FBI Says Fraud on LinkedIn a 'Significant Threat' To Platform and Consumers (cnbc.com) 19
Fraudsters who exploit LinkedIn to lure users into cryptocurrency investment schemes pose a "significant threat" to the platform and consumers, according to Sean Ragan, the FBI's special agent in charge of the San Francisco and Sacramento, California, field offices. From a report: "It's a significant threat," Ragan said in an exclusive interview. "This type of fraudulent activity is significant, and there are many potential victims, and there are many past and current victims." The scheme works like this: A fraudster posing as a professional creates a fake profile and reaches out to a LinkedIn user. The scammer starts with small talk over LinkedIn messaging, and eventually offers to help the victim make money through a crypto investment. Victims interviewed by CNBC say since LinkedIn is a trusted platform for business networking, they tend to believe the investments are legitimate. Typically, the fraudster directs the user to a legitimate investment platform for crypto, but after gaining their trust over several months, tells them to move the investment to a site controlled by the fraudster. The funds are then drained from the account.
Left fraud out (Score:2)
shocked (Score:4, Insightful)
phishing too (Score:5, Interesting)
Every single time a new person starts at our company, two days after they update LinkedIn with the new position, a phishing email gets sent to the new employee purporting to be from the CEO and asking for cell phone number. They got through at first, one employee responded but reported it to me when the 'CEO' asked her to buy gift cards with her own money. These get sent to quarantine now. Thanks for all of the phishing, LinkedIn, you are a pot of gold for assholes.
Why we can't have nice things ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Scammers move in, exploit the reputation, ruin it for a few bucks. Others bitch, moan and belly ache about the loss. Lather, rinse and repeat.
Usenet, email, wikipedia, they all were useful once upon a time, ... Linked in comes pretty low in that list.
Re: (Score:3)
Indeed. Always the same crap with the human race.
LinkedIn is a "nice thing" ? (Score:2)
I've always had them down as a bunch of lying, spamming bellends not to be trusted with a spat-out Werther's Original, let alone my data.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Something acquires a reputation for trustworthiness or friendliness.
Scammers move in, exploit the reputation, ruin it for a few bucks. Others bitch, moan and belly ache about the loss. Lather, rinse and repeat.
You're talking about Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn, correct? You're *really* referring to Microsoft, correct? You're talking about the same Microsoft that paid billions for Activision Blizzard, Minecraft, Nuance, Nokia, Skype, and Github too, correct?
"Lure" stupid people do do stupid things? (Score:5, Insightful)
Somehow that does not seem to be a linkedin specific problem. More like if they do not get scammed there, they simply get scammed elsewhere. Is there some political angle between linkedin and the FBI here?
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More like Linkedin is loaded with wannabe techno business people and "true believers" in crypto.
That makes it a target rich environment.
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Possibly, yes.
And in other news (Score:1, Offtopic)
The FBI is a continued threat to freedom loving Americans.
Then don't use it. (Score:2)
If a platform is so corrupted that it's a threat then the obvious solution is that everybody should stop using it. Seriously, it's not like it's needed and society did just fine without it's existence for millennia.
Do you trust everyone that calls on the phone? (Score:2)
You shouldn't trust everyone that contacts you on any platform, and assuming any platform is a "nice place" is only going to ensure that it isn't for very long as scammers are drawn in like flies to shit.
We all hate them. (Score:1)
Take a look at Youtube comments too for fun (Score:2)
The bitcoin scam in the comments is strong in this one :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
How can I reach Lily Alice, Carolyn Halles, Robin Moore, Rhonda Castillo or whatever the name of this Bitcoin wizard is?
Or should I stick to Max Keiser, predicting bitcoin to be at $200,000 by now one year ago?
I thought LinkIn was for jobs and spam. (Score:2)
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People just see it as social media. They use it for airing their shitty takes on many subjects.
Guess this explains the random connect requests (Score:2)