Options
Linked-IN scams you need to watch out for
NetworkingStudent
Member Posts: 1,407 ■■■■■■■■□□
I got this from a group in my linked in account, but I thought I would share it …Looks like some good info
"1. 'Recruiter' offers just a personal e-mail address (yahoo, gmail, hotmail etc.), often also using a generic e-mail name, instead of a company e-mail address. Another approach is to post a (fake) job and offer no visible contact information at all, but to suggest you contact them exclusively via LinkedIn’s ‘reply privately’ function or via their (spam) website. There are also a lot of ‘recruiters’ from unrelated territories, say India, posting ads for jobs in i.e. Europe
2. Use of photos of ‘attractive’ women as part of the 'recruiter's LinkedIn profile - I presume to leverage a ‘sex sells’ approach - or of generic images not showing any person
3. Recruiter’s LinkedIn profiles that seem thrown together and fabricated often going only a few years back in history. Typically, they also do not have any recommendations or ones posted just recently. A finer point is that these (fake) profiles generally do not have LinkedIn Premium accounts…because these cost quite a bit per year
4. When using a company / website front, no mention of any personnel or personal details anywhere. Alternatively, mentioning plenty of names, but with no personal and / or direct contact information (e-mail / phone). Also, the names mentioned often do not check out when google’ing them and the recruiter’s supposed company name. In several cases I checked whether such companies were actually officially registered in the supposed countries of such recruiters, but in most cases found no entry or entries with different registered addresses than stated on the website. Put differently, the companies are fake or, at the very least, are misrepresenting themselves
5. When phoning such bogus companies calls connect through to other numbers, not visible to the caller, and / or go to answering machines asking for you to leave your full details ‘to be called back’. When they do call back, they ask you for personal information like birthday, address etc. to ‘verify your identity’. Do not provide this info.! Be particularly wary of companies providing only a Skype number as their sole way of phoning them
6. After being lured in ‘recruiter’ responds with a job description that now suddenly mandates qualification criteria not initially mentioned and available only via another questionable and costly party. Another scam is to ask you for money up-front to get you the (fake) job or work permit and / or to put you into contact with someone who can get you the (fake) job. Never pay any money up-front for anyone claiming they can get you a job or for becoming part of a ‘business network’ that makes similar claims!
7. Mobbing and defamatory remarks by such ‘recruiters’ on the various LinkedIn group forums once exposed. Either it is one person using multiple identities or, more likely, a group of people backing each other up…which sounds like organized crime. You will also often see these criminals support each other to make them appear more legitimate by, for example, ‘liking’ either their own or each other’s message board posts and (fake) job ads
8. Very regular requests by LinkedIn to verify your e-mail account(s). This is a clear sign of someone else trying to hack into your account(s) there. I also have reports of people confirming that their e-mail accounts were hacked in this context, probably because they gave out too much personal information on their CVs, social media sites etc.
9. When exposed such (fake) job ads will often suddenly attract entirely non-relevant advertisement for handbags, shoes, ‘get paid to do surveys from at home’, ‘get rich quick scheme abc’ etc.. These are usually also ‘pay per click’ scams to collect revenue from, for example, GoogleAds. The same applies to the bogus jobsite links as part of the (fake) recruiter’s ad. Clicking on and following such links only supports such fraud"
"1. 'Recruiter' offers just a personal e-mail address (yahoo, gmail, hotmail etc.), often also using a generic e-mail name, instead of a company e-mail address. Another approach is to post a (fake) job and offer no visible contact information at all, but to suggest you contact them exclusively via LinkedIn’s ‘reply privately’ function or via their (spam) website. There are also a lot of ‘recruiters’ from unrelated territories, say India, posting ads for jobs in i.e. Europe
2. Use of photos of ‘attractive’ women as part of the 'recruiter's LinkedIn profile - I presume to leverage a ‘sex sells’ approach - or of generic images not showing any person
3. Recruiter’s LinkedIn profiles that seem thrown together and fabricated often going only a few years back in history. Typically, they also do not have any recommendations or ones posted just recently. A finer point is that these (fake) profiles generally do not have LinkedIn Premium accounts…because these cost quite a bit per year
4. When using a company / website front, no mention of any personnel or personal details anywhere. Alternatively, mentioning plenty of names, but with no personal and / or direct contact information (e-mail / phone). Also, the names mentioned often do not check out when google’ing them and the recruiter’s supposed company name. In several cases I checked whether such companies were actually officially registered in the supposed countries of such recruiters, but in most cases found no entry or entries with different registered addresses than stated on the website. Put differently, the companies are fake or, at the very least, are misrepresenting themselves
5. When phoning such bogus companies calls connect through to other numbers, not visible to the caller, and / or go to answering machines asking for you to leave your full details ‘to be called back’. When they do call back, they ask you for personal information like birthday, address etc. to ‘verify your identity’. Do not provide this info.! Be particularly wary of companies providing only a Skype number as their sole way of phoning them
6. After being lured in ‘recruiter’ responds with a job description that now suddenly mandates qualification criteria not initially mentioned and available only via another questionable and costly party. Another scam is to ask you for money up-front to get you the (fake) job or work permit and / or to put you into contact with someone who can get you the (fake) job. Never pay any money up-front for anyone claiming they can get you a job or for becoming part of a ‘business network’ that makes similar claims!
7. Mobbing and defamatory remarks by such ‘recruiters’ on the various LinkedIn group forums once exposed. Either it is one person using multiple identities or, more likely, a group of people backing each other up…which sounds like organized crime. You will also often see these criminals support each other to make them appear more legitimate by, for example, ‘liking’ either their own or each other’s message board posts and (fake) job ads
8. Very regular requests by LinkedIn to verify your e-mail account(s). This is a clear sign of someone else trying to hack into your account(s) there. I also have reports of people confirming that their e-mail accounts were hacked in this context, probably because they gave out too much personal information on their CVs, social media sites etc.
9. When exposed such (fake) job ads will often suddenly attract entirely non-relevant advertisement for handbags, shoes, ‘get paid to do surveys from at home’, ‘get rich quick scheme abc’ etc.. These are usually also ‘pay per click’ scams to collect revenue from, for example, GoogleAds. The same applies to the bogus jobsite links as part of the (fake) recruiter’s ad. Clicking on and following such links only supports such fraud"
When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened."
--Alexander Graham Bell,
American inventor
--Alexander Graham Bell,
American inventor