Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed some strange emails coming via LinkedIn for people looking to connect. I wanted to pass along this information and see if anyone else is seeing the same thing.
Here is what I have seen over the last 2 weeks:
“Bob Jones” has indicated you are a Colleague at college:
I have seen about 5 of these over the past few weeks. Another one is people looking to connect because we worked together at Xerox, Kodak (for me) or somewhere else. When looking through their profile it’s obvious that we never worked together and they may have never worked for that company.
Have you noticed any of these messages over the past few months? I’d love to hear your feedback.
Vinny D’s stance, just say no to spam!
Say no to SPAM on LinkedIN
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t know if I’ve seen an increase. But it is definitely there. And groups are essentially useless. They are just overflowing with Spam. Every once in awhile I get a random email – usually from someone I am in a group with btw. I ignore now. I used to get worked up about it but not any longer.
I also run a couple of groups. The rules are: send me an email, and I will accept your invite. I almost NEVER get an email. People are just clueless. Seriously, maybe 1 out of 1,000.
Mike
Yes unfortunately some people are genuine and see the only way they can connect with you is by pretending that they have met you somewhere before.
They may well have a genuine reason for connecting, perhaps you could look at their profile and message them back asking what that is ?
In a free online training course I show people the 8 foundations of networking and how to develop your LinkedIn profile, this gets you started with making LinkedIn work for you. Perhaps this would help people who are perceived as “clueless”.
Phil
Ok, Phil – that’s an interesting thought. Here’s my issue though, if I’m building a network on trust then right from the introduction I find a lie, wouldn’t that make me, not trust that person? I see your point in messaging that person back, which many times I do when others contact me. But if I find a lie right from the start, that trust for me is broken and I probably wouldn’t contact or connect with that person. I would rather have the person be honest with me and explain why they want to connect. I have no problem with that but just to connect with somebody with false information, that doesn’t build creditability for me.
Also, many of the times somebody reaches out like that, they just use the generic LinkedIn invite message. Why explain in there why you want to connect? Makes much more sense to me. Thanks for the comments, Phil. Keep in touch!
Well said Mike. I agree 100% with you. I love your comments and I agree with you on the email as well. Send me an email and I will more then likely connect with you.