12 Types Of LinkedIn Scams To Watch Out For

LinkedIn is a popular professional app that allows many to search for and apply for job postings. In the United States alone, there are 230 million members. Nonetheless, scammers are quite active even on this platform, and the last thing you want to do is get involved in LinkedIn scams. This article will shed light on popular scams on LinkedIn.

Scams on LinkedIn to Watch Out For

LinkedIn is a popular platform, allowing many to search for jobs and network. Many have been using it for years, and it is an ideal platform to connect with each other on a professional level. Like every popular online app, this too has been a victim of LinkedIn scammers. We point out the 12 types of LinkedIn scams and how to avoid falling victim to them.

Phishing

Con artists will impersonate a trusted source to scam their potential victims. The act of collecting sensitive data by convincing potential victims to hand it over to them is called phishing. There are two popular methods that these scammers employ.

Con artists will randomly send messages to their potential victims. These messages will appear legitimate at first glance. There would be a link in the body of the message, which would encourage their potential victims to click on it. Once the link is clicked, spyware or malware will be downloaded to the system. All the data would be captured by it and sent to the scammer.

Another method is that the link will direct the potential victim to a webpage and prompt them to fill in the mandatory fields. Potential victims would be encouraged to submit all their sensitive data. Once the data is submitted, it will be sent to scammers.

LinkedIn scammers will have a unique way of attracting their potential victims. They will send the following email alerts to entice them.

LinkedIn profile security alert
LinkedIn closing and termination of your account
YOUR LINKEDIN ACCOUNT WILL BE TERMINATED!!!
LinkedIn Account Suspended
You appeared in six searches this week.

There are telltale signs to spot these scammers:

Regardless of the firm’s name, the email should end with “linkedin.com.”
Before clicking the link, hover your mouse and check where the page might land.
Before clicking the link, you should be cautious when you receive an email from a stranger.

Catfishing

Catfishing is quite common not only on dating and social media platforms but also on LinkedIn. Scammers will impersonate identities to convince their potential victims to hand over their sensitive details.

You need to be cautious when some stranger with limited connections gets in touch with you and starts to ask for personal and/or sensitive details that you wouldn’t share with your loved ones.

Romance Scam

You might be surprised that many fall for romance scams even on LinkedIn, a professional platform for networking and job searching. Scammers will convince their potential victims to provide sensitive details that they will refrain from sharing with their close family and friends. These LinkedIn scammers are experts at weaving sobs and compelling stories. They are also known for showering mediocre accomplishments with fake compliments.

You can spot these scams if someone becomes overly friendly with you, starts to dig up sensitive details, and frequently asks for money. They might also encourage people to move conversations to another platform, like messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram.

Crypto Scam

Scammers pull off crypto scams on LinkedIn through new connections or hacked LinkedIn accounts. If they will try to connect with their potential victims through small talk, gaining their trust and confidence, once they have enticed their potential victims, they will then try to lure them in with fake crypto progress reports. They will encourage their victims to invest in cryptocurrencies.

These LinkedIn scammers will impersonate seasoned crypto investors and convince their potential victims with fake reports, making them believe that they can make a huge amount of money. These are all strategies employed by scammers to cheat their potential victims out of their money with fake promises.

You can spot these charlatans through these telltale signs.

Be wary of someone who starts to encourage you to invest in cryptocurrencies or has a business model that involves cryptos.
When someone tries to convince you of an opportunity to make unrealistic returns on investment through cryptos within a short period of time.
Someone accepts payment only through cryptos.

Employment Scam

When you change your LinkedIn status to “Open to Work,” you not only attract legitimate firms but also potential scammers. Scammers will offer fake job opportunities by contacting you.

They will ask for sensitive information, like your social security number and bank account details. Once you provide them with these details, they will run away with the information, never to be seen again.

Sometimes, they will ask for an upfront payment to process your CV. They make a fake promise of reimbursing you for the first paycheck you receive from the company. They may also ask you to purchase certain software. These charlatans will frequently ask for money for one reason or another.

You can spot these con artists through these telltale signs:

Cross-verify the information given by the HR department of the firm by going to the firm’s website.
Avoid providing your physical address and other sensitive details before the job has been secured.
Avoid telephonic interviews over WhatsApp.
If anyone offers you a job opportunity and you need to make an upfront payment to process your CV, then it’s a scam.
If someone is offering you a guaranteed, high-paying job with little or no skill sets required, it’s a scam.

