I've thought about the same thing. My company specializes in blocking candidate fraud and we have yet to see anyone who's sentiment isn't "get these people out of here".
Employing a North Korean can create sanctions and criminal risk, so it's not worth it.
From what I've heard from people who have accidentally hired them though, many are great engineers.
The sophistication of these guys is high. They're hiring US citizens to interview for them and then if they get hired, their work quality is high so they fly under the radar for awhile.
Founder of Endorsed here. We help employers block situations like these where job seekers are collaborating with the scammers.
As other have pointed out, there are multiple types of scammers here.
The most benign are people who just want US salaries. The most malicious is North Korea who will go as far as installing ransomware and infiltrating financial institutions (especially crypto) to steal user money.
We know North Korea is much of the problem since the FBI gets involved in the malicious cases that I described and they publish reports. It’s hard to tell though because companies want to keep news they are infiltrated as quiet as possible.
I’m not sure which type of fraudster sent you this email other than the rate they are saying they will pay (50%) is exceptionally high. We know the North Koreans pay 10% for using your identity for ID verification etc, and 20% if you are the front man.
Nostrademons wrote a great comment about how they can use your identity here in problematic ways. I’m not sure how much this has happened since I have yet to hear about it in private stories from employers, who tend to be pretty candid. From what I can tell the fraudsters want to stay under the radar and be employed as long as possible. A lot are great engineers so they pull it off.
That said, rarely do people want to talk about this topic who are involved so it’s hard to tell what fully happens in each scenario.