Cheating in life?

Dakota Dan · 29-01-2018 10:30AM

This is the ultimate cheat. He did have a commercial pilots licence but it expired and he was never qualified to fly passenger planes.

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/gizmodo.com/5540789/the-guy-who-flew-thousands-of-passengers-as-a-fake-pilot/amp

sbsquarepants · 29-01-2018 10:45AM

Life is tough - you have to play the cards your dealt. It's not a level playing ground, that's just how it is, you do what you have to do to get where you need to be.

Maybe Tristan goes to college for 5 or 6 years, studied his little arse off and got a degree or a masters or whatever, well done Tristan.

Maybe Anto can't do that, he doesn't have the resources or whatever - but Anto is just as smart and as capable as Tristan, he just doesn't have the head start that Tristan does, (through no fault of either his nor Tristans) so he tells a little fib or pulls a little stroke and gets himself on in life. Well done Anto.

Odds are Tristans Daddy or Granddaddy once done exactly what Anto did, and in any case it serves Tristan right for having such a wanky name!:D

Permabear · 29-01-2018 11:37AM

This post has been deleted.

mikhail · 29-01-2018 01:03PM

worded wrote: »

Austranaut .... all you need is a space suit and a rocket

razorblunt · 29-01-2018 01:29PM

Reminds me of this. Who would have noticed the lads stopped a foot short if he pic wasn't taken.

na1 · 29-01-2018 03:21PM

55k per anum for sitting in an office playing solitaire and drinking coffee!

90% of IT manages and directors do that.

wakka12 · 29-01-2018 03:26PM

Well, the ability to convince somebody you have the degree/knowledge/experience is a very important skill in of itself, good for them. For most of us though we do need to experience or knowledge in order to appear competent in the job, so don't feel bad about it. Most of us do it the hard way.

TomSweeney · 29-01-2018 03:26PM

pemay wrote: »

Read through the thread on the woman who was scamming the social welfare system, got me thinking about the various cheats I know/have come across.

Just a couple off the top of my head...

know one girl who literally pretended she had such and such a degree. Got her a fairly nice job and springboarded her into her current life.

Another few people I know just pretended they had years of experience (job required 10 years senior experience, they had NONE!) All worked out grand.

Know plenty of people of cheated in exams etc. And this is from a wide circle of people from all parts of the world, independent of each other. So its not just that I know a load of chancers!

The worst thing is that after spoofing it brazenly, they continue a little while longer, and hey presto, now they ACTUALLY have the experience and keep trotting along.

Seriously demotivating. You break your balls and pay hefty fees and live like a schmuck to get a degree, or spend years grinding in crappy jobs.......another person spends 1 minute typing it on a c.v.

Why bother doing anything ffs :P

Any interesting examples from others?

As Joe Pesci in Casino says
"If you had any heart you'd be out stealing for a living"

so true, everyone at the top is doing it, if I had any balls i'd be doing the same.

na1 · 29-01-2018 03:29PM

Steorn -the Irish "Free Energy" company:

In August 2006, Steorn placed an advertisement in The Economist saying that they had developed a technology that produced "free, clean and constant energy"

In May 2015, Steorn put an "Orbo PowerCube" on display behind the bar of a pub in Dublin. The PowerCube was a small box which the pub website claimed contained a "perpetual motion motor" which required no external power source. The cube was shown charging a mobile phone. Steorn claimed to be performing some "basic field trials" in undisclosed locations

In June 2016, the company informed shareholders that it had failed to meet expectations, that company founder Shaun (Seán) McCarthy was being replaced as CEO, and that operating costs were nearly €1 million per year. After investments totaling nearly €23 million over a ten-year period, in November 2016 the company shut down and laid off its staff, due to a lack of additional funding to continue operations.

29-01-2018 03:40PM

na1 wrote: »

Steorn -the Irish "Free Energy" company:

If all of that is true its got to be one of the most amazing stories ever could be a film a company raised 23 million with the promise of developing a free energy system thus denying the laws of basic physics!!

Any links to the research they were doing.

na1 · 29-01-2018 03:45PM

mariaalice wrote: »

na1 wrote: »

Steorn -the Irish "Free Energy" company:

If all of that is true its got to be one of the most amazing stories ever could be a film a company raised 23 million with the promise of developing a free energy system thus denying the laws of basic physics!!

Any links to the research they were doing.

