This was (and I assume nothing has changed) an endemic problem in the UK, especially for contractors.

One of the most accurate descriptions I’ve ever read about it is “Don’t feed the beast - the great tech recruiter infestation” [1 - though an archive since the original has been taken down].

[1]: https://gist.github.com/CumpsD/696599d1bd4cd472a056586967293...

I'm a freelancing software consultant from Germany that gets increasingly spammed from UK recruiters and always wondered what the case is here. Your linked article pretty much nails it though. That being said things are only slightly different here in Germany, albeit not too much.

This is beautiful. Shithead is what would have happened if Terry Pratchett wrote a novel about recruiters.

There are good recruiters. They're relatively rare.

They tend to stick around the industry for a while, not treat you like a mushroom (keep you in the dark, bury you in bullshit), and respond humanly to human requests.

You can safely block the one you're describing here, and we'll all be better if that's the standard response.