"Linkedin" spam

[martin]

does anyone else suffer from it? - I keep getting requests to join people of whom I have never heard, (let alone been introduced to) to "join me on Linkedin" - apparently some "networking for the socially deprived wannabee professionals" thingummy, designed to elicit all your details, then flog them off to the highest bidder (like Facebook and Yahoo) - who ignore all requests for them to desist ... (the usual "you can remove yourself by joining" cr*p!)

[MarkB]

Occasionally I get someone I've never heard of trying to connect. Usually it's a recruitment agent or similar but not always. I just tend to ignore people that I don't know (or whose connections I don't think are likely to be useful  ) but there is an option to say you don't know that person and reject their invitation. I'm, not sure if this ultimately leads to any sanctions of any sort though.

[martin]

It's the classic Catch-22 situation (much beloved by such scamsters as Yahoo and Facebook) - you have to join before you can say "sod off" - as a point of principle I wouldn't dream of becoming a member, and you seemingly hit a brick wall if you refuse!

[profp]

I think LinkedIn is actually pretty useful, but each to their own.
If you don't want to join LinkedIn, then simply set up a rule to forward mail originating from LinkedIn to the trashcan - all invites will originate from invitations@linkedin.com

P.

[smegal]

Occasionally I get someone I've never heard of trying to connect. Usually it's a recruitment agent or similar but not always. I just tend to ignore people that I don't know (or whose connections I don't think are likely to be useful  ) but there is an option to say you don't know that person and reject their invitation. I'm, not sure if this ultimately leads to any sanctions of any sort though.

I heard that if a person gets rejected (as opposed to ignored) 3 times it leads to a ban.

I like linkedin for keeping in touch with people on a professional level.

[Ivan]

I get invitations from the most unlikely people - like my accountant (I can't seriously consider my accountant wants to chat with me on facebook or whatever social networking site it was).

I suspect there's some kind of underhand email address harvesting that goes on when you sign up, and microsoft seems to add everyone you've ever sent an email to, to the address book (making the address book a useless feature of microsoft software), so if someone has emailed you in the past, and they join one of these sites, you'll get the invitation email.

The emails remind me of ebay's payment requests: 'This seller preferred payment method is paypal' - when nothing could be further from the truth

[djh]

I think LinkedIn is actually pretty useful, but each to their own.
If you don't want to join LinkedIn, then simply set up a rule to forward mail originating from LinkedIn to the trashcan - all invites will originate from invitations@linkedin.com

The most irritating thing about linkedin is that they appear to send invitations to everybody in the address book, including mail lists! That rude behaviour alone is enough to mean that I won't join them, however useful they might be. And yes, all such mails go straight to the trash bin.

[grevls]

Can't you choose to block anything specifically from Linkedin in your email settings or spam filter?

[martin]

I can indeed, but if possible I'd sooner stop them arriving all together!

[profp]

I think LinkedIn is actually pretty useful, but each to their own.
If you don't want to join LinkedIn, then simply set up a rule to forward mail originating from LinkedIn to the trashcan - all invites will originate from invitations@linkedin.com

The most irritating thing about linkedin is that they appear to send invitations to everybody in the address book, including mail lists! That rude behaviour alone is enough to mean that I won't join them, however useful they might be. And yes, all such mails go straight to the trash bin.

I'm not fighting LinkedIn's corner especially - but they don't. The user registering has to explicitly give permission for linked in to upload their address book - if that user then chooses to send a blanket invite to everyone in their address book, they do so. They could obviously do a better job of educating the end-user in best practices... but the fact remains it's the user who is actually at fault, not linkedIn.

[martin]

It's the infuriating "you must join to tell them to sod off" thing that gets my goat - Yahoo do likewise....

[profp]

It's the infuriating "you must join to tell them to sod off" thing that gets my goat - Yahoo do likewise....

Granted, it would be easy for them to include an opt-out link in the invitations they send out. In fact, I'm actually surprised they don't (what with CanSpam etc.).

[Quakered]

I feel the need to stand up for Linkedin! Is has a good reputation for not abusing the membership. In 8 or 9 years of using it, I have never had any problems.

I know nothing about Facebook as I am over 14 and therefore too old for such nonsense!

[djh]

It's the infuriating "you must join to tell them to sod off" thing that gets my goat - Yahoo do likewise....

That doesn't bother me, because I never click on any 'please stop' links. That just confirms to them that there's somebody reading the mail at your address, so the address is more valuable to sell to some other spammer.

mail rules are usually my tool of choice to banish such annoyances.

I feel the need to stand up for Linkedin! Is has a good reputation for not abusing the membership.

It's the abuse of NON-members I care about!

[skyewright]

It's the infuriating "you must join to tell them to sod off" thing that gets my goat - Yahoo do likewise....

I had a similar thing with eBay. I became aware that someone who had signed up as a trader had been giving them incorrect data, but since I am not a member and have no wish to become one there seemed to let them know; all the potential avenues I found on their websites seemed to lead to a sign-in at some point. Presumably if I did sign up simply to report the problem I'd be a totally new and unknown quantity to them and so perhaps they wouldn't take any notice anyway! Cleft stick?