What are LinkedIn up to?

[Moz]

Like many others I've long viewed LinkedIn as a social media tool which stands out from the crowd when it comes to recruitment, because that's actually what it was designed for. However in recent times I'm starting to have serious reservations about LinkedIn and the insidious way they are trying to expand their reach.

I regularly received emails suggesting I "joining Tom, Dick and Harry and 6 other connections".

It's not evident what I should be joining them in, but if I click the "Continue" link in the email it logs me in to LinkedIn and prompts me to allow LinkedIn access to my email contacts - so essentially they are asking for the log-in details for my email account.

They're kidding surely? Nope, not kidding.

Hackers must be pummelling LinkedIn's firewalls and I shudder to think what would happen if they ever got through. Imagine what cyber criminals could do with the log-in details to millions of corporate email accounts.

Nevertheless, people have clearly fallen for this, because I've had what I suspect are automated invitations to "connect", out of the blue from people on the other side of the world, whom I have dealt with only fleetingly and with whom I have nothing in common.

I have accepted one or two of these invitations, because I thought there probably was no harm in doing so.But then I get emails asking me "Do you know Fred, Johnny or Jane?" These are clearly people on the other side of the world, so there is no chance I would know them. They have no doubt received similar emails themselves.

The world might seem like a small place at times, but most of the time it's not, so these messages from LinkedIn are about as useful as the phishing emails I get purporting to be from banks that I don't have an account with.

[Qld IR Consultant]

Moz, I use linkedIn very successfully for getting new clients and networking with likeminded professionals. In saying that though I am extremely vigilant and very particular in who I "connect" with etc. Like any sites of this nature, including facebook, everyone needs to be careful not only in spreading their details around the world, but also the comments they make

[Cottoneyes]

I don't use it myself, however my colleagues here use it regularly and were in a flap over some privacy setting changes a month or so ago, so guess you might want to check into that area as well