Suspicious Random Connections

Over the past several months, I have noticed a disturbing trend of getting connection requests from people who have no likely connection to me.

1) All women

2) In fashion or cosmetics fields

3) Almost all Asian between in mid 20s to 30s in age, based on profile pics

4) Little to no background information, and few posts/engagement, yet suspiciously successful job titles.

I think nobody would be surprised to find out that there are bots or fake accounts on LinkedIN. There are likely a variety of reasons for individuals or organizations to deploy these tactics.

As a test last week on Monday, I connected with one of the suspicious accounts. This one, at least the background looked a little like there was overlap with me: Construction Management for Industrial facilities.

She starts up a chat, but not about professional stuff: what am I doing for Valentine's day? Okay, I'm pretty sure I know where THIS is going. I'm about to be propositioned online. Well, that is certainly new & refreshing [sarcasm]. In the interest of data & testing the hypothesis, I replied with the relatively low-key plans I had with my wife.

"Her" Response: she is lonely and has no lover on V-day. We should connect on WhatsApp.

My response: data collected, connection terminated, removed from my network.

Folks, be careful who you connect with, on LinkedIn or anywhere. I know that most people connect to other folks that they don't know on LinkedIn, sometimes through common work places, fields of work or study, or distant connections with other folks. I do the same, at times.