Tag: london

The recruitment agency scam, I almost fell for…

Recruitment job scams!

I almost fell for the recruitment agency scam… I was unsure but just had a some useful interaction with a recruitment agency.

Back on 7th July I revived an email on my gmail address, not the one I mainly use for linkedin and lots of sites. Regardless I thought maybe they got it another way.

Here’s the email…

Hello,
I hope you’re doing well.
I’m currently supporting several leadership and specialist searches, and your background stood out as potentially well aligned with a few of them.
Before sharing details, I’d be interested to understand what you’re looking for in your next career move. That way, I can determine whether there’s genuine alignment rather than simply sending over a job description.
If there’s a strong fit, I’d be happy to share more.
Would you be open to exploring opportunities that align with your experience and future goals?

Best Regards,

S*************
Recruiter
B**********

Now looking at it, I should have spotted the genericness of it but I was more interested in the name and company. A name and company I looked up online and on linkedin.

The thing which stood out was they were in America not the UK. I remember having a conversation with my partner about the what kind of opportunity they could be offering, and not wanting to work in the USA. Plus the agency is based in Washington DC.

With that I tried to arrange a video call, which of course I got knocked back. I wrote something back saying I want to stay in the UK or western Europe for family and values. Thinking there would be a proposal for something state-side. I also made clear I was working on things which matter for the public rather than giant corporates money.

A few days later, I got an job proposal back a hybrid position as AI Innovation Director in the UK Cabinet Office in London. I scratched my head and beard with a salary of up to 180,000 gbp, I browsed through the detail and it felt unhuman but then again its from a job spec (I thought). The recruiter kept asking me to provide my CV and cover letter.

I hope you’ve been doing well.

I just wanted to follow up on the AI Innovation Director opportunity I shared. I appreciate that you’re likely busy, so I simply wanted to check whether you’ve had a chance to review it.

If it still aligns with what you’re looking for, I’d be happy to review your resume against the mandate and determine the most appropriate next step.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts when you have a moment.

But I wasn’t sure about it, so pushed back and then they provided an alternative job a day later

Thank you again for your thoughtful response. I really appreciated the additional context you shared, particularly your interest in opportunities centered on the ethical use of technology, AI, open data, and responsible innovation. That gave me a much clearer picture of the type of mandate that would genuinely resonate with you.

Based on that, I came across a role that I believe is a much stronger fit.

Director, AI Ethics & Responsible Use
Marriott International | Remote

This executive leadership role is focused on shaping the organization’s Responsible AI strategy by establishing governance frameworks, guiding the ethical adoption of AI across the business, and partnering with executive, legal, technology, and product leaders to ensure AI is deployed responsibly, transparently, and in line with emerging regulations. The position also offers a highly competitive compensation package, including a six-figure base salary, annual bonus, and equity.

Given your background in ethical technology, emerging technologies, open source initiatives, and your passion for driving meaningful societal impact through responsible innovation, I thought this opportunity aligned much more closely with what you described.

If this resonates with the direction you’re looking to take, I’d be glad to share the full job description.

This is when I did what I should have done much earlier. I messaged the named recruiter on linkedin. It was a early message and I was 3 degrees away but they replied.

Hi Ian thank you for making me aware of this. That is NOT me. Please do not continue to respond to them. My legitimate email is ******************

It all clicked then and I realised I should have done this right at the start. The email was from the company, not a gmail. It also matched the recruiter company domain.

We talked for a bit and I shared all the emails with them, as they wanted to share it with their company security. This also made me think knowing this is a scam, I should share it with the NCSC, which I have done too.

Lastly because I am very aware of the social pressure to bury this stuff, I decided to write this blog to warn others of this scam and how easy it is to be tricked.

Be-careful out there!

Go watch: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

Everything everywhere all at once
Everything everywhere all at once, on the IMAX screen and opened by the directors

I had the absolute joy and pleasure of watching Everything, Everywhere, All at once preview at the IMAX in Leicester Square. Finally after much delay, although it officially comes to the UK May 13th.

There is so much I can say about the film but I gave it 8/10 because its truly incredible. Not only is the multiverse and quantum science really interesting in it, not only is the film a genuinely different from everything out there, heartfelt (Its super touching in parts) but also funny as hell (absolutely hysterical in parts, and doesn’t take its self too seriously).

I’d love to talk about it but don’t want to spoil it.

Honestly go watch it on the biggest screen you can! Watching it in the IMAX (it was formatted for IMAX) in row C (I know it was insane but fitting for the insanity which was unfolding) it was just full on!

You might also note in the picture above both directors opened the preview, which was a total shock because I knew the BFI IMAX in Waterloo had a Q&A with the director’s (the Daniels) but this was a big surprise!

My experience: Sept 20 years later

Airplane window view

9/11/2001 has a strange feeling for me. It was a sad time seeing so many people die or badly affected by terrorism.

I had started working in the university I went to for my undergraduate degree (Ravensbourne). I remember a colleague telling me a plane had hit the twin towers and by the time I got to the TVs in the reception area, the 2nd one had hit. Quite a lot of people watched as the first tower collapsed.

