alt.hn

5/13/2026 at 8:57:56 PM

I was asked to install malware during a fake interview

https://ashishb.net/security/contagious-interview/

by ashishb

5/14/2026 at 1:08:14 AM

> If it is open-source, you will see a meaningful activity - stars, forks, contributors.

That's not true, I'm quite sure most repos on GitHub have neither many stars, nor forks, nor multiple contributors.

by croemer

5/14/2026 at 3:01:12 AM

To add to that, any metrics like these can be quite meaningless since you can just buy them online.

Please never rely on any such "social" metrics.

by bryanhogan

5/14/2026 at 6:11:54 AM

This is just a negative filter to see as a warning sign. It is like walking into a dark alley at night.

Nothing might happen but you should be on the alert.

by ashishb

5/13/2026 at 10:29:52 PM

> become a technical advisor for their web3 project

That by itself should have been the first red flag. I also heard a lot of these stories recently. I think this might be one of the good use cases of GitHub Codespaces.

by elashri

5/14/2026 at 5:26:08 AM

Not for someone who get 10-20 such requests a year. None till date were such scams.

by ashishb

5/14/2026 at 5:46:16 AM

All of them were scams, this was just the first time you were the intended victim.

by tdeck

5/14/2026 at 6:10:18 AM

Those were real companies. The conversation started online and immediately moved in-person.

I was never asked to install anything. I was not even given code access (without NDA) and I did get paid with equity/money in cases there was a mutual match and we proceeded.

by ashishb

5/14/2026 at 7:11:25 AM

Oh god, thanks for the heads up. It's a wonder how many people fell for it, definitely non-zero I reckon. I would hate for this to become a thing on LinkedIn.

by ccimmergreen

5/14/2026 at 7:16:38 AM

Kudos for giving the actual names of the guys.

by kunley

5/13/2026 at 11:55:42 PM

[dead]

by flexagoon