, free. You're doing free work for us. Like we're gonna give you a challenge. And you can you can do like the work for us,
Georgie 30:17
but hang on, actually a problem in some companies.
Geoff 30:21
Oh, yeah. There are tests. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I came across the chemicals to a job interview process, where the where they actually pay you to do the
Georgie 30:38
test. Okay.
Geoff 30:41
So it's not like they're trying to steal your work, because technically, they're
Georgie 30:47
paying you for it. So they are saying We value your time.
Geoff 30:51
Yeah, they value your time. It is no joke. It's quoted as four to six hours of of programming work.
Georgie 31:03
But you're paid but still pay, like.
Geoff 31:07
And it's work closely adjacent to what you're applying for. So that's why they may be Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Like, okay, so the stance is you're paying me for my time. Great. Right? That's, that's kind of good. Because if you're, if you're trying to, yeah, exactly. Because there's no guarantee. They want to make sure that you feel like you weren't wasting your time because they're paying for it. But is that
Georgie 31:39
where, you know, they're like, me might use your code?
Geoff 31:43
No, I mean, I don't know. Because I didn't, I didn't register. I didn't go for the application itself. But I was looking through this and I was thinking, okay, there's pros and cons, right? I if I am taking my time out to do this test, and it's four to six hours, I better get paid. So I am being paid, but at the same time, apparently on Glassdoor. Oh, no. Do you look up the people people have said that they felt like they're not actually looking for someone to hire and that they're just using applicants as far as like actual workers? Because it's like a cash payment freelance. And I'm like Ha that's so yeah. Actually possible tax was
Georgie 32:33
like you as an applicant would you have to like take that as income
Geoff 32:40
it's a gift it's a gift it's three payouts for a gift
Georgie 32:44
it was very very well yeah,
Geoff 32:47
I think so. I mean it either way the steak really like it's puts you in a weird spot. You don't know what to make of it. But it could be something positive what if something like what
Georgie 32:58
if every applicant they're giving a different test because they're getting each exactly different part of some fucking SAS product?
Geoff 33:06
Yeah, you get what you should get
Georgie 33:09
employed and you can like fuck and just see what goes on.
Geoff 33:14
You're stitching together all of these different applicants just to make it work.
Georgie 33:18
Imagine if you get you get the job and that's what you're doing. Like you're using all of the code that was submitted through like,
Geoff 33:26
oh man, and then you just asked like co pilot to to like make all these cases. But yeah, fake fake job LinkedIn scams. Here we go. One of the most common scams involves false employment scammers post fake jobs for legitimate companies see just didn't even cross my mind that people would do this. For some reason I grew up on the internet
Georgie 33:52
Well, tight Well, times have changed like not times have changed, but like, oh my god, time has passed.
Geoff 33:57
This is already shady recruiters will request your social security number and banking information. I don't know how common this is like to form
Georgie 34:06
Vo is that important for to America? But I don't know if it's yeah, it's like, remember, we looked at that guy. I think it was like Benjamin Kyle who was like a guy just found behind a Burger King and he didn't have social security number. He was just found in like a garbage truck had been hit or something. Or dumpster behind the Burger King and the fact that he didn't have a social security number. And it was just so hard to give get his life back. They didn't know who he was, etc. And it's Yeah, yeah.
Geoff 34:40
It's pretty important, I think.
Georgie 34:43
But for do you, I guess if they're important, I guess. Yeah, maybe you need to give it to Yeah,
Geoff 34:48
I mean, that's kind of like what, that's the problem with like a universally used, like nationally used identifier. nine digit social to US citizens permanent residents. SSA uses SSN to report wages to the government track Social Security benefits other identification yeah
Georgie 35:10
the fact that it's so identification as well like Why Why wouldn't they just have like a different Yeah,
Geoff 35:20
I mean like I guess recruiters do need to know your social security numbers so that
Georgie 35:26
thank you. Why if you don't have the job yeah, like
Geoff 35:30
Yeah, it's gained to gain your personal efficient to steal your identity. Because your social security numbers essentially your identity. Yeah. Cuz you use for everything. I guess our driver's license, you can get past most checkpoints? Like a phone. A phone plan is only
Georgie 35:54
Yeah, you just need an ID. ID. I don't know if you need multiple points. I
Geoff 35:58
don't know. I don't think you need 100 point check, which is like two major like passport number and phone. license number and Medicare. So but yeah, we at least have a way to like help governmental things you need 100 point? Yeah, check, which means you need three forms of IDs. This one is probably just one. Certain recruiters may request a finder's fee before they connect you to the company. What? After this financier? Who Chase? Don't fall for the tricks.
