If anyone pays so much money to someone they never met, or _dependable_ know their identity, that seems like a major fail.
The whole idea that someone who couldn't legally enter the US, gets easier clearance than any tourist, or foreign academic with an opinion about the current gov that seems uncomfortable to them baffles me.
Not the first time some priorities seem out of touch with reality.
The point is that there are legit American citizens who are in on the con. They have real SSNs and an actual presence in the US. They run proxy servers out of their house to make it seem like that's where their web traffic is coming from. From the company's perspective, everything seems like a regular remote employee.
A proxy server can't fool an in-person interview. Totally bizarre how in-person interviews have fallen out of fashion, now that they're needed the most.
I actually have first hand experience with this! One person came for the on site interview, and a different and much worse dev did the remote work once hired. This was over a decade ago now.
> The point is that there are legit American citizens who are in on the con...
For example - https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/arizona-woman-sentenced-17m-i...
And another one ironically by a Ukrainian national who is ethnic Ukrainian and not Donbas Russian - https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/ukrainian-national-senten...
Bloomberg made a good video about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gjnrMg9iSo
BuT They"Re sO cHeAp!
> It cites information from the US Government that these IT workers can earn more than $300,000 a year
Doesn't sound that cheap.
Can doesn't mean does