Fending off the wolves and pimps on LinkedIn

Protect yourself from the wolves that prey upon gullible and naive users.

Recently a business associate of mine called in desperation about a LinkedIn incident. Someone had sent a highly inappropriate message to her in-box noting ‘she was pretty, they wanted to know more about her.’ This was an inappropriate message on a professional business platform and it scared her. Was he going to stalk and find her via LinkedIn?

Checking her profile, I was a dismayed to find personal information in the Point of Contact section: home address and phone (land-line traceable via the Internet to home), and a full birthdate. People worry about providing too much data on social media, yet still offer too much in profiles.

Here’s how to identify the scammers.

Wolf #1: Are usually spammers from outside the USA seeking gullible profile users to which they can offer special loans or get into bank accounts. They create a fake profile, and use photos from fashion websites to pose as alluring, young woman or a military service member. Viewers naturally assume it’s a real person. Tell tale scammer profile signs are names spelled in lower-case, an oriental woman with a full American name (e.g., laura smith) and ‘manager’ as job title of an obviously foreign company (e.g., tsung tan company [sic]). This demonstrates a poor grasp of the English language and is faking the profile via bad instructions from sweat shop supervisors.

Wolf # 2: Are the spammers trying to get to the USA on work visas. They send an invitation to connect, and after you accept, the next in-message will be, “attached is my CV, you get me a job in the usa, please.” These job seekers may be highly qualified workers, but are naïve about obtaining work visas and the processes for obtaining employment. They target HR managers, recruiters, and high-level executives.

Wolf # 3: Request direct email addresses because they have something “very important to speak with you privately because of the conversation nature.” They are trolling for valid email addresses to send emails directly to potential victims selling Russian brides, Nigerian money transfer scam, or sending computers viruses.

Wolf # 4: The salesman sends mass emails up to the 150 person ceiling selling loans, money investments, mortgages, and other services hoping someone is desperate enough to want to follow-through.

The Pimp: Creates a profile and treats LinkedIn as their online dating service. They send an invite to women and start asking for more personal data. These are potential stalkers, hence the need to post as little POC data as possible.

I would not advise being overly paranoid about accepting invites, but do caution common sense. Is the invitee connected to others you do know? Are they an employee of past employers or connected to a company with which you have done business? Did they name-drop an acquaintance in the invite? Those are most likely ‘safe.’

If the person is from a foreign country, click on their profile before accepting the invite. If the profile is skimpy, have less than 10 connections, and the photo, name, and the company name are written in poor English, notes only one employer, and has very little data, click on the ‘ignore’ button.

Want to report the true wolves and pimps? Click on their profile’s blue ‘Send a Message’ button. The pull down menu will provide an option to ‘block or report.’ LinkedIn will ask specific questions – why you want to report and/or block the user? Click on the appropriate boxes, and provide a written description of the users activities. LinkedIn will then quality assure by asking one more time – “are you sure you want to unconnect and block this user?” (the action cannot be reversed).

LinkedIn is a wonderful asset and business tool to build professional business relationships. In every group, there seems to be a black sheep that ruins the common and pleasant atmosphere, and engenders distrust. Use LinkedIn, but be cautious and know how to protect oneself from the ‘wolves at the door.’

Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., owner of D. Boyer Consulting – provides resume writing, social media management and training, business development, and human resources consulting. Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@DBoyerConsulting.com or https://dboyerconsulting.com.