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‘OpenAI’ Job Scam Targeted International Workers Through Telegram

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Bangladeshi workers say they were duped into working for a startup called OpenAI .

They invested crypto into the platform and began a months-long job working for “ Aiden ” from “ OpenAI .” The total crypto-investment fund for their team was around $50,000 .

All seemed well until August 29, 2024 , when all of their money, Aiden , and the other fake OpenAI employees had vanished overnight .

A Telegram spokesperson tells WIRED that the company monitors its platform for scams such as those allegedly carried out by OpenAi -etc.

A crypto job scam can happen with the name of any company that has enough widespread recognition for criminals to capitalize on.

Experts say Asian cultural norms of so-called high power distance are a contributing factor.