Then today I got a text message claiming to be from one of my LinkedIn connections asking me to urgently purchase a Google Play card for a “presentation”, and that they were in the meeting and couldn’t talk but could text. Apparently many other people related to this company got similar texts.
Anyone else noticing an increase in LinkedIn spam?
I've seen an increase since end of July, this year:
one, in the usual suspect - Groups, where bogus profiles are increasing their spam. They get away with this because some Groups, with seemingly useful names, were initially created by bogus profiles and thus are the moderators of the groups. (I discovered two of the Groups I joined way back have this.) Spammers in these can act with impunity;
two, in messages from obviously bogus 'recruiters' - these are less spam and more phishing for personal information, likely to create more bogus profiles, or to create data repos for later scam attempts.
The most-frequent type of these don't even hide the location put in the profile - as India or Pakistan; they have very little Experience, sometimes with only two job records, within a less that two-year period, yet are already Directors or CEOs. Their 500 connections are obviously other bogus accounts.
The next-frequent are the extremely, IG-looking HR recruiters. You've probably read about these: a supposed recruiter, always female, always super hot-looking, wants to connect because she's sooo impressed with your experience & credentials. Typically the info about the opportunity they present is either so vague as to be useless, or so wild that it's beyond nonsense.