A detailed account of a suspicious job offer from a fake company called Bitgesell. After receiving a high-salary remote job pitch via LinkedIn, I was invited to a newly created Slack workspace with no team activity. The recruiter and engineering manager used free Gmail accounts, vague instructions, and urged completion of an unpaid take-home assessment. Upon questioning their legitimacy, the Slack workspace was deleted. Highlighting the key red flags, including AI-generated LinkedIn profiles, and sharing practical advice to avoid similar scams.

Contents

Introduction

As a tech professional with decades in the field, I’m no stranger to recruiter outreach. Some are great, some misguided, but few are as bewildering and suspicious as the recent interaction I had with someone claiming to be from a company called Bitgesell.

What began as a promising offer quickly spiralled into a textbook example of a potential recruitment scam.

Here’s what happened, and what others should watch out for.

The Pitch: Too Good to Be True?

On June 18th, I received a direct message from someone claiming to be Gabriel Gutierrez, a Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist at Bitgesell.

The role? Lead Software Engineer, fully remote, focused on React and Node.js, with a monthly salary of $9,000–$11,500 USD.

Sure, I was curious. The salary range was high but not implausible. I replied, asked a few sensible questions, and within minutes was asked to share my email and phone number, allegedly so I could be invited to the team Slack for a chat with the “Engineering Manager.”

Welcome to Slack: A Ghost Town

Soon after, I received an invitation to a brand-new Slack workspace. Inside, I found a single channel, #bitgesell-4017, created that same day.

No team chatter, no project history, no pinned files, nothing suggesting this was an active engineering organisation.

The only visible team member was Erick Zhang, who used a polished profile photo of himself working on a laptop aboard a private jet. That, combined with a personal Gmail address (eric.jang0923@gmail.com), raised more than a few red flags.

Odd Behaviour and Contradictions

The conversation with Erick was clumsy at best and suspicious at worst:

• He claimed there was a “Slack issue” that caused everyone to sign out, conveniently just after I joined.
• He asked me to “complete the public repo again”, even though no task or link had ever been shared.
• When I pressed for details, he said he’d forgotten my application progress and insisted I complete a take-home assessment before any discussion.
• I explained I don’t do unpaid test tasks without at least a video call, standard practice in legitimate recruitment.

That’s when I stepped back and told him, frankly:

“It’s cool. I’m going to qualify out. Feels a little scammy to me.”

Why This Feels Like a Scam

Here are the telltale signs:

Red Flag	Why It’s Concerning
Brand-new Slack with no team history	Real companies don’t set up fresh Slack workspaces for each candidate
No corporate email domain used	eric.jang0923@gmail.com is not a professional identifier
High salary promise + vague role	Classic bait technique
No video call or formal interview	A standard part of hiring, completely missing here
Immediate push to do unpaid work	Scam recruiters often seek free labour or GitHub credentials

Add to this the suspicious timing, awkward phrasing, and lack of any digital footprint from Bitgesell as a legitimate employer, and you have a recipe for a likely phishing scam or exploitation attempt.

The Final Straw

Before signing off, I decided to challenge the situation directly:

Wayne Horkan (2:09 AM)
“No take-home assessment handed out. Equally, I wouldn’t do anything like that without a video conference call. What do you need designed/built?”

Erick Zhang (2:11 AM)
“First, you have to pass the take-home assessment… Can you send me your GitHub username so that I can invite you to the testing project?”

At that point, I’d had enough:

Wayne Horkan (2:12 AM)
“It’s cool. I’m going to qualify out. Feels a little scammy to me.”

Erick Zhang (2:14 AM)
“Hey Wayne, you can pass right now if you are not interested, that’s okay.”

But I wasn’t going to just ghost. I laid out the facts:

Wayne Horkan (2:16 AM)
“Dude, the Slack was created an hour ago. Your email address is suspect AF. And your recruitment guy looks AI-generated. So do you, lol.”
(attached screenshot evidence)
“Just blogging this all up. Ciao, dude.”

Within minutes, the entire Slack workspace was deleted.

The Fake Team Behind “Bitgesell”

After the Slack channel vanished, I took a closer look at the supposed Bitgesell leadership and recruitment team on LinkedIn. Here’s what I found:

• All profiles use generic job titles like “Hiring!”, “Talent Manager”, or “Business Analyst”.
• No posts, no job history, no endorsements, and no activity, all red flags.
• The photos look either AI-generated or pulled from stock imagery.
• Every title includes “@ Bitgesell,” but none list a real company page, website, or credible projects.
• Some bios even cut off mid-sentence, a common tactic in hastily created fake accounts.

This is typical of LinkedIn impersonation scams designed to:

• Build a façade of legitimacy
• Target victims with fake job offers
• Harvest resumes, code samples, or GitHub credentials

What to Look for in Fake LinkedIn Profiles

Red Flag	Example in Bitgesell “Team”
Vague or incomplete job titles	“Hiring!” / “Recruitment Manager”
AI-generated or stock photos	Uniform lighting, no background detail
Lack of connections or activity	3rd-degree links, no posts, no endorsements
Repetitive formatting	“@ Bitgesell
No company website listed	Bitgesell doesn’t link to any real company page

Lessons & Final Thoughts

This isn’t just a cautionary tale. It’s a reminder that even senior professionals can be targeted by increasingly sophisticated scams that prey on economic anxiety and the rise of remote work.

Here’s what to do if you’re approached by a recruiter:

• Google the company — does it actually exist? Is there a real website, history, and press coverage?
• Check email domains — legitimate companies don’t operate official business through free Gmail accounts.
• Ask for a video call — if they refuse or keep delaying, walk away.
• Never do unpaid work without due diligence — reputable employers pay for assessments or conduct them live.
• Trust your gut — if it feels off, it probably is.

Closing Thoughts: Tech Professionals, Stay Sharp

This was an amateur setup hiding behind the veneer of formality: a fake recruiter, a staged workspace, and a manufactured job funnel designed to either harvest free code, gather GitHub details, or phish identities.

It didn’t work on me, but it might work on someone else.

Stay vigilant and keep safe.