So this story is maybe a year old, and I am not going to name the people or company directly. If this ruffles any feathers, or gets seen. “It is what it is”.
Anyway, I found a job on “insert job board here” for an onsite IT admin at the mid to end of “insert year here”. I completed a successful phone interview, and was offered an on site interview. I went to the on site interview, and all seemed good. “small, growing company/start up” that had different departments, kind of nice staff. a cool office, good perks. and on face value, the work being done was legit. I left feeling satisfied.
Skip forward a week or 2, and I am offered a job. the company ask me for documents and what I would like to be paid. “just name the price”, and I was told that I would receive a contract within a week… 2 weeks pass and I receive no contract, so I push and finally receive the paperwork and start date.
The start date comes, and something is immediately a little strange. But I cannot quite put my finger on it. Everyone seemed to be doing something, but nothing. There was no onboarding, no implemented tech stack, and no clear goals to work towards. Moreover, I get asked to sign up/fill in for some website/marketing tool which I have never heard of, and has no purpose. Which is marketed as a way to predict buying behaviour for any given persons personality. It then gives you a personalised code which sits on your desk badge. Thought the day, the staff also kept asking me “so you are coming back tomorrow”? like they were surprised I had stayed.
A couple of days later, I come to the office. and there is a man dressed in a dolce & Gabbana onesie, looking like a crazy late life transexual serial killer. seemingly being treated like a god, whilst giving some kind of motivational speech about how people can “change” and other bullshit. He has a lot of rich looking friends, and I over hear that the office manager is a supposedly a former bank robber that was living in another European country before taking the job and happens to like swingers clubs and children.
So I start searching the internet for the people I am now working for, and who I have just met in the office. And all I can say is that the internet links these people with the most notorious crypto scam to date, in which they are mentioned in the same articles regarding a woman that Europol just named on their public most wanted list. They claim to have become born again business men now operating companies which are the spitting image of their old scam, with some new ones mixed in.
Eventually I put the catalog together, and it includes a new crypto currency that is worthless, Insider trading apps that have little actual benefit and implement auto trading in regions where they do not comply with financial regulations. a “metaverse” that seemingly again has little direction or purpose. Clone companies and more. but the catch is, Its your typical pyramid scheme bullshit that aimed to do nothing but pull you in with the tiered package crap and fancy gold/diamond badges.
Eventually after a week or 2, there comes a day where some investors turn up to the office with a shit load of cash from the americas, and start videoing the office on some MLM super hype. and that was it for me. Enough was seen to realise these people were up to some dodgy shit. It honestly felt like working in some kind of North Korean front company and I am still paranoid to this day just what these people could have done with a) my identity and b) to me in general if they wanted.
The story does get even longer if I were to provide links and story specific details regrinding the overwhelming amount of weird shit I have found with online research and also seen with my own eyes. But then it would defeat the point of not naming people and company. (Sorry)
More just a warning: Do more research on your company before taking that job!
Edit: Title should Say ” I unwittingly may have got myself in to someTHING that I shouldn't have.”