Equipment Frauds

Equipment fraud is one of the LinkedIn scams that is popular online. These charlatans would encourage their potential victims to buy office supplies, stating that they would be reimbursed when they received their first paycheck. These supplies are generally office supplies, computers, printers, and so forth. They will lure in their potential victims under the “work from home” job opportunity.

They are asked to buy office supplies by paying scammers. Once they send in the bill to these so-called HR departments, they are never reimbursed.

Scammers also pull such tricks while offering a fake job to crypto enthusiasts. They will offer their potential victims a chance to mine cryptos and get a percentage of the mined cryptos. Since these crypto mining rigs are expensive, it is common practice to lease them out.

When these victims start to mine these cryptos, it is not long before they understand that they have been scammed. The cost of running their rigs is high, as they consume a huge amount of energy. These con artists take the lion’s share of the cryptos that are mined. These poor victims not only have to pay money for the mining rigs and high energy bills, but they also receive a small amount of crypto. Thus, they suffer a huge loss.

You can avoid such LinkedIn scams if you look out for these telltale signs.

You should be alert if someone asks you to purchase some equipment while simultaneously guaranteeing a job.
Search for the name of the firm online that is promising you the job and asking you to buy such supplies. Check the review of the firm before you buy those supplies.
Crypto mining rigs are expensive, and some countries ban them due to environmental concerns. Check with your government’s rules and regulations if you are interested in mining cryptos.

Tech Support

Sometimes these LinkedIn scammers will impersonate LinkedIn IT or tech support. They will randomly call their potential victims and convince them through fake excuses to gather their information. They will send emails or directly call their potential victims and say that there is a technical problem with their LinkedIn account.

These con artists will send a link to their potential victims and convince them to enter all the fields that are mentioned on the webpage. Sometimes, clicking on the link can download malware that can endanger the safety and security of the device. Scammers will also charge for their fake tech support services.

You must understand the following when you receive any emails or a call from tech support:

LinkedIn does not have a client support center number. Anyone claiming as such is a fraud.
Avoid clicking on suspicious links that have been sent through an email.
LinkedIn encourages clients’s interest, security, and safety. They refrain from asking you for your password.

Connection Request

It is quite common to expand your network by sending and accepting connection requests. This platform was created for this sole purpose. It expands your visibility on the net, allowing you ample opportunities while searching for a job online.

Scammers will send in connection requests with nefarious intent. They will send in links that are aimed at encouraging their potential victims to click on them. Once clicked, spyware and malware get downloaded, infecting the device.

You can avoid falling victim to such LinkedIn scams by following these precautions.

Account Takeover

Scammers will either buy LinkedIn details from the dark web or gather information through phishing. Once these details are gathered, scammers will use these identities to gain access to the LinkedIn accounts of their victims. They will use these details not only to gain bank account details, and defraud the victims’ credibility, but also for fraudulent activities.

You can avoid falling victim by following these steps:

Frequently change your LinkedIn password.
Check what is being posted on your account frequently.
Avoid sharing verification codes with someone asking for them on your LinkedIn account.

Lead Generation

Since LinkedIn is a professional platform, it is quite common for someone to pitch their products on it. The intention behind such actions is to generate leads. However, scammers take advantage of such schemes. Although the products and services may be real, the information is fake. It is one of the LinkedIn scams.

Look out for these signs to avoid falling victim to such scams.

Beware of someone pitching for products or services from unknown connections.
Avoid accepting a connection request from someone with little engagement or connections.
Before providing the information, ensure that the person works for the said company or firm by visiting the webpage.

Malware And Encryption

LinkedIn scammers can hack into your account if they have the login credentials.

These charlatans will gather information by providing a link that prompts their potential victims to provide the sensitive details that are being asked for. Scammers frequently gather information through phishing tactics by convincing their potential victims to click on the link that they provide. These links will either direct you to a webpage where sensitive details are required to be filled in or may download malicious software that will capture relevant details from the device.

Avoid clicking on links or downloading files from suspicious connections.
Beware of links that may imitate malicious sites.

