What's up with all these strange LinkedIn invitations?
June 6, 2015 11:32 PM Subscribe
I've used LinkedIn semi-regularly for 2-3 years. Every other month or so I get an invitation from a complete stranger, in a completely unrelated field, no common contacts, and always from a foreign country I've never visited. Is this some kind of data mining scam?
I have no idea how these people even find me. I've had 5 or 6 such people send me invitations. They give no explanation why they want to connect. There is no obvious reason to me. Their profiles list countries of origin including China, Thailand, United Arab Emirates.
A couple I've accepted out of sheer curiosity because their profiles and comments are believable. A couple I didn't accept because their profile has very little information and I'm pretty sure that I don't want to be associated with a supposed banker from the UAE (wtf?).
How common is this? What is the deal with this? Is this a data mining scam? Are there plausible, serious risks with accepting strange LinkedIn invitations?
I have no idea how these people even find me. I've had 5 or 6 such people send me invitations. They give no explanation why they want to connect. There is no obvious reason to me. Their profiles list countries of origin including China, Thailand, United Arab Emirates.
A couple I've accepted out of sheer curiosity because their profiles and comments are believable. A couple I didn't accept because their profile has very little information and I'm pretty sure that I don't want to be associated with a supposed banker from the UAE (wtf?).
How common is this? What is the deal with this? Is this a data mining scam? Are there plausible, serious risks with accepting strange LinkedIn invitations?
Seconding howfar. I also suspect that there are some people, who are doing some kind of networking thing where they are trying to indiscriminately connect with everyone in a certain industry, or everyone in a certain place or something - you know, the LinkedIn equivalent of the Facebook person who was trying to friend everyone.
I get those on occasion too and I just say that I don't know them and refuse the invite. No big.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:09 AM on June 7, 2015
I get those on occasion too and I just say that I don't know them and refuse the invite. No big.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:09 AM on June 7, 2015
I get a decent number of contact requests from Indian software engineers (though it's slowed down lately). I'm pretty sure this is related to this bloke called Sachin who thinks my email address is his and occasionally signs me up for things, meaning my email address has somehow found its way into the engineers' gmail accounts and they fall for LinkedIn's "let us contact everyone you've ever emailed" trick. LinkedIn also likes suggesting I contact Indian software engineers, presumably because both of us are in someone's email contacts.
I've also noticed that people in some fields (e.g. recruiters, sales, venture capital) are apt to connect on LinkedIn with people they've never met (though I generally have some connection to them), which is also going to dramatically expand the range of people LinkedIn thinks you might know. (It's probably a pretty short trip from me to a banker in the UAE, via school connections or someone in sales either focusing on the Middle East themselves or knowing someone who does, even though I'd be baffled by a contact request from said banker.)
Remember that much (all?) of your LinkedIn profile is either public or accessible to people who have bought subscriptions to LinkedIn. Nonsense connections are not useful from a data mining perspective that I can see, except that it might make using LinkedIn's API to pull down tons of data easier.
posted by hoyland at 5:19 AM on June 7, 2015
I've also noticed that people in some fields (e.g. recruiters, sales, venture capital) are apt to connect on LinkedIn with people they've never met (though I generally have some connection to them), which is also going to dramatically expand the range of people LinkedIn thinks you might know. (It's probably a pretty short trip from me to a banker in the UAE, via school connections or someone in sales either focusing on the Middle East themselves or knowing someone who does, even though I'd be baffled by a contact request from said banker.)
Remember that much (all?) of your LinkedIn profile is either public or accessible to people who have bought subscriptions to LinkedIn. Nonsense connections are not useful from a data mining perspective that I can see, except that it might make using LinkedIn's API to pull down tons of data easier.
posted by hoyland at 5:19 AM on June 7, 2015
Same as howfar. I was an airbnb host so the seemingly random people friending me were often just people who stayed with me and added their whole address book. Also, former college classmates who were on the same email list has happened.
posted by no bueno at 6:12 AM on June 7, 2015
posted by no bueno at 6:12 AM on June 7, 2015
I quit LinkedIn several years ago and I still get an invitation to link with someone in my industry every few weeks.
Lots of these people are older and not very tech savvy and I think LinkedIn just mines their entire email address books. Most of the invites I get are from people I have communicated with a few times but I don't know at all, they work in different companies/cities.
So quitting LinkedIn won't stop the emails! I probably need to block LinkedIn or something.
posted by littlewater at 6:54 AM on June 7, 2015
Lots of these people are older and not very tech savvy and I think LinkedIn just mines their entire email address books. Most of the invites I get are from people I have communicated with a few times but I don't know at all, they work in different companies/cities.
So quitting LinkedIn won't stop the emails! I probably need to block LinkedIn or something.
posted by littlewater at 6:54 AM on June 7, 2015
I am very active on LinkedIn and I think I have only had this happen a couple of times ever. I get a lot of connection requests but they are always people I am at least tenuously connected to. Maybe you've gotten on some kind of a spammer list.
posted by miyabo at 8:15 AM on June 7, 2015
posted by miyabo at 8:15 AM on June 7, 2015
LinkedIn insists on trying to connect with anyone you've ever exchanged email with -- for example, I got a link request from a B-list actress, about ten years after I had exchanged one email with her husband and apparently they shared the email address. Maybe they were nice enough to add me to their contact list, or their software automatically adds people that way, but it still happened and for a while I was very confused why a person who's top credit is a small part in Glee would try to connect with me. If you're active on some sort of listserv or message board where it sent notifications under your own email address in there (maybe only as a 'from' and not a 'reply-to', or a cc:) LinkedIn likely will attempt to connect you two.
Foreign location seems odd, though: they may be fronts for 'headhunters', who are just trying to get a foot in the door for offering you employment.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:51 AM on June 7, 2015
Foreign location seems odd, though: they may be fronts for 'headhunters', who are just trying to get a foot in the door for offering you employment.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:51 AM on June 7, 2015
I get a lot of LinkedIn requests like you describe. They're using automated scraping tools, looking for people with certain titles or in related businesses. They ask to connect, and if you do, they send you a sales pitch for their business. They may be legit, but their sales tactic is just carpet-bombing their messaging for sales leads.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:18 AM on June 7, 2015
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:18 AM on June 7, 2015
I don't even have, nor have I ever had, a LinkedIn account and I get these emails from strangers as well.
posted by cecic at 9:33 AM on June 7, 2015
posted by cecic at 9:33 AM on June 7, 2015
Fake LinkedIn messages are a common vehicle for a phishing attack. Ignore them.
posted by w0mbat at 3:01 PM on June 7, 2015
posted by w0mbat at 3:01 PM on June 7, 2015
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posted by howfar at 2:40 AM on June 7, 2015