[HN Gopher] We created a fake delivery company to get a job
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       We created a fake delivery company to get a job
        
       Author : 1ikigai
       Score  : 60 points
       Date   : 2024-07-16 16:21 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.kashevko.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.kashevko.com)
        
       | gred wrote:
       | Very interesting, very impressive, and a little concerning that
       | this is what it takes to get noticed! I actually went in
       | expecting something along the lines of "I started a profitable
       | company in order to pad my resume and get some interviews; it
       | worked, so now I can shut the company down."
        
       | brianbreslin wrote:
       | loved this story, wickedly creative. This type of creativity
       | should be encouraged.
        
         | philipwhiuk wrote:
         | Delivering unsolicited packages to company mailrooms?
        
       | CamelCaseName wrote:
       | What an awesome story. The amount of effort put in is nuts!
       | 
       | Also, LOL at Conde Nast. How on brand of them to C&D you!
        
         | 1ikigai wrote:
         | haha, thank you! C&D included wording ''we appreciate
         | creativity''.
         | 
         | But I hold no grudge. I don't know what was going on in the
         | life of that person, maybe they had some creepy stalkers in the
         | past who really caused them problems or maybe it even didn't
         | get to them and this is just a standard procedure of their
         | security team.
        
       | itronitron wrote:
       | creepy, reminds me of the webpage someone made years ago that
       | shows a stalker looking through all the personal information and
       | friend lists of the user visiting the page
        
       | vineyardmike wrote:
       | This is really cool, but the narrative also has a few strong
       | "Wait this is creepy" moments... There is a lot of creating
       | problem solving and some awesome creations sprinkled in. But damn
       | would I both love and hate to get one of those deliveries.
       | 
       | They cloned people with AI tools and created a bunch of deep-
       | fakes which they then delivered to that person.
       | 
       | They used a (self made) list of dead people to improve targeted
       | ads so they could cohort-advertise to a small list of people.
       | 
       | They created fake uniforms to deliver packages to offices, and
       | seemed pretty successful.
       | 
       | I feel like this would make a great case study on targeted
       | phishing and social-engineering.
        
       | elephant81 wrote:
       | What are they actually selling? Their website,
       | https://www.outstandly.com/, is a single landing page with
       | "Creative solutions for boring problems."
       | 
       | Here is a boring problem, creatively show me your work.
        
         | AIorNot wrote:
         | Sounds like they are in creative/digital marketing space so
         | this makes sense from that perspective- ie not the right tactic
         | for a Java outsourcing company..
        
         | 1ikigai wrote:
         | Would the case you just read count?
        
       | BadHumans wrote:
       | This is everything I hate about the internet in one story. Using
       | ads to target people, using AI to clone someones' voice and
       | identity, dogs. The person who said they were excited, confused,
       | scared but curious sums up how I feel about this although I'm not
       | curious because I know where it leads.
        
         | nasdaq-txn wrote:
         | I agree. It's an invasion of privacy dressed up as a cute
         | story.
        
         | rootsudo wrote:
         | Exactly. All because they want a "job." which just rewards this
         | sort of behavior.
        
           | BadHumans wrote:
           | They need a job because they are fleeing a war they didn't
           | ask for and are trying to get back on their feet. I don't
           | blame them for doing it. I just don't like it.
        
         | thih9 wrote:
         | To be fair, they acknowledge they are being creepy and that not
         | all reactions were positive.
         | 
         | Also, of all the shady hustling that I've seen, targeting high
         | level employees with a creative-and-privacy-invading pitch
         | seems the least problematic.
        
         | mcculley wrote:
         | I think we can all agree about the evil of the adtech
         | ecosystem. But what do you have against dogs?
        
       | CastIrony wrote:
       | I went on AliExpress to look up how much robot dogs cost, and
       | after filtering out the ones that are obviously plastic toys, the
       | ones that look like the photos they posted were thousands of
       | dollars.
       | 
       | Seems like a weird priority for a project like this.
        
         | 1ikigai wrote:
         | Yeah, it was definitely a silly, not economically viable leap
         | of faith move. We enjoyed all of it.
        
         | popcalc wrote:
         | Tax write-off.
        
       | ipjrms wrote:
       | Disturbing. Real sociopath energy. They'll probably be
       | millionaires in no time, honestly.
        
       | curtisblaine wrote:
       | This site breaks Brave on Android. The page becomee slow, goes to
       | "Oh Snap" in seconds and finally Brave gets terminated.
        
         | 1ikigai wrote:
         | Sorry about this! It's a simple Ghost blog, but the post has
         | lots of video and photo, that must be clogging the resources
         | probably :(
        
       | ada1981 wrote:
       | I'd love to have these guys on a creative team.
        
       | lifestyleguru wrote:
       | Many of us found themselves trying their luck in London. They
       | don't seem to financially need it, looking at the expenses.
        
       | peter_d_sherman wrote:
       | Random idea based on article:
       | 
       | I'd love to see a future Sci-fi TV episode where a character gets
       | not one, but multiple such "from the future gift boxes with video
       | messages from a future self" -- but from _multiple future selves_
       | , that is, _multiple future parallel universe versions_ of the
       | character!
       | 
       | In other words, "here is a set of potential future you's -- along
       | with the instructions to activate them -- important upcoming life
       | decisions to make or not to make, depending on the desired
       | outcome..."
       | 
       | And what would make it really interesting (as the plot
       | unfolds!)... is that all of these apparently disparate sets of
       | decisions -- are actually intertwined, entangled, and potentially
       | mutually contradictory (i.e., choosing one set unchooses all of
       | the others!)
       | 
       | Now, for extra points, for the future SF writer or writers
       | working on this -- make it so that the main character, after
       | discovering the "either-or" mutual exclusion principle inherent
       | in these choices -- tries to somehow cheat fate and destiny by
       | attempting to somehow obtain ALL of them at the same time!
       | 
       | Will the character be successful in his quest against the
       | apparent exclusivity of fate?
       | 
       | Or will he somehow manage to attain all of these future
       | possibilities, all at the same time?
       | 
       | Well, that's the episode plot for this future TV Sci-Fi episode
       | and/or movie (should it ever be written!)
       | 
       | Anyway, interesting article!
        
         | 1ikigai wrote:
         | I LOVE THIS CONCEPT SO MUCH
        
       | euvin wrote:
       | >It hit me. What if we use the ''custom audiences'' thingy, but
       | just populate it with 299 deceased people and 1 person whom we
       | really need to show this ad to?
       | 
       | What a sentence. And what an article, too: using the deceased as
       | a marketing ploy, sending cryptic emails, AI + voice
       | impersonation. I'm surprised they only got one cease and desist
       | letter at the end. I wonder if this is the endgame of social
       | mobility as more and more humans become replaced through
       | automation: a competition for the attention of those at the top.
        
       | picklebarrel wrote:
       | This is awesome, I love it.
        
       | rcbdev wrote:
       | Most people from Western Europe couldn't afford to just go to
       | London like that and waste time and money in this way. I am much
       | more curious about the state of these people's company's
       | financials than anything else.
       | 
       | Also, elaborately targeting specific people like that and
       | presenting them with the fact that you can fake their voice on
       | top of any kind of outrages statements while you know exactly
       | where they work and how to get there sets a hellish precedent and
       | I'd even consider it a veiled attempt at a threat.
       | 
       | It is not what I'd consider culturally appropriate behavior in
       | the UK, business-wise. I'd try to adapt, if at all possible, to
       | the new environment you've found yourselves in unwillingly.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-07-19 23:16 UTC)