Beware of "Cryptocurrency industry recruiters" - Scam warning.

As the industry starts to generate traction again, of course the scammers will also grow in numbers.

People who have been here for at least 1 bull/bear cycle know exactly how this works. As crypto start to get popular again, it becomes a honey pot for scams and grifters. Some of them are obvious, while others are pretty sophisticated. I want to share a very recent personal experience so you can also be prepared. Never underestimate scammers.

So I have been in the space for a good while (first interaction back in 2017 where I wrote a paper on bitcoin as a postgrad student in finance), and I always had this goal in mind of eventually working for a crypto project, or a company associated with crypto (like analytics companies or credible news sites). I have also been job hunting for the past few weeks, mostly in tradfi. The fact that I have engaged with recruiters in the traditional finance sector, made me forget how scammy the crypto industry usually is.

I have also found some job ads online about "Financial Analysts" or "Crypto Market Researchers" and I have decided to apply to some; the job descriptions looked ideal for my skills and background.

So I have been contacted by an "HR representative from 0x", regarding my application. I immediately got excited because I am familiar with 0x as a crypto project. They asked me some questions via email and I replied. Nothing fancy, stuff like "what's your experience with crypto, what's your desired salary, etc."

Then the "HR rep" sent me a link to book a meeting with them via a meeting platform, which I never heard of, but looked legit. Since I have used various (previously unknown) platforms for such meetings, (I've worked as a Business Analyst and I've frequently used different platforms for meetings with software engineers, web developers etc.), I didn't get suspicious of it.

So I went to book my meeting with them by entering the "meeting code" I was provided and I immediately saw that the browser tried to download something (I use windows). My heart dropped immediately as I realised this was definitely sketchy. I immediately went and ran anti-virus checks and thankfully the download was blocked by my anti-virus with the notification "malware detected". It still took me like 10 mins to calm down because I am fairly sure they can get access to all sort of passwords if they actually infected my pc.

I am still not very relaxed about it and I reported that recruiter. I thought it seemed too good to be true but again, a lot of factors of recent experiences made me get complacent. I am usually very, very sceptical, especially when it comes to crypto.

I know that many of you here eventually would like to work for a legit project in the industry, and so do I. But please, always be extra careful when interacting with ANYTHING NEW. Whether it is a recruiter, a new platform, a dapp, a coin, a person etc. ALWAYS be sceptical. The centralised internet is not safe, so imagine how a decentralised one would look like.

Please keep this in the back of your mind for the future as well. If and when the industry grows organically, so will the scammers, and so will the sophistication of their schemes. Have a good day.