[trinix912]

They say they're a software developer from a poor country looking for someone willing to leave their laptop on overnight for a 50% split of the paycheck. I got one a long time ago, they even mentioned they need help because their can't do the work from an IP of their country. Needless to say I just trashed the email and only figured out it was one of those after reading about the NK employee scandal on here.

[goolz]

Yep! They are rampant on Upwork. You could probably find a cell of them in a day if you wanted, just go looking for jobs with the 'crypto' tag, haha. They have offered me serious sums of money to "simply install RDP and give us access to your network". I imagine people desperate enough take them up on it too.

[isoprophlex]

That... sounds lucrative, and exciting? Use an isolated network, snoop on what device is doing, learn a thing or two about what these threat actors are doing?

[rl1987]

Unless done in collaboration with proper institutions, that would be playing with fire. Consequences from letting who-knows-who from who-knows-where do who-knows-what in your name can be life destroying. There are multiple cases about people in USA running laptop farms without asking questions and making good money, but one day ending up on a receiving end of federal prosecution.

[csomar]

I think you need to give them your identity/bank account to route the payments. Otherwise, 50% is too high for a laptop placement + vpn.

[goolz]

So in my case this is partially correct, yes. They did not want access to the actual accounts but it was heavily implied that they would be using my personality, my identity, my Upwork profile (and my PayPal to receive payment). I would do it all for the most part. I think the Upwork jobs were just a front but I can only suspect. They explained it as wanting an endpoint while I did the client facing stuff. It was all strange and vague but you make a great point.

While they were never outward about the end goal it was a mix of money laundering and identity laundering. No joke I stopped using Upwork after the novelty wore off and it was a regular occurrence. Also of note, they almost always said something about how they were Chinese and wanted to do this because they could not get legit work with their identity or some other BS. This was not one time but at least half a dozen. Would love to hear from someone who took them up on these offers.

edit: will add that I speak some Chinese, I had Zoom calls with them on one occasion. I was able to glean that maybe they were not being aboveboard about their nationality and also that there were a bunch of people in the background running the same script. All so bizarre. Best guess? They use compromised PayPals to pay people out without a care what happens, launder some of the money because why not? And then they get access to a Stateside identity with an endpoint they can do god only knows what with.

[isoprophlex]

Very interesting, thanks for expanding. If I were in national security and/or fraud prevention I'd be honeypotting the fuck out of this concept, for sure.

[palebluedot]

I would worry you run a real risk of becoming unbanked once those funds hit your bank account, or worse

[csomar]

You'll need to convince the court that you were not aware they were the North Koreans. You run a very real risk of jail, not just becoming unbanked.

[palebluedot]

I agree. That was the "or worse" part!

[noir_lord]

I’d be more worried about getting a visit from your local government as well.

Giving people unrestricted access to your endpoint is up there with run in a tor exit node.

[cucumber3732842]

They're mostly harmless residential VPN stuff so people in wherever can pretend to be an American to Netflix or whatever.

The actually "crimey" stuff is the minority. If it weren't it'd be too easy to crack down on. Same math as laundering through a real business.