Obviously they didn't reveal any specific information (claiming that was a trade secret)

On 1 April 2010 Steorn opened an online development community, called the Steorn Knowledge Development Base (SKDB), which they said would explain their technology. Access was available only under licence on payment of a fee

There is an article on the Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steorn

29-01-2018 03:52PM

On the other hand if anyone was stupid enough to invest in a free energy systme maybe they deserve to lose their money.

na1 · 29-01-2018 04:03PM

mariaalice wrote: »

On the other hand if anyone was stupid enough to invest in a free energy systme maybe they deserve to lose their money.

Are you saying that our government is stupid??

[font=Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Steorn is owed €296,915 by the Irish government in tax credits intended to stimulate innovative Irish research.

[/font]http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2017/03/liquidator-announced-statement-of-affairs/

RoboRat · 29-01-2018 05:05PM

I have had 2 people work for me who seemed were up to scratch and talked the talk, after 3 weeks, it was clear that they couldn't walk the walk.

First guy, I told him he had to be up to the level by the time his probation ended. He never once stayed back or worked towards improving himself. He was let go when his probation ended. Next guy lasted 4 weeks and was let go.

Its easy to talk yourself up but you need to be able to back it up at the end of the day. It's also key that you do your background checks and the higher up you go, the more detailed these checks are.

diomed · 29-01-2018 05:23PM

I was given a finance assistant who had been interviewed by HR.
After 15 minutes I knew he knew nothing. I probably knew after a minute.
He told me his previous work was washing dishes in a hotel kitchen.
He was intelligent so I told him he could learn.
If I blew his cover I would be doing all the heavy lifting myself.

He was a good worker and learned plenty.
He asked questions until he understood, which is something I liked.
There is nothing worse than people pretending they understand. Ask again, and again, and again.

Now he is in finance at a high level in a major USA city.
He got a degree after he worked in our company.
When he was with me he told me his brother was employed in a major financial institution in south Dublin on the strength of an imaginary degree.

29-01-2018 05:27PM

Probably depends on the job, one of mine works in an Anti money laundering/anti fraud job and the background check were unreal including checking on family.

Sleepy · 29-01-2018 05:49PM

We once had a guy hired for a contractor role who allegedly had 3 years experience as a DBA.

Within the first few hours we had to pull him into a side office for a quiet chat. Turns out his "reference" in a well-known software company was his flatmate and his 3 years experience was as a florist!

BrokenArrows · 29-01-2018 06:02PM

Used to work with a guy who had plenty of side business.
Anyway before i knew him well enough to know better he came to me with a business opportunity.

Anyway long story short I made 3 x my money back but not before a few threats were sent his way.

I found out a few years later after we hadnt worked together for a while that he had scammed a good bit of money out of other colleagues and they didnt get their money back.

He would lie about everything. He would tell you black was white.
You could tell him to his face that you knew he was lying but he would just go totally red and attempt to stick to his statement.
He even got fired and everyone knew he was fired but he continued to tell me that it wasnt true and he left on his own. The boss apparently even offered him a huge pay rise and promotion if he stayed.

During the course of me knowing him his wife left him, he was banned from seeing his child, his new fiance left him a few days before the wedding. Another fiance kept postponing the wedding. They eventually got married but almost immediately he left the country for some reason and i havent heard anything about him since.

jmayo · 29-01-2018 06:08PM

donegaLroad wrote: »

Yes, it looks good for an institution to have someone on the staff who is currently working on their phd, whether they finish it or not is another story, but it gets the foot in the door to a higher level job in education. She knew what she was doing!

What about Mike Oldfield, of Tubular Bells fame. He once took a Bach prelude and played it backwards on the piano. It became the theme tune to the film 'The Exorcist' and Tubular Bells went on to sell 20 million copies. He admitted to this one night on Jules Holland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp069jEQag8

I don't think it is fair to include Oldfield in this discussion.

The guy has proven over decades his musicianship, his writing and composing ability.
He if anything never took the easy option as can be evidenced from his long running fight with Branson over recording contracts.

Also would you care to remind us again how many seconds of the 49 minute album is that ?

AFAIK he had already reached number 1 in Britain and most of Europe before the director of The Exorcist heard the album when he was visiting Atlantic records in US who were distributing the album there.
The release of the The Exorcist helped US sales but he was already selling in Europe.

Oh and while you are at it, would you mind telling us what parts of Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn his following two albums that also went to number 1 were also lifted ?

