Roger LinkedIn - We Have A Problem - A New Round Of Job Posting Scams Taking Place Right On Your Site

FIRST:  All comments that I make in my post are my viewpoints and observations as a LinkedIn user and not to be taken as viewpoints of any company or employer.

Dear LinkedIn,

There appears to be a growing number of new "bogus" job postings on LinkedIn everyday, promising "All Jobs" in some exotic country or Logos of Fortune 500 / 200 / 100 companies stating "We are searching for talent in all regions".  The Creativity of Scam Artist just amazes me!  Aside from Copyright Infringement Laws that they are breaking, what really makes my blood boil about these is the number of desperate global job seekers that respond to these, the repetitive "Plz Chk My Profile" response,  the constant "Yes" or "Interested" responses and then to make it worse all the people (apparently in my connections) that have to click "Like" on it and it continues to be recycled day after day...week after week...etc.  I certainly appreciate wanting to help "Spread The Good Word"  but I wish people would do a little research. 

What is that saying?  "It's on the internet so it's got to be true"...well it's not.  Everything posted on the internet was typed in by somebody - whether they were honest or not, it is the internet users responsibility to decipher fact from fiction.  If you spend your entire day on LinkedIn posting your comments of "Interested" or "Plz Chk My Profile" to these fake advertisement campaigns, how likely are you to find a job?  Wouldn't it be more profitable of your time to research these and apply to the 3 - 5 that have legitimate links in them that take you to a real companies career page or the a legitimate LinkedIn Careers Page job posting by a real recruiter or company?

Okay, that was my appetizer now let's do the main course: 1. a job posting that "Chevron is Searching for Staff" - shows the Chevron Logo, looks legit right?  Click on the Post and it takes you to:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/groups/955227/955227-6118841445840449539?trk=hp-feed-group-discussion  Connie West, Project Manager at Staff Eventos posted about Chevron Hiring (used Chevron's Logo)..hmm her profile says she's in Washington DC., been Project Manager at Staff Eventos since 2011 and has 39 LinkedIn Connections.  Research on Staff Eventos - a communication company out of Spain (looks fairly reputable / legit) so back to the ad about Chevron, click on the Chevron logo and lets go to Chevron's Career Page...umm wrong!  Now you are over on 1JobSolutions web page (sorry, you've left LinkedIn and are heading into the Twilight Zone).  Okay so they appear to have some information on Chevron positions in different locations (along with other advertisements) let's click on one and maybe we'll get to the Chevron Career Page....NOPE! That didn't work, it took us to indeed.com  another job board that scrapes companies web sites everyday and puts those jobs up on their site without even letting the companies know about it.  Problem is, I don't see one Chevron job listed on their site either.  These go on-and-on-and-on...taking real job seekers out of the LinkedIn realm into an abyss of job board after job board after job board.  I could quickly find you 10 - 20 of these a day.

People need to be better educated and better equipped to handle and navigate safely through all of these.  There needs to be a Link Checker or Validator tool in the menu to validate the link in postings like these, the number of skips (pages) tied to that link, or how many different or multiple site url's are tied to that site (redirects).

My Advise To The Masses:  Please research, follow the instructions in the post that should provide a real company's career page link to go in and apply or when you click on the image in the post it should take you to the Company Career Page.  Please do not walk around LinkedIn like a Zombie, posting your comment of "Plz Chk My Profile" or "Interested" or "Yes".  There are many-many job seekers out there that you are competing against and they are applying real company career pages with a resume and a cover letter, they have already outperformed you by 80%.  Also, do your homework, read the news, be aware of business events taking place around the world, what industries are growing, what industries are shrinking, who's winning projects, who's losing projects, who's announce another round of lay-offs, who's announced a recent acquisitions,  look at what's going on in the stock market for your industry.  There is Sooooo Much information out there that you can arm and equip yourself to step into the job market arena and come out a winner.  But you have to be Smart about, Strategic about it, and Committed to the end.

My Request To LinkedIn:  Please develop a tool or a safeguard that enables your users to quickly identify these fakes and the real jobs (Norton, McAfee, even Microsoft have developed some forms of this for internet browsing).  Lets stop these 3rd and 4th, and 5th party job board sites from encroaching on your LinkedIn subscriber base.

My Request To My Connections:  Please do not go blindly out into this world, and share every post on LinkedIn or "Like" everything you see like it is Facebook or MySpace (is that even around still?).  LinkedIn is for Professional Networking so let's all Network and keep it Professional.  Report Abusive post, Report Scams and Report Bogus profiles that steal LinkedIn Photos to make more bogus profiles with and Phishing expeditions to steal your email and LinkedIn user login details.

Thank you for your help,

Tim (starting to feel like a Marvin Zindler - lets see if anyone knows who that was)