Advanced Fees

Advanced fees are another popular LinkedIn scam to watch out for. In these scams, the scammer will convince their potential victims to pay an up-front fee to receive even more money than they have invested. To make an easy and substantial amount of money, these victims are asked to provide sensitive information like their social security number, date of birth, entire name, bank details, and so forth.

Once the information is collected along with the “advanced fees,” these con artists run away and cannot be traced on the LinkedIn account.

Never share your sensitive details with someone you met on a LinkedIn account.
Avoid sending money to someone on a LinkedIn account.

Tips To Spot Fake LinkedIn Profiles

Spotting a scammer on the LinkedIn platform has become challenging; they can mask their account to appear as a legitimate connection. These scammers can pull off social media scams on these professional platforms too. We have listed a few telltale signs to spot them.

Fake Account Photos

Scammers frequently use stock photos that they find online for free. They will use these photos to create a LinkedIn account and use it to scam potential victims using LinkedIn platforms. They are also known to use deepfakes to entice and rip off their potential victims.

Scammers are also known to make multiple accounts using the same stock photo.

Make it a habit to do a reverse image search on the photos that want to connect with you. Check if they are the same individuals that they say are the same as those you find in your search results.

Incomplete And Generic Profile

Scammers are known to create frequent LinkedIn accounts. Due to regularly making several LinkedIn accounts, they do not bother to complete all the details that are required while making one. They also have fewer connections due to this reason.

The accounts created are relatively new and have very vague descriptions regarding the job. When they post jobs, they frequently mention high-paying jobs with a vague description of their nature.

To avoid falling for such LinkedIn scams, check if the account has vague descriptions like ‘employee” and “manager.”

Fake Names

Scammers are known to create fake accounts with fake account names. They might also create a fake LinkedIn account for a celebrity and send a request to connect with you. If you find any connection with a fake or obscure name on a LinkedIn account, you can be sure it’s a scammer.

Try searching their name on the internet and checking if they are the same as the person to whom they project their identity while requesting a LinkedIn connection.

Grammatical Errors

English is not the primary language of most scammers; thus, they are prone to making frequent grammatical and punctuation errors. Some of the common red flags are that they frequently miss spelling words and are filled with a lot of typo errors. They may go to great lengths to create a website to support their work there.

The website is also filled with frequent grammatical and punctuation errors. When you get a connection request, look out for these errors. They may also have the account names either in all lowercase letters or all caps.

Low Engagement

It is common that not everyone will use social media platforms frequently, but having an account with low traffic on it can be a red flag. Another potential red flag is that they might have followers but do not follow them back. As scammers frequently make such fake accounts, they are relatively new, with fewer connections and fewer followers.

Check how active the account of the connection who is requesting to join you is.

Protecting Yourself Against LinkedIn Scams

If you think that your LinkedIn account has been compromised, then you need to change the password for your account. Ensure that you also change all the passwords of other apps like banking apps, social media apps, email accounts, and other important applications. If possible, try to add an extra layer of security by adding multi-factor authentication features to all of these accounts and applications.

FAQs about LinkedIn Scams

If you are still concerned about “Are there scams on LinkedIn?” then kindly read over the commonly asked questions about these internet frauds listed below:

How Do LinkedIn Scams Work?

LinkedIn is a professional platform where many connect with each other for networking and searching for jobs online. Scammers are well aware of the workings of this app and, hence, know how to exploit it. Since it is a platform for networking and offering job opportunities, LinkedIn scammers frequently post bogus job ads and links that can be used to phish their potential victims’ sensitive details.

Are There Employment Scams On LinkedIn?

Scammers are known to exploit any online platform to scam their potential victims. Scammers frequently post bogus job opportunities, fake job guarantee opportunities, and, at times, impersonate a trustworthy and reputed company to scam their potential victims.

How Can You Tell If a LinkedIn Message Is Real?

A security footer will be part of LinkedIn communications to confirm their authenticity. A @linkedin.com account will also send legitimate LinkedIn messages.

Is It Safe To Use LinkedIn?

As we mentioned earlier, LinkedIn is a platform meant for networking and searching for jobs online, there are a few instances, like any other social media platform, where scammers exploit it. Even though LinkedIn scams are popular, they are as popular as any social media scam.