Only in America: Pay to play
An American worker secretly outsources his duties to China so he can browse Reddit all day — and more in our collection of strange revelations about the nation
Verizon claims to have caught an employee — "Bob" — outsourcing his daily coding duties to China so he could spend his time browsing Reddit, watching cat videos, and surfing eBay. Bob's bosses were tipped off when VPN logs showed Bob's log-in details being input from Shenyang, China. Apparently, Bob — who regularly received "excellent" performance reviews — pulled this scam on multiple companies at the same time. He was reportedly raking in a couple hundred thousand dollars annually. PDF invoices discovered on his computer reportedly show that he paid the Chinese firm $50,000 a year.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Nigel Farage: was he a teenage racist?Talking Point Farage’s denials have been ‘slippery’, but should claims from Reform leader’s schooldays be on the news agenda?
-
Pushing for peace: is Trump appeasing Moscow?In Depth European leaders succeeded in bringing themselves in from the cold and softening Moscow’s terms, but Kyiv still faces an unenviable choice
-
Crossword: November 29, 2025The daily crossword from The Week
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstancesSpeed Read
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2Speed Read
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governorSpeed Read
-
Los Angeles city workers stage 1-day walkout over labor conditionsSpeed Read
-
Mega Millions jackpot climbs to an estimated $1.55 billionSpeed Read
-
Bangladesh dealing with worst dengue fever outbreak on recordSpeed Read
-
Glacial outburst flooding in Juneau destroys homesSpeed Read
-
Scotland seeking 'monster hunters' to search for fabled Loch Ness creatureSpeed Read