Georgie 36:37
How to avoid.
Geoff 36:40
Repetition appears to be Yeah, like paying you for your time. Oh, yeah. Okay. Review the company's websites. Never share your personal physical address identification numbers on your resume.
Georgie 36:54
Hang on a minute. I feel like before I didn't used to put my phone number. Yeah, because our phone
Geoff 37:01
number isn't used to. Yeah, it's only used to contact. It's not like a identifier. Do
Georgie 37:11
not complete an interview over text on chat apps like WhatsApp.
Geoff 37:15
All right. I don't realize that it's a one on one like, yeah, you got to complete your interview over zoom.
Georgie 37:21
I mean, the second one is pretty valid, too, right? Like look at the company's website to verify the information. Like if you're seeing like, just gonna say Google has a role for data law and they're contacted you go and check that it's got it on their website.
Geoff 37:35
Because yeah, that's kind of tricky, because I feel like that's
Georgie 37:39
right, talk to they’re or something. I feel
Geoff 37:43
like LinkedIn is easy, easy Apply button. And I've heard that it's not that effective, the easy Apply button, but some people only have that as the option. So you either easy apply or not apply. And they only use LinkedIn as the job description so they don't have a website with a careers page or something like that. So I feel like this is some legit jobs out there that just can't afford to go the extra mile, but at the same time, I guess so. But
Georgie 38:18
maybe you could also look on like seek are they advertising there as well? I don't know how much that costs for people to advertise on. Yeah,
Geoff 38:25
I feel like there's definitely ways like if you're looking for a startup then you can actually see their seed like their precede or series ABC amounts in some way shape or form on the internet. And you can like guess that they're real. Yeah,
Georgie 38:41
but I feel like I mean, yeah, like you said WhatsApp, like who just don't just don't do anything. What?
Geoff 38:48
Yeah, it's like hey, man, I got a job for you. That's like freelance level. Freelance level. stuff. Yeah.
Georgie 39:00
Okay, what's equipment? Oh, yeah. What's another kind of LinkedIn scam apart from employment one, provide
Geoff 39:06
company funded supplies, including electronic scammers who post fake job ads me promised to send you a check to reimburse the payment of work equipment in this common work from home scam. Ah, that's pretty that's pretty yeah specific after placing your large order for all this, yeah, yeah, I get I get why this is gonna work. Because I've had experience like I had to pay for something upfront, and then get reimbursed for it. So that's pretty like if you don't if you're not careful with the detail, you'll think it's okay. But like, you should always get the reimburse that you should get the check upfront before you buy anything. But I understand it's not always the person Yeah, so this is, this is a really hard thing to,
Georgie 40:04
I think, well, it says scammers who post the fake job ads promise to. So you're already personally Yeah, you're already in the fake job. And then they're like, cool. You can work from home and we'll give you some money. And you're just excited to go buy whatever you want. Yeah.
Geoff 40:27
Yeah, you're already thinking they're legit. First, this is a bit hard. Yeah. They will send your reimbursement search online liquor reviews of the company is a scam. I think this is a bit hard, right? Yeah. Yeah. In the you’re she in the company commonly provide
Georgie 40:43
maybe, maybe you need to go Okay, can I talk to your, like, I don't know, HR person. Do you have like this documented somewhere in my contract? That's true. Don't buy shit. Just assuming you actually have a job. Like, you should probably get an actual.
Geoff 41:01
Yeah, you sign a document contract? And it's like, hey, but
Georgie 41:06
then what if they do do that, like go to that effort? And yeah,
Geoff 41:09
it's pretty hard. It's linked. So for one thing, I feel like I don't I don't come across these because I don't accept random connections.
Georgie 41:21
Yeah, like I don't want in connection with LinkedIn, who was not someone who knows someone I know, event or whatever. Yeah,
Geoff 41:29
yeah, I got called LinkedIn snap. I don't think I've told this before. You will, like odd.
Georgie 41:35
Yeah, you have like you said someone at Code ball wanted to add you. And you were trying to limit it to 500 connects and connection? No, no, no.
Geoff 41:45
I said, I want to go to 500. But I also don't add anyone I've never worked with. Well,
Georgie 41:51
I Yeah. So I don't add anyone. Unless I know them. Or like it could be from a community. It could be from I've worked with them. Or like through somebody. Maybe I've heard of it through somebody. So I get a lot from just people who are like, they even leave a mess. Has anyone listened to this? Lesson, guys. So I saw your blah, blah, your blog post and I wanted to connect.
