Recently, I received a connection request on LinkedIn. The name was in lowercase, so I was immediately suspicious. I decided to view their profile.
Not only was their name in lowercase, but so was their job title. Something seemed off about their summary, so I clicked on the “Show more” option and immediately noticed grammar and spelling mistakes. I started to become quite skeptical that this was an actual person, so I dug a bit more.
I noticed that despite having an anglophone name, this person apparently attended a Chinese university for four years. While that‘s certainly a possible scenario, having English as a second language would explain the spelling and grammar mistakes.
Another discrepancy that stood out was that the profile said they were located in Los Angeles. When I clicked on the company name listed in their experience section, the company profile that comes up says the company is located in Cleveland. Even better, when I click on the website listed on the company profile, their contact page says they’re located in Katy, Texas.
Finally, when I ran a Google image search on the profile picture, I discovered that it was a stock photo. Not surprising; it looks like a stock photo.
I don’t mind receiving a connection request from a spammer. It took me only a minute or two to discover the fraud, so it wasn’t much of a loss. What disappointed me the most, however, was how many of my connections accepted their connection request: nearly 50 last I checked.
LinkedIn was originally about connecting with people you know, and many people frowned on adding people you didn’t. That’s changed, and people are trying to expand their networks. That’s fine. Just make sure those you add are actual people first.
