Candidate clears Uber interviews, takes MacBook, then disappears without a trace. See viral post

A Hyderabad-based recruiter at Uber has shared an unusual hiring experience that has gone viral on LinkedIn, after a candidate who had successfully cleared the company's recruitment process allegedly disappeared on the day he was scheduled to join.

The incident was recounted by Raghu Tenneti, a Principal Recruiter at Uber, in a LinkedIn post that has since attracted significant attention and sparked discussions about recruitment challenges, identity verification and employee onboarding practices.

"Candidate ghosting on joining day is not something new today. But this guy didn't ghost us. He vanished from existence," Tenneti wrote in his LinkedIn post.

The recruiter said multiple attempts were made to reach the individual after he did not show up for work.

“Called his number. ‘This number does not exist.' Not switched off. Not unreachable. Does not exist. Bro didn't block us. He erased himself from the telecom grid,” he said.

Tenneti also claimed that efforts to trace the delivery location of the company-issued laptop did not provide any answers.

"Traced the laptop delivery address. A vacant plot. Behind an abandoned building. He gave us a dead-drop location for a MacBook," he wrote.

According to Tenneti, the company's IT team also attempted to remotely track the device.

"Our IT team pinged the laptop remotely. Factory reset. Encrypted proxy. Pinging from coordinates that should not exist on this planet."

"This man didn't skip Day 1. He faked his entire identity and vanished without a single digital footprint. That's not ghosting. That's a heist. And honestly? Ethan Hunt, genuinely, respect the craft. Bro we want our laptop back."

The recruiter suggested that the experience had prompted him to rethink parts of the onboarding process.

Having learnt from the episode, he joked that he would now add "confirm candidate physically exists" to his pre-onboarding checklist.

"Every hiring process has a leakage point. Mine apparently opened into another dimension. The candidate didn't drop from the funnel. He exited the timeline," he added.

One user questioned the increasing role of artificial intelligence in recruitment and hiring.

“Doesn’t this show how recruiters today rely on AI for resume filtration and AI for the whole recruitment process to get selected and AI again to cheat those recruiters who hired them in the first place. That’s the reason system is broken.”

Another user wrote, “This is unbelievable. OH MY GOD.”

A third commenter highlighted the effort required to clear a major technology company's hiring process.

“So you’re telling me, this guy went month on month through Leetcode problems, solved Uber’s engineering interviews, behavioral rounds, system design questions and HR… only to steal a laptop?

That’s some level of patience and commitment to get a MacBook.”

Others viewed the incident through a cybersecurity lens.

“This wasn't a joining scam.

This was a reverse recruitment drive.

Bro interviewed you, verified your processes, collected company assets, tested incident response, and left.

Somewhere there's a boardroom presentation titled:

"Target Organization Penetration Report — Mission Successful,” another user commented.

Meanwhile, another commenter questioned whether the alleged act could be part of a broader pattern.

“This is crazy. What I don't understand is why a person would go such lengths just for a laptop, unless they are doing this on a scale with multiple companies,” the user wrote.