Geoff 42:18
But I don't the public figure problem.
Georgie 42:20
The parasocial shit?
Geoff 42:24
Yeah, I mean, I just do I distinguish between friend platforms and working platform, I really I'd take these I take this platform seriously. Like if I sign up for LinkedIn for professional reasons, then any connection? It must be a professional connection in your must have worked with you.
Georgie 42:45
To add like someone from a different industry? Who's your friend?
Geoff 42:50
Well, I've relaxed the rules, but at the start, no, like, even if I even if I went to high school with them or went to uni. Wow. Because I didn't eat if I if I did a group project with them, then maybe I thought about this really hot. You can tell. So you've relaxed the
Georgie 43:11
rules of it. Yeah, I feel like tightening the rules that are deleted. I mean, all the lawyers who never talked to me, I'm not talking about I'm not talking about my friend Lily. And I'm talking.
Geoff 43:29
Like my closest friend I've known since I was 11 is like, like, yeah, yeah. And then I guess like school did law. So I'm just like, What the fuck? Yeah. And I think, well, I got called on LinkedIn now by someone who wanted to connect with me, but I was like, we haven't actually worked together. And, and I was like, No, they were like, they i? So their perception of my No, was quite, like I said, a LinkedIn snob. Because apparently, well, not apparently. It removes the pitch, like the potential for a wider connection, because I have a lot of people. I'm connected to, like 500 people, and they're only connected to 10. So I'm denying them access to my network. Yeah, you did cause about Yeah, I think. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I talked to the pod recently. But yeah, so I didn't really think about it that way. And I still no, but
Georgie 44:34
LinkedIn, I find is that you have to connect with people. You think it's changed now? You can't just follow people like you can do on Twitter, and Instagram. Were on those on Twitter and Instagram. You are not expected. No one. You should not expect anyone to follow you back. Yeah. Whereas on LinkedIn, it's like we are connected like
Geoff 44:59
this. Yeah, I mean, I am like kind of gatekeeping, but also gatekeeping for a reason why would I give you access to an entire tech connection network that I've built for tech? Did you just click blue buttons?
Georgie 45:15
Yeah, connect.
Geoff 45:16
I mean, yeah, if I, if I start working on the place, which I've done a lot. I usually connect with my team, my team. And then anyone I've kind of like had, when I like look on LinkedIn next, in a couple of months after working there for a while. I'll notice like suggestions of other team people that I've other people on teams that I've interacted with, and I connect with them. Whether or not we had good interaction or not. I would still like kind of connect with them. On LinkedIn. Yeah. But yeah, if you're not even in my industry, and I haven't even worked with you. It feels weird to connect on LinkedIn, and give you access to a network even if it's an access to network issue thing. That's
Georgie 46:07
quite funny. I now I want to delete people from my
Geoff 46:10
Yeah, it really does. I don't think people will notice that. It's like Instagram unfollowing. Like if you unfollow someone on Instagram that's popular. Like they don't notice. Did you? Do you remember
Georgie 46:26
there was a time on Twitter, when people would actually connect their account for some service that counted? How many people unfollowed you? No way? Yeah, this was a thing.
Geoff 46:37
It's like a Social Blade thing. It was like that. That's so that's I think my
Georgie 46:43
tweet was literally, like one of my friends use this. And it was like, Oh, I gained like two followers. And I lost like, four followers. And it would tweet that from your account weekly, or at some. Yeah, so access to your account, and it would Yeah. And I was like, but I don't, I don't care. Like what do you mean? It's also like, oh, you lost five followers is because you're posting too many cats. Oh,
Geoff 47:11
I remember the Klout score. Do you remember cloud? Yeah. Hey,
Georgie 47:16
yeah. Did you like you put this stuff in? And then I'd be like, Oh, I'm like, great. Yeah, no, my mind was decent. I think from what I remember.
Geoff 47:24
So I think I think it went further because
Georgie 47:27
isn't a website I just look for is a was Yeah. Clap
Geoff 47:31
measure influence from by using data points from Twitter such as follower count, following count follower count, retweets, list memberships? And how many spam dead accounts were following you? How influential the people you retweeted, who retweeted you were and unique mentions, so they took this to the next level that like how effective or how much traction do you do your tweets gain? And that's like, the basis of this score. And I was pretty obsessed with this score.
