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.

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.