Trustworthiness of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is huge, and policing it is going to be all but impossible in practice. I get recruiter spam on a daily basis through LinkedIn. I'm sure at least one a month is a scam, but who's going to chase down which ones are legit in the midst of all that volume?

In short: LinkedIn is basically useless as far as I'm concerned. It has some value when networking for jobs, but that's a rare occurrence for me at this point in my career, so I really don't see it as anything worth curating or keeping on top of. So it rots and collects invites from recruiters who can't be arsed to read my goddamn profile and/or don't know that web programming has no overlap with low-level C++ programming.



... I'm gonna stop before I rant a whole lot :-)

So it rots and collects invites from recruiters who can't be arsed to read my goddamn profile and/or don't know that web programming has no overlap with low-level C++ programming.

That's about the size of it.

I also get constant (and hilarious) offers of jobs in Urban Planning, on the basis that a classmate once submitted a paper we'd written on graph search algorithms to a Public Transit conference...

My favorite is when I get recruitment spam from LinkedIn, on LinkedIn.

(That said, I like it for keeping track of co-workers and where they land. The game industry has people bouncing around all over the place. Granted I'm facebook friends with the ones I know well, but this is nice for those that either don't use facebook or I didn't know well enough for facebook)

It's got a huge problem weeding out scammers.

This one's from my messages.

Dear xxxxxxx,

Am a banker working with Emirates National Bank Dubai here in U.A.E (United Arab Emirates ) I write to contact you over a very important business transaction which will be of our interest and benefit to our both families.

In 2006,one Mr.Shafi xxxxxxxxx,whose surname is same as yours and has your country in his file as his place of origin, made a fixed deposit for 36 months, valued at $14,500,000.00 with my bank. I was his account officer before I rose to the position of branch Accountant. The maturity date for this deposit is 16th of September 2009.Sadly Mr.Shafi was among the death victims in the May 12 2008 earthquake in China that left over 1,200 people dead while he was there on business trip.

Since the last quarter of 2009 until today, the management of my bank has been finding means to reach him so as ascertain if he will roll over the Deposit or have the contract sum withdrawn. When I discovered that this will happen, I have tried to think up a procedure to preserve this fund and use the proceeds for business.

Some directors here have been trying to find out from me the information about this account and the owner, but I have kept it closed because, I know that if they become aware that Mr.Shafi is late, they will corner the funds for themselves. Therefore, am seeking your co-operation to present you as the one to benefit from his fund at his death since you have the same name, so that my bank headquarters will pay the funds to you. I have done enough inside bank arrangement and you only have to put in your details into the information network in the bank computers and reflect you as his next of kin.

If you concur with this proposal, I intend for you to retain 50% of the funds while 50% shall be for me. Kindly forward your response to me.

Mr.Husam Sayed

Emirated National Bank Dubai (U.A.E)

Email: husam.sayed@accountant.com

Someone I know who also has an account on LinkedIn volunteered the information that I know C#, so now that's helpfully on my profile for recruiters looking for C# programmers.

The only problem is, I don't know C#, and the person who volunteered that information isn't a programmer, she's a middle-aged woman who I once fixed her computer for when too many viruses locked it up.

I've opted out of LinkedIn since it doesn't fit my long-term plans anyway.

Yeah, I hear a lot of endorsements come from misclicks from cellphones. I've certainly gotten a wide set of endorsements from people that I worked with years ago.

Endorsements appear to be automatically generated periodically by LinkedIn itself based on the order your skills appear in your list. My profile has ended up with an almost perfect triangle of skills-to-endorsements list, even for skills I have never used in recent jobs.

The only problem is, I don't know C#, and the person who volunteered that information isn't a programmer, she's a middle-aged woman who I once fixed her computer for when too many viruses locked it up.

Maybe she doesn't...


...


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SEE SHARP!!


(Haaaaaaaa... !!)

EDIT:
???( ? )?????Moderators gonna moderate!?????( ? )?

[snip atrocity against all mankind]

I can't downvote in the lounge so I'll just ban you for that instead.

If it looks like spam, then odds are it is spam. If it looks questionable but interesting, then probe carefully without giving out useful info and see if they start looking like a scam.

[snip atrocity against all mankind]

I can't downvote in the lounge so I'll just ban you for that instead.

See, this is why the lounge needs some kind of reputation system of its own, because that deserves an upvote of some kind.

We once endorsed a friend enmasse for 'skydiving'. It seemed funny at the time.

I thought this thread was going to be about the fact that LinkedIn goes to extreme measures to mine (and sell) your personal information, like accessing your 3rd part email accounts without authorisation...

Be careful, there are a lot of copycats. Oftentimes, they mimic the profile of someone genuine to the smallest detail (and even sometimes manage to have the same contacts!) to the point where its very hard to tell them apart. I wish there was a way to say when the profile was created as it would help identify scam from the actual individual.

I believe it works when used carefully and consciuous. The potential of scam and fake messages, offers is big because of the large numbers. I personally accept invitations only, when I know who the person is. It also helps in networking, for example for getting into the game industry :)

I thought this thread was going to be about the fact that LinkedIn goes to extreme measures to mine (and sell) your personal information, like accessing your 3rd part email accounts without authorisation...

I have a huge problem on that. It uploads my contact list and starts "recommending" my family as my professional contacts, or even old contacts which I had forgotten.

Since then I kept my LinkedIn profile and usage to its bare minimum. Job titles and company names only. One professional photo. And these "endorses" are pretty stupid.

Even the most "trustworthy" site is going to have spam and scams, just a natural part of the Internet. I was required to use LinkedIn for my college degree, but now I'm scared to see what my message box looks like as I don't bother checking it (think its been a year or more now). Though I doubt I have anything major as my footprint on that site is insignificant due to not building contacts or networks. Think all my contacts are just employees and graduates from DeVry University.

I checked to see if I got any spam or scam messages or questionable contact requests, but had nothing of interest. A LinkedIn message trying to get me to use Premium and three contact requests, all DeVry grads. Did find out that a contact, five months ago, endorsed me for video games as a skill.

As long as you can spot spam and scams you are safe. Had too many acquaintances fall for scams, a former nurse that came to our house had lost $100 because she fell for an email claiming she had to reset her password, not realizing that the site didn't charge to reset the password [as most sites don't]. My sister-in-law's relative lost thousands because she received a call claiming my her and my brother-in-law were in prison in some country and it was needed for their bond. It was after the fact that she found out they never travel outside the US. So, again, at least you can spot the scam before it is too late.

Just got another one from a “General Managerh” in Ghana.

Sigh. And so The Nightmare Begins.

L. Spiro

And so The Nightmare Begins.

/pushthreadhijack

https://soundcloud.com/l-spiro/zeal-island

What software do you use for this?

/popthreadhijack

And so The Nightmare Begins.

/pushthreadhijack

https://soundcloud.com/l-spiro/zeal-island
What software do you use for this?

/popthreadhijack

That was a long time ago, so I used a Yamaha MOTIF 7 (to perform each part and for samples), Cakewalk Pro (MIDI sequencing) and Audacity (recording).
These days I use my Yamaha MOTIF XF8 (samples and performing), Cubase LE AI Elements 8 (MIDI sequencing), Adobe Audition (recording), and iZotope Ozone 4 (mastering).


L. Spiro