They kind of do. Its part of the extension (what used to be called night school)
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There is definitely a genre of spear-phishing based on job offers. I have gotten a couple of these. The email I received was well-written, and I don’t think it was computationally generated. The email specifically mentioned previous work, previous publications and offered a position that was plausibly a reasonable career move from my current position. The email was from someone who identified themselves as a headhunter.
For real positions, I have had initial and subsequent (real) interviews set up by recruiters, so I can easily imagine if someone thought this was the ‘real deal’, they could have had several interactions where they thought they were actually talking to someone representing Harvard.
In the case of the emails I received, it was pretty clear to me that I didn’t have the kind of International reputation that would be needed to actually be a candidate for the jobs described. However, I can imagine someone being flattered enough to respond.
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The bit where someone accused her of being the scammer, in order to make money presenting herself as a Harvard professor, is interesting - it suggests that if she was fooled, it was because she really, really wanted to believe it, enough that she didn’t bother with the basic fact checking that would have made her realize it was a scam. But I suppose that’s how all successful scams work - figuring out (by research or casting a wide enough net) what individuals are predisposed (desperate, even) to believe, and using that against them.
Or, as I call it, “LinkedIn.” (I swear, I’ve never gotten a single legitimate offer of anything through that site. At best the site itself is trying to drum up “engagement” by trying to get me to chase my own tail applying for jobs that don’t exist, thanks to wonky algorithms.)
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I have to wonder if she’s somehow crossed the Modi regime. I can definitely see those ultra-nationalist thugs targetting her if her reporting made them unhappy.
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Yeah. You’d think that she would read the department’s website at some point while preparing for her interview and find out that it doesn’t exist. And if she was in the circles that have a shot at a job like this she would have friends and colleagues who would know immediately that no such professorship is currently on offer when she mentioned it.
I am fairly certain I know about every open professorship in my field, and I’m not even eligible for any of them.
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I’ve not found it very different in Norway than it is in Germany but I could imagine that it is different for you in the US for example.
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I think it varies a lot. Some universities rely a lot on headhunting firms, especially for senior positions. I’ve been approached by headhunters in the UK, Europe, and Australia, who would do all the initial work of contacting potential candidates, negotiating a deal etc. That’s very different from the approach places like Harvard and my own university (in Canada) use. It would not have occurred to me that some of those might not be genuine, although I do know that at least one that was a genuine offer, because of subsequent conversations with colleagues at the University doing the recruiting.
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Yes, this part is weird. THat someone wouldn’t reach out on their own is definitely odd.
For USAns who apply out of country, my experience has been that if two applicants are equal in qualification, but one is from the the country where the job is, and the other isn’t, the job will go to the citizen.
I spent a semester teaching in the UK, on an exchange program. It was blissful. I nosed around about finding a permanent job there, but the barriers seemed very high.
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Well in the EU that’s the law; if two candidates are equal in qualification the job goes to the applicant from one of the EU countries (which would have included the UK until recently). Of course that can always be fudged if they really want someone since nobody has the exact same qualifications and they can always stress one aspect over another.
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She should have become immediately suspicious: An academic institutuon assuming that a news anchor could instruct Journalism?
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Even if that were the case, blaming the victim for falling for a con strikes me as really cold not matter how sophisticated or not it was. I don’t blame tourists for getting pick-pocketed; I tell them to call their bank and their consulate and hope they aren’t in fact SOL.
Yeah, it’s easy to ridicule someone for falling for an attack you don’t think you would have. But the more professional phishers are getting more sophisticated every day. People should maybe ask if they’re certain they’ll never be duped and would they want zero sympathy for themselves if and when they are.
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Yeah. I was willing to go on that ride with her until that last bit about them not having a journalism school. The very first thing I would have done would have been to study up on my future bosses and peers. On the website. The journalism school’s website. But I also get that phishing scams are getting more elaborate and they may have had a bogus site for her. etc.
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Really? JFC. The fucking corporate university.
She might have a strong journalism background or be known for her work outside of being an anchor… Not every news outlet is Fox news. Christiane Amanpour is an anchor now, but hardly “just” an anchor.
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That’s what I was thinking. I had a friend in high school that received a letter notifying him that he received a $5000 scholarship to the college of his choice. It was on nice letterhead and looked legit, but when he called the phone number it was the number of a massage parlor. Turned out the letter was a prank by another student. It was pretty painful for my friend.
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Sounds like a David Mamet ‘Spanish Prisoner’-type story with those long-con layered contingencies that even include if someone gets caught, only to double down in another branch of the constructed story. But what would the ‘big score’ end game be here? Certainly could be politically-motivated embarrassment/prank more than money.
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If only there were something easily accessible to research such things we wouldn’t have to rely solely on the lists in our heads. Like a world wide depository of info via personal computer, perhaps.
I don’t know about you but if I were thinking about moving to a new country for a new job I might RESEARCH the hell outta that place/people on the very internet I’m using to email with them.
I don’t want to diminish any vicitm-ness here but don’t pretend like oodles of info wasn’t available to her at her fingertips.
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It may have been an extensive series of communications. It seems doubtful if was just one “offer.” I’m interested if she ever talked to someone over the phone: did all of this occur online only?
Also, “phishing”? Isn’t this much more “catfishing”? This was identity impersonation. The evildoer didn’t get anything from the reporter, as such. (She’s complaining about being tricked, and not that someone drained her bank account or has locked up her computer or gained access to compromising photos.)
But phishing/spearphishing deal with sending the victim an email attachment that allows you to take control of their computer or network, gaining access to email/photos/documents/communications. In this case, that (apparently) did not happen.
This was just social engineering to trick her into thinking she had the Harvard professorship via an assumed Harvard identity (ergo, catfishing).
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Then don’t victim blame?
You do realize that the internet is the same the world over?
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It doesn’t seem like we really know anything for certain. Maybe publishing those emails with headers would be a start.
There are all sorts of possibilities, from she’s lying, to she was “pranked”/tricked out of evil intent, to an advance fee scam where they say she needs to send them money for a Visa and a tax deposit or some such nonsense, or who knows.
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I didn’t victim blame. I refuted your claim that she’d only have access to info already in her head. She was a news editor, news presenter, and journalist in New Delhi in the 21st century.
I assume you meant “isn’t” - and I’ll bet a high profile person at a news org in India has access to pretty much the same internet you do with the added paid-for-research-sites news orgs have.
I’m not victim blaming because some are saying the scam seems pretty sophisticated, but you kinda do seem to come off as diminishing her as any sort of capable, privileged person in your excuses.
That’s the last I’ll say about it here.
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