Georgie 48:06
Yeah, to be fair, I was interested in it too. But I guess now it's true reach. It's like evolved to like you can see I think depending on what account you have, maybe you can see more insights. And yeah, like graphs and things to see like what
Geoff 48:22
Yeah, Social Blade is Yeah, Social Blade is follower account. I think social Social Blade. I don't know if it's actually measuring impact. Which is kind of wild.
Georgie 48:38
Interesting thing you want to look me. Yeah. Oh, wait says
Geoff 48:45
it says YouTube Twitch Twitter, Instagram. What would they like username?
Georgie 48:50
Well, hey, dot Georgie on Instagram. Not giving up my Twitter one. I will we can look at it often.
Geoff 48:58
Let me look up.
Georgie 48:59
Do you have to? Do you have to put the URL in?
Geoff 49:06
Maybe I'll just use mine because it's quite popular. I mean, I niq try.
Georgie 49:11
Yeah, try though. That at the top
exists. Did you deactivate?
Geoff 49:24
Okay. Oh, okay. So, I mean, this is pretty bad.
Georgie 49:30
Weight good weight trying to for mine like pewdiepie Okay, here
Geoff 49:35
we go. I mean, B plus, so yeah, they only do like follower count. daily average
Georgie 49:46
plus, what's Marques Brownlee? MKBHD. Yeah, I'm
Geoff 49:51
KB he beat us who's a plus then I think we need to do topless. Oh,
Georgie 50:04
I'm gonna barf. Holy
Geoff 50:06
crap. Who are these people? Mr. Beast? We won't get into Mr. Beast. It's already 50 minutes does it
Georgie 50:13
doesn't count like stuff like xivo and like music channel, you know, I mean
Geoff 50:17
T series.
Georgie 50:20
A plus plus.
Geoff 50:22
So this, you didn't realize, okay, so there was a huge beef between like a huge meme between like a competition between PewDiePie and T series, right because PewDiePie was the number one youtuber yes and T series T series was coming up on his like, basically they were competing for number one and number two, and T series is rising really fast. I don't know how many does 270 270 million and PewDiePie has now.
Georgie 50:55
How long? I mean when was earliest YouTube? You watched?
Geoff 51:03
Oh, man, it's probably the it's probably the Poco mon Smosh
Georgie 51:07
Yeah, honestly, I was like Smosh was number one like you'll buy in like T so like, what? And then do you like Ryan? Higa? Yeah,
Geoff 51:16
Ryan Higa.
Georgie 51:17
And Kev Jamba.
Geoff 51:18
Yeah, Kev, Kev. Jumba long foods probably.
Georgie 51:23
Still, I still post and then do you remember my Chani? Yeah,
Geoff 51:28
he's still got a YouTube channel. Yeah,
Georgie 51:30
he's still completely ridiculous.
Geoff 51:33
Yeah, I think it was pre 100 million. I think it was like this, like the fight for who's gonna get to 100 million subscribers first. It's a PewDiePie or T series. But T series is sort of like and they made he made distracts like pewdiepie made distracts. He had a huge cult following. It was sort of like a really, like, contentious point because he was the last like, official. YouTuber, like T series is like a music like Viva T Series is the Viva India. So they're a conglomerate. They like amassing a lot of subscribers because they have a monopoly on music videos like vivo and MTV in India. So of course, you have to subscribe to vivo to T series if you want to see music videos in India. But yeah, yeah, so so there was like a PewDiePie was the last true YouTuber to reach 200 million and they don't actually recognize T series as the number one. But yeah, SRK music again? A music. Yeah,
Georgie 52:48
who's Okay, who's a real person? Zack de filmes. Who's that? Oh, Alan chicken chow. I do know him. Did I
Geoff 52:57
follow? I just realized that I unfollow Achievement Hunter. I think that's also a group but originally, one person. Jason Derulo. Oh man,
Georgie 53:12
that's like crazy Koreans
Geoff 53:15
like yeah, Korea. This is Japanese. This is Korean. Oh, man. I don't know any of the top 50 Except for Mr. Beast. Yeah. Which we won't get into right now. No, anyways. This that's that's top 50 our way into the closing of this episode. You can follow us on nothing right now, despite us talking a lot about social YouTube. We will not be recording this episode and putting it on YouTube. But you can email us on apt to test tested tester is pod@pm.me.
Georgie 53:58
And you can find our episodes on Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcasts and why am I forgotten when we talk about
Geoff 54:10
testing a memory of podcast
Georgie 54:12
list. Follower list follower count. Big follower count the big
Geoff 54:18
which we have not? Yeah. The new episodes every Monday. So see you next week. Bye.