The social network LinkedIn helps you present your professional online identity or a company and network. Many users also hope for new career opportunities and therefore try to build as large a network as possible. But not every contact request is serious. Therefore, you should know the most common scams:

  • Contact requests from fake profiles
  • Fraudulent job offers
  • Technical support scam
  • Advance fee fraud
  • Romance scams
  • Phishing on behalf of LinkedIn

Fake profiles

The basis of many scams on social media are fake profiles. This also applies to LinkedIn. Scammers pose as employees of a reputable company or even someone you know. Sometimes criminals also invent companies and create a page that presents the fake company as trustworthy, or they imitate legitimate companies and pose as them.

As soon as the fraudsters become part of your network using fake profiles, they offer you opportunities to work together and exploit your trust for criminal activities: For example, they send messages containing malware or try to obtain confidential data.

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Even though a large network is usually viewed positively on LinkedIn, you should check who you are connecting with. Accepting a contact request from criminals helps them appear more trustworthy.

Fraudulent job offers

As with all platforms where job advertisements are published, fraudulent job offers also exist on LinkedIn. It may be that you come across such a scam during your job search or that alleged employers actively write to you to offer you a job.

You should be particularly careful when it comes to jobs at supposed market research companies or survey platforms If you are asked to test opening a bank account using the video identification process , do not do so under any circumstances. This is a popular trick used by criminals where they actually open an account in your name. This can be used by fraudsters for money laundering and other crimes.

Even if you are asked by supposed HR managers or employers to transfer money as part of the application process, break off contact and ignore all demands. Companies like skovgaardtransit.com try to get your money and copies of your ID by promising high salaries.

Technical support scam

We are particularly familiar with tech support scams in connection with Microsoft . But this scam is also popular on LinkedIn – albeit slightly modified:

You will be contacted via LinkedIn or by email by a person pretending to be a LinkedIn employee. They claim that there is a problem with your account and you are asked to log in again - using a link provided. Even if the login page looks like LinkedIn's, it is a fraudulent website that steals your login details.

LinkedIn also warns that dubious websites offer telephone LinkedIn customer service for a fee. In fact, these sites have nothing to do with LinkedIn.

Advance fee fraud

Advance fee fraud is not a new scam and is widespread on social networks such as LinkedIn. With this scam, the scammers promise to transfer you a large sum of money. But before this is possible, you have to pay various fees, a notary or something similar. This is necessary because transferring such a large amount does not work without these fees or protections, the criminals claim.

But once you have transferred the money, the fraudsters can no longer be reached. You do not receive the promised money.

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The fraudsters often give good reasons to transfer money to you. Often it is an inheritance or a charitable purpose . Professional reasons are also given on LinkedIn. For example, that you are related to a deceased customer of the fraudsters and there is a fund that still needs to be paid out.

Romance scams

You wouldn't expect love fraud or romance scams, especially on LinkedIn. But this scam works on all platforms. You will be contacted by a fake profile that poses as a successful manager, a soldier or an attractive woman. They chat and the criminals quickly talk about their great love and even make plans for the future together. But a real meeting never takes place. Instead, after a while, money is demanded.

A death in the family, a serious illness or an accident, the sudden loss of a job, unpaid hotel bills or problems with the authorities can be reasons for the fraudsters' alleged lack of money. Sometimes the criminals also claim that they need the money to fly to the victims from abroad. Most of the time it doesn't just stop at this one demand for money. The criminals exploit the emotional dependency of the victims to demand more and more money.

Phishing on behalf of LinkedIn

It's not just on LinkedIn that people cheat, but also with LinkedIn. Phishing messages in which fraudsters pose as LinkedIn are increasing . This is about getting your access data. As is often the case, an email is sent claiming, for example, that someone else has access to your account or that you have been searched for by many people on LinkedIn.

The criminals hope that you will feel pressured or become curious and click on the link provided. Anyone who does this will end up on a mock login page that looks similar to LinkedIn's. Data entered ends up directly in the hands of criminals.

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LinkedIn as an information pool for criminals

Always think carefully about what data you make publicly available on LinkedIn. The platform is particularly suitable for corporate fraud With this collected information, criminals appear trustworthy and can therefore more easily manipulate you to obtain sensitive company data or to install malware.

How can you protect yourself from fraud on LinkedIn?

  • Verify Contact Requests: If you don't know someone, consider verifying the person or company. If you can't find out anything about the contact, it could be a fake profile.
  • Look for discrepancies: Even if you know the person or company, that doesn't mean blind trust is recommended. Reputable profiles are often imitated. If there are discrepancies with the linked website, telephone number or email address, caution is advised.
  • Demands for money: Do not respond to demands for money and do not submit copies of ID cards or other sensitive data!
  • Communication outside of LinkedIn: If criminals really want to communicate outside of LinkedIn, that is also a red flag.
  • Exceptionally good offers: Whether it's about salary information, offers of cooperation or promises of money - if something sounds too good to be true, it unfortunately often isn't true.
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fake profiles, fraudulent messages, dubious job offers or other attempted scams on LinkedIn's support page !

Source: Watchlist Internet


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