Yet another LinkedIn question
June 9, 2018 7:00 AM Subscribe
Once again, I'm having a weird experience with LinkedIn and am hoping someone can explain it.
I have three separate email addresses, two of which are registered with LinkedIn. An invitation (from someone I don't know, although that isn't necessarily unusual) recently arrived via the third email address, which immediately made me suspicious. Deepening the mystery, the invitation does not show up on my LinkedIn home page, where I am assured I have no outstanding invitations. So am I being phished, or is there some other explanation?
Response by poster: It was an invitation to connect, from someone who is designated as a third-order connection. Very few people know my third email address, and I've certainly never provided it to LinkedIn yet they used it to notify me of the invitation to connect (without noting the invitation on my LinkedIn home page).
posted by DrGail at 7:23 AM on June 9, 2018
posted by DrGail at 7:23 AM on June 9, 2018
Does the person the invitation comes from know the third email address, though? Generally that info comes from the person sending the invitation, not from LI directly.
posted by anastasiav at 7:43 AM on June 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by anastasiav at 7:43 AM on June 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
An invitation to this third mailbox wouldn't show up on your linkedIn page, because LinkedIn doesn't know it is connected with you and so it would be treated as if it were an invite to a brand new person.
What you are seeing is consistent with this person somehow having this other e-mail address somehow and inviting you to connect via e-mail. It's also consistent with phishing. But honestly I think it's more likely the former, unless you're really convinced the third e-mail is just not something a stranger could have.
posted by mark k at 7:44 AM on June 9, 2018 [5 favorites]
What you are seeing is consistent with this person somehow having this other e-mail address somehow and inviting you to connect via e-mail. It's also consistent with phishing. But honestly I think it's more likely the former, unless you're really convinced the third e-mail is just not something a stranger could have.
posted by mark k at 7:44 AM on June 9, 2018 [5 favorites]
I think mark k is correct - someone sent a connection request via your email address and not your profile. This happens to me all the time with a third email address that, unfortunately, is less obscure than yours seems to be. The reminders eventually stop but I have resorted to contacting LinkedIn support from the third email address and asking for them to delete the requests, and they have always promptly done so.
posted by majorsteel at 8:16 AM on June 9, 2018
posted by majorsteel at 8:16 AM on June 9, 2018
I get these pretty frequently at my work email. I have LinkedIn connected only to personal email, but LinkedIn doesn't know that, and neither do the people who are requesting to connect. Other posters are correct that this person has invited you to connect via email, instead of through your profile, and that is why LI is able to email you. If you were to accept the invitation, it would prompt you to create a new profile and "join" LI.
Most likely they have connected their address book to LinkedIn (it offers this all the time with one of those "Find people you may know!!" pop ups). Second most likely, your third email is easy to guess (firstinitiallastname@work.com or something) and they put it in directly instead of searching for you by name. Tied for second, they're working off a marketing list or contact list they got from a third party, and are lazily attempting to "build their network." This happens to me ALL the time with random people from my industry. Them being a 3rd-degree connection increases the chances of this, because you may not have shown up on LI as a suggested connection, but you might be on the same mailing list as someone that has connected with them. The very least likely scenario is some kind of phishing.
These requests are mildly annoying because you can't decline or accept them since they aren't actually connected to your profile. I get a few reminders over the course of maybe a month and then it gives up.
posted by assenav at 8:40 AM on June 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
Most likely they have connected their address book to LinkedIn (it offers this all the time with one of those "Find people you may know!!" pop ups). Second most likely, your third email is easy to guess (firstinitiallastname@work.com or something) and they put it in directly instead of searching for you by name. Tied for second, they're working off a marketing list or contact list they got from a third party, and are lazily attempting to "build their network." This happens to me ALL the time with random people from my industry. Them being a 3rd-degree connection increases the chances of this, because you may not have shown up on LI as a suggested connection, but you might be on the same mailing list as someone that has connected with them. The very least likely scenario is some kind of phishing.
These requests are mildly annoying because you can't decline or accept them since they aren't actually connected to your profile. I get a few reminders over the course of maybe a month and then it gives up.
posted by assenav at 8:40 AM on June 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
I keep getting LI invitations by mail from some Malaysian chap who's apparently bought a bunch of addresses that were scraped off websites. The target addresses are role accounts (think "inventory@somedomain.tld") that are spammed to hell and back by about 50 Chinese tools and equipment vendors, with SpamAssassin taking care of 99% of that. Still, he's the only one who tries to invite those addresses to LinkedIn. Those aren't SpamAssassinated because they are sent from LI and lack most of the characteristics that spam mails tend to have.
If that third address of yours is inundated with spam spam spam spam lobster thermidor au crevette and spam (bloody Vikings) it would be quite probable that the person inviting you got hold of that address via such a list. If not then mailing list, some inbetween contact's address book scraped by LI, or just a fair guess, as described in the other answers.
Malaysian Chap re-runs his Invitation Blaster every couple of months, after which LI dutifully reminds me a few times that there are invitations from MC. It hasn't bothered me enough to take action and report MC to LinkedIn support.
posted by Stoneshop at 11:49 AM on June 9, 2018
If that third address of yours is inundated with spam spam spam spam lobster thermidor au crevette and spam (bloody Vikings) it would be quite probable that the person inviting you got hold of that address via such a list. If not then mailing list, some inbetween contact's address book scraped by LI, or just a fair guess, as described in the other answers.
Malaysian Chap re-runs his Invitation Blaster every couple of months, after which LI dutifully reminds me a few times that there are invitations from MC. It hasn't bothered me enough to take action and report MC to LinkedIn support.
posted by Stoneshop at 11:49 AM on June 9, 2018
I think this sounds totally normal. I’m not on LI at all, with any address, and I routinely get emails to “accept Person x’s invitation to connect” where Person X has entered my email manually.
posted by sunflower16 at 11:55 AM on June 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by sunflower16 at 11:55 AM on June 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:09 AM on June 9, 2018 [5 favorites]