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LinkedIn: what's the story with made-up profiles?

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As with most professionals, I've had a LinkedIn account for a while (OK, years), with a reasonably detailed profile and contacts built up over time, although I would describe myself as very much the occasional user.

 

I checked my LinkedIn profile this lunchtime for messages and whatnot, and on checking out some of the complete strangers requesting a network contact (nothing new), one of them looked completely fabricated after a few Google searches.

 

Female business development manager at a company that doesn't seem to exist (no website, no Cies House record, no 192, no zoominfo - nothing), with 2 earlier senior managerial positions at other companies that don't seem to exist either (same again: no website, no Cies House record, no 192, no zoominfo - nothing), and much of the profile content looks like copy-pasted (and I mean that: copy-pasted) standard corpo-speak heavy on buzzwords and empty of specifics.

 

Now, most strangers that request a network contact from me are foreign attorneys looking to build some reciprocity in the UK and domestic legal types looking to build cross-referrals, besides the non-strangers (clients, friends, acquaintances <etc.>).

 

But when it's a young and good-looking female one in a non-related industry, call me a chauvinistic pig etc. (please let's not run that thread again :rolleyes::hihi:), I dig at least a little, being of a very curious and equally cynical nature and disposition.

 

The point of me mentioning it, and this thread, is that I've received another 4 or 5 similar 'odd' network request like hers (i.e. young, female, not exactly a munter, high achiever on paper, but with likewise seemingly "made-up" profiles and professional history) in the past few months or so.

 

So, I ask "what gives?" :huh:

 

What's the point of LinkedIn activities with made-up profiles? Or am I being the babe-in-the-woods that I fear I am?

Edited by L00b

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I recently got a contact request from a chap at Barclay's Bank - I have a few contacts with Barclay's and a few contacts of contacts, so it was nothing unusual, and this chap was already linked with a number of my contacts (both Barclay's and others)

 

I accepted his request and, a couple of days later, I received, in my LinkedIn inbox, from him, one of those all too familiar e mails from Nigeria, explaining that he had a client (now deceased) with the same surname as mine, whose estate was worth millions of $ and there were no known relatives. I didn't read the e mail to its conclusion, but the gist of it was that, between us, we could become very rich!

 

Although I suspect that the general plan was for one of us to become a little bit richer and the other to become a fair bit poorer.

 

I know that doesn't address your questions, but fraudsters work best with a cloak of respectability

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As with most professionals, I've had a LinkedIn account for a while (OK, years), with a reasonably detailed profile and contacts built up over time, although I would describe myself as very much the occasional user.

 

I checked my LinkedIn profile this lunchtime for messages and whatnot, and on checking out some of the complete strangers requesting a network contact (nothing new), one of them looked completely fabricated after a few Google searches.

 

Female business development manager at a company that doesn't seem to exist (no website, no Cies House record, no 192, no zoominfo - nothing), with 2 earlier senior managerial positions at other companies that don't seem to exist either (same again: no website, no Cies House record, no 192, no zoominfo - nothing), and much of the profile content looks like copy-pasted (and I mean that: copy-pasted) standard corpo-speak heavy on buzzwords and empty of specifics.

 

Now, most strangers that request a network contact from me are foreign attorneys looking to build some reciprocity in the UK and domestic legal types looking to build cross-referrals, besides the non-strangers (clients, friends, acquaintances <etc.>).

 

But when it's a young and good-looking female one in a non-related industry, call me a chauvinistic pig etc. (please let's not run that thread again :rolleyes::hihi:), I dig at least a little, being of a very curious and equally cynical nature and disposition.

 

The point of me mentioning it, and this thread, is that I've received another 4 or 5 similar 'odd' network request like hers (i.e. young, female, not exactly a munter, high achiever on paper, but with likewise seemingly "made-up" profiles and professional history) in the past few months or so.

 

So, I ask "what gives?" :huh:

 

What's the point of LinkedIn activities with made-up profiles? Or am I being the babe-in-the-woods that I fear I am?

 

'click bait' Stefan :hihi:

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As with most professionals, I've had a LinkedIn account for a while (OK, years), with a reasonably detailed profile and contacts built up over time, although I would describe myself as very much the occasional user.

 

I checked my LinkedIn profile this lunchtime for messages and whatnot, and on checking out some of the complete strangers requesting a network contact (nothing new), one of them looked completely fabricated after a few Google searches.

 

Female business development manager at a company that doesn't seem to exist (no website, no Cies House record, no 192, no zoominfo - nothing), with 2 earlier senior managerial positions at other companies that don't seem to exist either (same again: no website, no Cies House record, no 192, no zoominfo - nothing), and much of the profile content looks like copy-pasted (and I mean that: copy-pasted) standard corpo-speak heavy on buzzwords and empty of specifics.

 

Now, most strangers that request a network contact from me are foreign attorneys looking to build some reciprocity in the UK and domestic legal types looking to build cross-referrals, besides the non-strangers (clients, friends, acquaintances <etc.>).

 

But when it's a young and good-looking female one in a non-related industry, call me a chauvinistic pig etc. (please let's not run that thread again :rolleyes::hihi:), I dig at least a little, being of a very curious and equally cynical nature and disposition.

 

The point of me mentioning it, and this thread, is that I've received another 4 or 5 similar 'odd' network request like hers (i.e. young, female, not exactly a munter, high achiever on paper, but with likewise seemingly "made-up" profiles and professional history) in the past few months or so.

 

So, I ask "what gives?" :huh:

 

What's the point of LinkedIn activities with made-up profiles? Or am I being the babe-in-the-woods that I fear I am?

 

Agency fishing? Although they're rather more duplicitous in your industry if it is. I just get lots and lots of requests to link up with people from agencies, often geographically inappropriate since my profile mentions right at the top that I primarily look for contracts in Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

 

For me, make believe jobs being emailed through from agencies are the most common deception I've seen. They're simply fishing for CVs, so that they can then tell potential hirers just how many CVs they have in their database.

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