I'm not trying to make every commenter happy, but if I don't reply anything to the shady/scam claims, you might take it as shtikah kehoda'ah.
No pressure at all to act on this offer; everyone has the right to be skeptical, or value their time more than the money offered.
This comment is just to state that I very strongly think this is not scam. (I checked the email address I received the NDA from, and it had a domain of a reputable company, and the DKIM passed on my gmail client.)
At the risk of saying too many frum phrases (skeptics may think I googled "traditional jewish phrases" to trap the unsuspecting), נהרא נהרא ופשטיה
There are several questions here.
Are you frum?It’s true that use of Hebrew/Yiddish/Aramaic make you appear to be frum, just as use of “DKIM” makes you appear to be computer-savvy, but familiarity with the vocabulary isn’t sufficient. However, there’s no real need to answer this question, since DDF members include non-frum Jews and non-Jews, so one doesn’t need frumkeit credentials to post here.
And while those living in a frum neighborhood are used to trusting another frum person, most of us know stories of frum people who act unscrupulously, as well as unscrupulous people who masquerade as frum so as to scam us. So frumness isn’t relevant.
I admit it is fascinating to consider how difficult it would be for someone to pass as frum on DDF. We recently saw a family of Christian missionaries who were able to pass as frum for several years IRL. Would that be easier or harder to do online? Is there a frumkeit Turing test? Curious, but not relevant to the current issue, so enough of that.
If this is a scam, are you an unwitting victim, or are you the actual perpetrator?Yesterday, I was initially concerned with the former. That is, you seemed to be a computer novice, needing help to register for an offer, and so I was concerned that you yourself might have been conned in some way. Even now, I wonder whether you're naive to assume that an email from a reputable company's domain is safe. Some companies do evil things, including those that say they don't. And some email addresses are spoofed. But now I’ve alerted you to the possibility, and you’re not concerned, so that’s fine. For everyone else, though, it doesn’t matter whether you’re posting a scam knowingly or unknowingly, but just whether or not it is a scam.
So is it a scam? If so, what kind of scam is it?It’s not obvious. Could be, as I mentioned yesterday, trying to get a recording of someone’s Voice ID to hack their financial accounts. There was a scam last year where voice recordings of a boss at work were hacked and played to employees, telling them to send large amounts of money. Could be the voice records are distractions, and some other questions or other online activity is the real target of the scammer.
I’m not convinced that it is a scam, but I know that voice recordings are unique to an individual. In this sense, someone asking for multiple recordings of my voice is like someone asking to take multiple photos of me, from every angle, with every detail, for an hour. Why, I would want to know. What will you do with these?
If I can’t decide whether it is a scam or not, should I participate?I’m a low-risk type, so my answer is no. Others make their own decisions.
ETA: And apologies, I was focused on what seemed to be an urgent issue, but I should have begun with, "Welcome to DDF!"
