LinkedIn Scamming Customers?

Anyone who is active in the professional world loves LinkedIn. (In my opinion) it is an absolutely flawless way to network, get your name out there, and build up on online resume that is able to be referenced on websites,blogs, or emails. It allows companies seeking employees an easy venue to find qualified personnel, helps skilled labor to find a company looking for someone just like them, and rekindles old flames left to die. Okay, so maybe isn't the hotbed of romantic activity on the internet, but its great for business. Especially LinkedIn's bottom line.


"How can LinkedIn benefit from networking?"

When you sign up for LinkedIn, you are asked to complete a resume of sorts. This initial information includes your name, date of birth, field of business,location and interests. Then you of course have the option of adding where you have worked, gone to school, and clubs/associations you are a part of. After all these personally identifiable things, you are then given the option of Joining Linkedin "Groups". These are generally trade groups or groups that allow a person to further network their profile. In short, LinkedIn has developed a complete advertiser's dream scenario. A company can buy your profile information from LinkedIn, and are provided with all of your information, along with means of contact for you. In general, LinkedIn has a full demographical breakdown of you and anyone you "Invite" to LinkedIn. And whereas the majority of LinkedIn users are over 40 and have incomes of over $100,000 dollars- they are the ideal targets of marketers, both legitimate and not. Recently LinkedIn decided to advertise merchandise to its users, but in a selective manner. For example, if Mercedes decided to advertise its new model, it would go to LinkedIn and they would choose from the member database the ones that fitted the marketing campaign. Then, LinkedIn decided to make a little more money by offering Premium Business and Premium Business Plus. With a regular membership you couldn't just send someone an e-mail, you had to be introduced first; with the new types of membership, this was no longer an issue. HR companies saw a great opportunity in this and for good reason. All they had to do was pay and they had access to all sorts of potential job candidates.

Their new Enterprise Corporate Solution gives access to all 23 million users of LinkedIn.

The Social Butterfly

In a world ripe with social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any of the other 550,000 different sites allowing you to connect with people you are already friends with, there is bound to be a shady element. That underworld of exploitation, manipulation, and incredible social aptitude. Wait what?

Welcome to the world of the over-friendly and ‘single-minded' Trojan. Single-minded, as it seems to be inviting people to the site and start networking. A Trojan is a programme that appears to be desirable (like a free downloadable game or screen saver), but contains viruses or worms (self-replicating viruses) that can create havoc with the PC and the network.

However, in the case of these social networking sites, the Trojans that plant themselves on the users' computers and send invites to all mail IDs saved in the contact list, are harmless. The Trojan embeds itself in the user's computer when he/she logs on to a social networking site and sends invites to all listed in the contact list.

The receiver – believing it to be from a genuine friend – accepts the invitations and becomes a member of the social networking site. The sites use this to increase their membership, while hackers use the technique for their phishing attempts.

They do not crash the PC nor the network, an IT specialist with a leading BPO notes. But they sure can mar friendships, relationships or even lead to unwanted and unsolicited networking.

Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) president Rajesh Chharia says, "Even though these programmes only send spam and are quite harmless, at times it can lead to embarrassing situations".

"As most of these social networking sites are used for business networking and friendship, it is not possible for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block these sites. The best option is to put in good firewalls at the user's level," he said.
So the next time you log on to a social networking site, an invitation to join the site has gone to your super boss on your behalf. But without your knowledge!

Microsoft wants your Opinion?

In the continuing effort to improve computer and network security, Microsoft has developed the End to End Trust initiative. As a part of that initiative, Microsoft is seeking input from users and information security professionals to help answer the questions that need to be addressed in order to evolve computer security such as How should we enhance security on the Internet without undermining social values, such as privacy and anonymity? There are more questions to be answered in the End to End Trust Forums. Scott Charney, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Trustworthy Computing, has developed a white paper entitled Establishing End to End Trust which provides more details on Microsoft's vision.

While  it is not beyond the stretch of a reasonable person's imagination that a giant of the industry would want to keep it's users secure. The employees and designers of microsoft have showed a lack of willingness to address serious security issues, and wrap every tiny piece of security as the next big step in computing. Rather than the required software that all of this should have been back in Windows 98. It seems that every time Microsoft attempts security, it undoubtedly blows up in it's face. So I would encourage you to voice your opinion to microsoft- Let them know you value your security, as well as your wallet.

Alert: LinkedIN Scams Rampant

Have you heard of the professional networking site linkedin? Well, a number of professional users (Including Myself) have been using this site to increase their job prospects, clientele,  and associates. It seems that more and more, professional scam artists are trying to prey off of the unsuspecting users of LinkedIn. It seems that common sense isn't all that common. Just because someone has a LinkedIn profile- Doesn't mean that they are trustworthy.

     Unsuspecting professionals, driven by the urge to make quick millions off of a simple transaction, willingly turn over their bank information to a person who has made their acquaintance online. Why? Well, the scammers are using a '419 Scam'. What happens is the attacker claims to have inherited/ claimed a large sum of money, and is willing to give you a large fee to deposit the newly acquired funds into a US Bank account.

The best possible way to prevent this kind of attack is to: (A) Only accept mail from people you know, Or who have a related Interest (B) Never execute any financial transactions based solely upon knowledge recieved via virtual communications, Be it Email, Social Networking, Or other communications.  Unless you know the person, don't allow someone access to your account.