Deise Vu · 29-01-2018 06:25PM

A friend of mine was a Chartered Accountant who had a high flying, very public, job with a PLC. He once told me he had failed Honours maths in the Leaving and should not have been accepted as a Chartered Accountancy student. The rest of his results were excellent apparently and he would have pissed up pass maths but made the mistake of going for the higher points (which he didn't need). It should have postponed his studies for a year as he repeated the Leaving but he was accepted with a nod and a wink into one of the so-called Big 4 firms and the rest is history. I have no issue with him but I am amazed at the firm agreeing to a lie that could so easily have been proved.

I knew another guy who emigrated to Oz and came back with his tail between his legs after six months. He lied about his experience here and was found out sharpish.

The moral I suppose is to make sure you can back up what you say.

RoboRat · 29-01-2018 06:41PM

I was given a finance assistant who had been interviewed by HR.
After 15 minutes I knew he knew nothing. I probably knew after a minute.
He told me his previous work was washing dishes in a hotel kitchen.

And this is the reason I sit in on staff recruitment interviews at the second stage and also ask them to do a project. If someone lies about their academic qualifications, I have no problem as long as they can do the work to a high level; that's all I am looking for. Getting first class honours doesn't necessarily equate to a good worker.

Chrongen · 29-01-2018 07:27PM

pemay wrote: »

Its usually the kind of thing you hear way, way after the fact.

AN example of that would be a test I did in college. Very difficult one too, good few people failed. Met a bloke a few years later and the subject came up, turned out he had gotten his hands on the test the day before. Aced the thing.

And when I think of that kind of thing, but on a much larger scale of life...it makes your mind boggle. Like your millionaire father telling you on his deathbed "son, I cheated my way into my wealth!"

All after the fact.

Other cases, like jobs, was seeing the train-wreck in motion. Seeing social media and linked-in profiles where degrees suddenly materialise out of nowhere, 5 years experience becomes 10 etc. Then they conveniently disappear after landing the position. Few years later the profiles appear again, now nicely buffed up (and backed up too)!

And lots more besides!

You monitor people's LinkedIn profiles over the course of a few years?

pemay · 29-01-2018 08:39PM

Chrongen wrote: »

You monitor people's LinkedIn profiles over the course of a few years?

Yes, I sat with my face 2 inches from the screen for many years, only taking a break now and then to shout at cats outside.

Or

Its hardly "monitoring" to notice people you know pop up on social media, or someone else you know points it out.

Why, are you worried that its so easy to see peoples lies on social media? Sweating? :P

Mister Vain · 29-01-2018 08:51PM

I know a couple of women who pretended to be pregnant in work. My brother in law got a great job in a company despite having none of the qualifications or experience he said he had. He's the manager now. I've seen some "professional" photographers who can barely operate their cameras.

pemay · 29-01-2018 08:56PM

Mister Vain wrote: »

I know a couple of women who pretended to be pregnant in work. My brother in law got a great job in a company despite having none of the qualifications or experience he said he had. He's the manager now. I've seen some "professional" photographers who can barely operate their cameras.

Following up on that pregnancy lie cant be too easy.

job seeker · 29-01-2018 08:58PM

pemay wrote: »

Following up on that pregnancy lie cant be too easy.

Football under her jumper kinda job?

Mister Vain · 29-01-2018 09:02PM

pemay wrote: »

Following up on that pregnancy lie cant be too easy.

One of them was years ago. She was a big girl to begin with. She kept it up for a while and then she left. The other one was very recent. She didn't want to do any lifting so she said she was pregnant. They asked her to get a cert from the doctor and then she had the neck to say she lost the baby the night before and yet she was in work the following day without a bother on her.

Permabear · 29-01-2018 09:18PM

This post has been deleted.

fergus1001 · 29-01-2018 09:19PM

I once knew this guy in New York who was working at one of the big law firms he blagged his way in claiming he had a degree from Harvard law but he really didn't, think he got busted in the end but got out on some bull**** deal

donegaLroad · 30-01-2018 12:56AM

jmayo wrote: »

I don't think it is fair to include Oldfield in this discussion.

The guy has proven over decades his musicianship, his writing and composing ability.
He if anything never took the easy option as can be evidenced from his long running fight with Branson over recording contracts.

Also would you care to remind us again how many seconds of the 49 minute album is that ?

AFAIK he had already reached number 1 in Britain and most of Europe before the director of The Exorcist heard the album when he was visiting Atlantic records in US who were distributing the album there.
The release of the The Exorcist helped US sales but he was already selling in Europe.

Oh and while you are at it, would you mind telling us what parts of Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn his following two albums that also went to number 1 were also lifted ?

I see your point

Cheating in life?

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