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LinkedIn is a cesspool of scammers and identity theft

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: LinkedIn is a cesspool of scammers and identity theft

#51

Post by m4xp »

beAbU wrote: post #49
nickdothutton wrote: post #6

I really wish LinkedIn would collapse and close so that something useful could take its place. At the moment I feel like it's squatting the "business networking" square on the board, but I don't know what it would take to dislodge it. I wrote a little about this on my blog about a decade ago and I don't feel we are any closer to it being dislodged.

Do you think LI's problem is innate to the platform, or it's users? How will an alternative professional social network make itself immune to the scourge of online 'business networking'? I honestly believe the problem is inseparable from the social network itself. Either you have a space where people can connect and find jobs and nothing more, and you'll have zero engagement and no way to really fund the platform. Or…

Users reflect the platform. You make reddit, you get echo chambers. You make 4chan, you get edgy contrarians.

Users that thrive in those enviroment stay, others leave. LinkedIn is a scourge to the job market, being force to publish your entire life for everyone to see to find a job is completely dystopic.

Re: LinkedIn is a cesspool of scammers and identity theft

#53

Post by OptionOfT »

pugio wrote: post #7

LinkedIn is one of the most annoying sites on the internet. Every time I mistakenly click a link, it automatically grabs my Google account and creates a new account and profile for me, which I then have to go in and delete. Yes, I finally figured out which arcane preferences settings across both LinkedIn and Google I had to tweak to stop this from happening, but I think it was only after ChatGPT was around to help me…

I hate that pop-up when I'm browsing around and it shows a popup: do you want to sign in to this website with your work Google account.

NO.

Re: LinkedIn is a cesspool of scammers and identity theft

#54

Post by p2hari »

I am also amused at how people are still using it in its current context. Like some of the recruiters and companies want to have access to your linkedIn. They themselves use it as it is good for their own SEO, a nice emoji on their corporate website, push employees to be on the platform. Well I think the site also tries to do a lot to leverage on the users presence there and it is working for them. Q3 FY2026: Revenue increased 12% year-over-year (9% in constant currency).

LinkedIn has job boards, sales navigator and a bunch of things(ads, learning etc). We as users are paying them and also giving them data and they are harvesting on this data. They already have their AI to generate posts for you and all you get is infinite scroll of garbage like Tiktok or instagram. It is bound to pollute when you are doing a lot and trying to make shit load of money through it.

I think many have mentioned that the alternatives are also not addressing the right problems of LI.

But I have been observing the alternatives that have been showing up and of course it does not do justice for a professional network. Its my 2 cents and I can say this with my own conscience as I have built a couple of social networks across the last decade and have had considerable success. Maybe it is time to roll up my sleeves and take a jab at it. :). If anyone is interested to join just DM me and if we hit it, I am willing to angel invest and start a true professional network.

Re: LinkedIn is a cesspool of scammers and identity theft

#55

Post by pugio »

The-Old-Hacker wrote: post #50
realty_geek wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I don't understand. Somehow linkedin creates a new account (on linkedin? - so a brand new account?) without your agreement?

Yep, that happened to me too. The biggest joke was that LinkedIn forced me to create a password before I could delete the profile they'd created without my permission. This happened after I'd visited several LinkedIn links on my Pixel phone so they grabbed my Google email address and used that. Bear in mind also that I'd been retired for about six years at that point.

Exactly the same - took way more work to delete the thing.

Re: LinkedIn is a cesspool of scammers and identity theft

#56

Post by itsveryterry »

My company was dealing with constant fake websites and impersonation accounts targeting our users so eventually we hired this company ChainPatrol to help us with this. One of the most surprising finds that they reported back to us was the amount of fake accounts on LinkedIn that were impersonating our staff. And we barely thought to look at LinkedIn, but there were scammers fake recruitment posts that we were glad to be rid of.

Look them up I think they have a reporting page if you come across more of these

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