It was completely unreal and sad to see.

There is something which did happen in the weeks later, still in September into early October.

I had finished my degree and 6 years of education, so I really needed a proper break. For a while after 9/11, most of the flights were grounded just in-case. Then in Europe the airspaces opened up again. Needing the break I booked a holiday. I looked around and found some incredible deals, because no one was flying.

The holiday deal I went for was 2 weeks in the hills of San Antonio (Ibiza) self catering complete with flights from either London Heathrow or Gatwick. The total cost was 30 pounds to me, it was 20 pounds per person but I needed to pay a single supplement fee of 10 pounds to my ticket (of course I didn’t grumble). I did ask friends if they wanted to come with me but no one wanted to go (heck I even offered to pay for their ticket holiday), as I said no one was flying anywhere. Partly due to fear, jobs, etc…

My parents tried to convince me not to go but I needed the break so badly and was going regardless.

Ibiza for a total of £30 was incredible and was massively different to when I went in 1998 (thats a story in its self). Yes I needed to walk into the town but it wasn’t too far and it was the first time I started taking my laptop on holiday. I remember working on my new website cubicgarden.com next to the pool and at the outdoor bar, hotel wifi wasn’t really common then but I made do as most of the stuff was local web development.

I did a lot of things including going clubbing a lot but it was all locals which was actually very cool. I had gotten use to clubbing with locals and not speaking the language while in Berlin, so I was fine with everything. It was great without those annoying reps and endless drunken people stumbling around the streets. I hadn’t really got into drinking or cocktails at that point of my life and looking back now a lot happened in the years following including going to America a lot.

Understanding makes all the difference

What a difference the police reaction to the vigil of Sarah Everard.

blm protest in bristol

Last year in Bristol with the statue of Carlton

Speaking on a live webchat, the Avon and Somerset Police chief constable said he “doesn’t condone any criminal activity” but intervening would have “risked a violent confrontation”.

Reclain the streets

Last week in London in Clapham Common

The Met Police chief has said she is not considering her position, after the force was criticised over its handling of a vigil for Sarah Everard. Officers handcuffed women and removed them from crowds on Clapham Common in London on Saturday.

The big difference is cultural and emotional intelligence. I seriously don’t understand how the police thought, it would be a good idea to arrest women during a vigil against the death of a woman who was killed at the hands of a police officer!? Someone in the Met police team should have said turned to the chief and said “don’t you see the tragic irony in this all? We need to rethink our tactics here”

I know these are isolated cases but I was thinking this while watching

Neurodiversity from all on the board

London Underground on neurodiversity

It was Leena who point me towards this tweet from @allontheboard.

Let’s celebrate the many positive aspects of being neurodiverse and break every stigma. You are not alone.

@allontheboard

#Neurodiversity #Neurodiverse #ADHD #Autism #Dyslexia #Dyspraxia #allontheboard

This is so great on so many levels and I recommend reading through the tweet replies.

Small axe: Mangrove nine

Snakk axe

I heard the true story of the Mangrove Nine but to see it play out over a 2 hour TV show is just amazing. I wasn’t sure what to expect but with the great director Steve McQueen, I had a sneaky suspicion it was going to be (8/10) great. Its almost so great to see UK black history on the screen, as its usually displaced by American black history.

Really looking forward to the other episodes.

Mozfest’s call for participation 2021

Mozilla festival

Its been one heck of the year and to be frank 2021 is going to be pandemic driven too. While we all try and find our way in the new normal. Its worth looking at things which have delighted us all.

One of those for me is the Mozilla Festival which usually falls on October half-term. It would have been this week starting with Mozhouse and ending on Mozfest on the weekend, if it was still in London and there wasn’t a world wide pandemic of course.

With all that happening and not going to massively change come early next year. Mozfest will be mainly a virtual festival over 2 weeks in March. Being a community festival its time for the call for proposals.

Anyone can submit a session – you don’t need any particular expertise, just a great project or idea and the desire to collaborate and learn from festival participants. Since it’s online this year, we’re especially eager to see session proposals from those that haven’t been able to attend in year’s past due to travel restrictions.

If you or someone you know is interested in leading a session at MozFest this year, you can submit your session ideahere! The deadline is November 23.

So what you waiting for? Get in there…

Mozfest 2019

Lets make the Mozilla festival 2021, the most diverse, inclusive and incredible festival of the internet ever!

 

IC3 means excessive force, seems to be the call always?

There is a trend. When IC3 (police code for black male) is mentioned, excessive force is somehow authorized.

From the Guardian

Huugo Boateng was taking part in a charity bike ride with his father along the River Lea in north London when he says he was grabbed from his bike by a plainclothes police officer, threatened with a stun gun and fell face first into thorny bushes.

The 13-year-old told the Observer: “I’d turned around to see if my dad had caught up behind me, and suddenly this man came out of nowhere. He was crazy angry and shouting. I got scared because I thought he might be mugging me or trying to give me corona so I ran, but there was nowhere to go but in the bushes.”

