For the record, I think what he did is horribly unethical, simply based on how inconsiderate it is of other people’s time and energy. Especially since what the guy really wanted was to figure out what salary range he could ask for. There are so many other ways to find out this information without costing innocent people a lot of time and energy – there are sites where you can search for this info, you can call a similar company in a similar market and as their HR dept. what the salary range, or you can simply find someone on Linkdin. That’s why the comments that bothered me the most where the ones that said that this guy was really ‘creative’ or ‘brilliant.’ Since when is conning innocent people, ‘brilliant.’ He was simplylazy and inconsiderate.

….interesting point Elliot.

In my region that actually may be an offense…..

here is why – we have legislation that prohibits obtaining & divulging personal information (even companies or doctors can’t) that includes name / address / gender / phone etc. (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act)

That opens the interesting legal question that since he obtained personal info fraudulently (from the people who responded to his fraudulent ad) would that be covered under the act……

Disappointing, but not surprising, to see the number of comments over there saying this was a great thing, too, including from the guy who wrote it saying he was impressed.

Of course, that assumes the story and all the comments are real in the first place – could be a linkbait fake story about a fake story. I mean, if the guy who wrote it says he was impressed with the tactic…maybe he was just “creative” enough to make it all up and we fell for it.

In fact, that’d be about the best thing you could hope for here – other than it being real, word getting back to the company, and the guy getting fired because of it.

The first quality I look for in an employer is integrity. I don’t want to work for someone who thinks that if the pressure is high enough, it’s “sometimes” OK to screw their employees, clients, and shareholders, and the public. Therefore, I would not expect the same employer to appreciate dishonest behaviour in employees.

“Sean” (as he is called in the original post) wasted several people’s time, and incrementally added to the disappointment, stress, depression, and anxiety of the applicants on his non-existent job offer. He was an ass to many so he could profit from their work (doing their own research, fine-tuning their resumes, etc.) and pass it off as his own.

In addition, it can be argued that “Sean” did in fact commit something illegal as well unethical. He obtained personal information on fraudulent premises, and he used false advertisement by offering something he was not actually able to deliver on. Mail fraud could probably be tacked on, as well as breaching the terms of contract with most ISPs (it’s not that different from pretending to be Nigerian royalty or offering cures for erectile dysfunction.)