Blockchain recruiter mass-spam email

[NotATether]

So this came in my inbox this afternoon, well not this particular message, but one almost identical to it. This one here is from two weeks back.

It's titled Blockchain Developer- Meeting Request... !!!!!

Hi admin@notatether.com,


On going through your LinkedIn and Website - I noticed that you are working in Blockchain Space.

 

The only thing constant about blockchain is change. As I see it, we are right now in the stone age of Blockchain.

 

There is a lot of evolution left and that is why we continuously keep adapting with each change that comes in industry.

 

I along with my team have for past 5 years been working closely with over 50+ startups/ enterprises, helping them adapt Web 3.0.

 

I would love to connect with you over a quick meeting to discuss how my team an help you with our years of experience in Smart Contracts, Dapps and Dex development capabilities.

 

We use tools like - Solidity, Oxcert, Chainstack (for testing eth dapps) along with having a seasoned team of devs that have expertise in JS (Web3.js, Eth.js, Drizzle etc), Python (Rust, Web3.py, Marmo) like programming languages.

 

Not only this, we are competitively priced and work with our clients in wide mix of engagement models - staff augmentation, agile, fixed cost, consulting projects, devops, BYOT, BYOM etc

 

Plus, we also offer a trial period.

 

If that sounds something you'd be interested in, how about a quick 30 minute call?

 

Let me know, if you have any questions. Keen to connect with you!

Kind Regards,
Stacey
Blockchain Technology Lead

(they used this exact format with whitespace and bold text).

I have received multiple emails in this format with a variation of the name.

What particularly annoyed me about these "blockchain technology leads" is that they ghost you once you reply to their message.

But to be honest, I should've figured this out by instead noticing they use crazy-looking Gmail addresses. I believe the person(s) behind this are just trying to harvest email addresses that are active.

[Kind of weird for these guys to contact me three times in a row with variations of this message after I've been declined from 10+ blockchain firms, no?  ]

[mk4]

Well, what was your response in the first place? A lot of times I've responded to obviously-scam messages in general with the intent of messing with the scammers. And a lot of times, I was ghosted as well. With me thinking that the sarcasm in my replies might've been a bit too obvious.

I believe the person(s) behind this are just trying to harvest email addresses that are active.

But this sure makes a lot of sense. 

[NotATether]

Well, what was your response in the first place? A lot of times I've responded to obviously-scam messages in general with the intent of messing with the scammers. And a lot of times, I was ghosted as well. With me thinking that the sarcasm in my replies might've been a bit too obvious.

At first, I thought they were genuinely interested so I was trying to arrange a chat with them  

[BALIK]

~
What particularly annoyed me about these "blockchain technology leads" is that they ghost you once you reply to their message.
But to be honest, I should've figured this out by instead noticing they use crazy-looking Gmail addresses. I believe the person(s) behind this are just trying to harvest email addresses that are active.

weird,
they addressed you by saying "admin@notatether.com", which means surely they got your email address from your domain notatether.com;

I think they have managed some sensitive data about you and now want to take your photos and videos via video conference.
They may want to capture your photo or video for some malicious purpose. Most Probably this is a hacking attempt.

[mk4]

I think they have managed some sensitive data about you and now want to take your photos and videos via video conference.

It's probably a lot more likely the fact that these spammers scrape websites/blogs a lot, and they just do a sort of "shotgun method" way of determining which emails actually exist, by attempting a mass email sending to common website emails such as admin@domain.com, contact@domain.com, hello@domain.com, support@domain.com, etc etc.

[franky1]

grab active emails. put them into a database.. sell the database to scammers..

wait 6 months and soon you will have
A. a nigerian friend tell you that he has been hospitalised and needs bitcoin to pay medical bills.
B. someone prompting you about a bitcoin business/ico/project they want you to invest in
C. use your name/fame as a chairmen of their HYIP/ICO scam

nothing new here.

[NotATether]

I think they have managed some sensitive data about you and now want to take your photos and videos via video conference.

It's probably a lot more likely the fact that these spammers scrape websites/blogs a lot, and they just do a sort of "shotgun method" way of determining which emails actually exist, by attempting a mass email sending to common website emails such as admin@domain.com, contact@domain.com, hello@domain.com, support@domain.com, etc etc.

That particular email is listed on my contact page, so they must have scraped it that way.

[odolvlobo]

There are many kinds of employment scams.

https://support.kraken.com/hc/en-us/articles/360057160811-Beware-of-employment-scams
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams

[bitmover]

I think they have managed some sensitive data about you and now want to take your photos and videos via video conference.

It's probably a lot more likely the fact that these spammers scrape websites/blogs a lot, and they just do a sort of "shotgun method" way of determining which emails actually exist, by attempting a mass email sending to common website emails such as admin@domain.com, contact@domain.com, hello@domain.com, support@domain.com, etc etc.

That particular email is listed on my contact page, so they must have scraped it that way.

That's exactly the case.

I also have an email which appears in some website. This email receives a lot of spam messages, especially emails with attachments that allegedly have bitcoin inside. Of course I just send them to trash bin and never open the attachments.

After a while, I decided to put my bitcointalk profile in my website. So anyone who wnats to talk to me needs to create an account here and send me a PM. I never received a phishing attempt here.

[Ekeleboy]

They might as well be trying to hack you, probably get more data of you than they already have.
It is important that you are careful of what email attachments you open especially if they are from unknown sources.

[ultrloa]

They are just collecting leads so that next time they can sold those information to others who will need there service so its good that we shouldn't put our main email on every platform we sign up since expect that to many links will pop up the same as what you receive today. For others its better to ignore any emails we receive especially if we don't know or we don't expect that email to come since it might have any malware or any bad links that can harm us.

[pawanjain]

[Kind of weird for these guys to contact me three times in a row with variations of this message after I've been declined from 10+ blockchain firms, no?  ]

LMAO. The last sentence was hilarious. I guess both of us if not most of us in this forum will be in the same boat.
Even I had tried getting a job in a blockchain/crypto firm but in vain.  I guess those firms require some extraordinary people.
It's good that you have posted this incident on here since many people will become aware of it.
I have seen a lot of people on LinkedIn with titles such as blockchain lead, blocking analyst, lead blockchain developer contacting me on regular basis to join their firm.
Its quite clear that it will lead to a scam because if they would want to hire a professional they would simply hire him through an official recruitment process and not by simply asking them in chat to join their team.

[DapanasFruit]

I usually get many messages from unknown senders telling me about this and about that...but I don't have the time to respond to them because in the first place I know they are just spams and a big waste of time. Many messages can be weird and a year ago I received messages that I won millions of dollars either by raffle or by some sort of accidental inheritance...wow! I find these people really creative in doing their job and had they been channeling their creativity in a good way then they can be not just making good money but also achieve some purpose in life.

[Reid]

Once in a couple of months, I also receive this kind of e-mails related with cryptocurrencies and I don't know how the hell they got my address and even my link to crypto.
As mk4 said, it could be a method where they will just send it anywhere hoping for a reply.
Have you guys ever tried to look at online jobs websites services? You will see offers there for a job that would just harvest e-mails from different companies, etc..
And you will get paid. Crazy, right?
But the scariest part is if they hit the cherry and find a victim that suits all the descriptions in the e-mail.