While he was down on the ground, the teenager says the officer pointed a Taser at him and threatened to shoot. The officer then arrested Huugo and put him in handcuffs. Further down the towpath, his father, Andrew, 43, was told to get on his knees and put his hands behind his back. Andrew was also handcuffed. The two were detained, suspected to have been involved in a stabbing in the area.

The most ironic thing about the whole incident is…

The family were visited by a community officer later that evening. “Huugo didn’t want them to come in so they stayed on the doorstep and asked if we were OK,” said Andrew, who works at City University. He is also active in local projects including coaching a youth football team and volunteering for the outreach programme Kickoff@3 , which is co-run by a black Metropolitan police officer, Michael Wallace.

“I couldn’t vouch for a more humble and more dedicated member of the community,” said Wallace. “The irony is that Kickoff@3 is about building good relationships with youth and the police, and Andy is instrumental in helping with that programme. The bike ride he was doing was organised by us – we were raising money for a homeless charity and a domestic violence one.”

If there was any doubt about the UK being less racist, its simply not. The racism is different but its still there…

All complex ecosystem have parasites… including Airbnb

Airbnb basement in Iceland
Looks like a dungeon right? Imagine sleeping down there for a night like I did in Iceland

…The trick is to not let them take over. Something Airbnb needs to think a lot more about!

I stumbled across a huge Airbnb scam that’s taking over London, this story is everywhere but it was Si Lumb who first sent me the link.

After reading the massive long piece I was quite shocked at how elaborate the scam was. I won’t spoil it but its bad then it gets worst still.

Here’s a few choice quotes…

On Airbnb, it turns out, scams aren’t just the preserve of lone chancers. As the short-term rental goldrush gathers pace, Airbnb empires are being rapidly scaled and monetised, with professional operators creating scores of fake accounts, fake listings and fake reviews to run rings around Airbnb, local law enforcement and the guests who place their trust in the platform. Reviews from guests paint a grim picture of people who have been tricked into staying in accommodation with blocked drains, broken fixtures and fittings, filthy floors, dirty bed linen – or, in some cases, accommodation that they simply did not book.

This very much reminds me of when I stayed in Iceland and the host moved me to the basement so he could get another Airbnb in! My experience of Airbnb in Tokyo was awful but at least the host wasn’t lying to my actual face.

All of these accounts are essentially one person, or at least one company. And yet they have all passed Airbnb’s account verification and safety processes, with most supplying government identification, selfies, email addresses and phone numbers. Two of these accounts, though, are more closely connected than the rest: Leon and Robert Lusso Management. And that’s because they both used to be called Christian.

Seen this many times on Airbnb, this is why I always look through the reviews of the hosts for patterns. Its the same way reviews on most sites you have to check for scams.

I noticed from my experience as a host (super host even), lots of guests don’t do the research. Don’t get me wrong, the scams are elaborate but few read the reviews and ask the right questions of the host.

According to Inside Airbnb, a service that scrapes Airbnb to shine a light on the platform’s impact on cities around the world, there are an estimated 36,964 listings on Airbnb in London that are listed by a host with at least one other listing. While Airbnb presents itself as a sharing economy company, the business of hosting is becoming increasingly systemised and professionalised, with critics arguing that businesses are able to make huge sums of money at the expense of local residents who are unable to access properties locked away by the short-term rental gold rush.

So what, if anything, can be done about it? To date, attempts to adequately regulate and police Airbnb listings have been spasmodic at best, leading to a patchwork of confusing, siloed approaches. In December 2019, more concerted regulation efforts were dealt a blow when the European Court of Justice ruled that Airbnb was an “information society service”, not a real estate agency. Such rulings mean that cities must continue to act alone – with mixed success.

Really interesting to look at inside Airbnb as a host in Manchester. But its clear councils can’t keep up with the Airbnb (gravy) train and the scammers know this too well. Could Airbnb do more stop this? Yes a bit but honestly…

All complex ecosystem have parasites. – Cory Doctorow

The underground inception mix

London underground inception map

I did this pacemaker device mix over 2 separate mini mixes while in London last year. I joined the mix together and walla you have the underground inception mix. A mixture of tech-trance reflecting the maze of some of the London underground stations.

Enjoy…

  1. Opium (Quiver remix) – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
  2. Open up (Full vocal mix) – Leftfield
  3. Intruder – Armin van Buuren vs M.I.K.E
  4. One for you (Oliver Klein remix) – Oliver Klein
  5. Into the dawn (James Holden remix) – Accadia
  6. Godd – Marco V
  7. Fall to pieces – Jonas Steur feat Jennifer Rene
  8. Lunacy (Extended mix) – Stoneface & Terminal
  9. Nitric (Division one remix) – Hybrid system
  10. Stellar Perspetive – Hawkwind Light Orchestra
  11. Opulence – Simon Patterson
  12. Verdi – Mauro Picotto

Updated – Saturday 23th November 2019

55th in the global tech trance

One of the highest rated mixes to date, and I don’t rate as much as the Quiver in the underground mix.