From time to time, I’ll receive a request to connect with someone on LinkedIn who I don’t know. Typically, these people are in the same field as me or have similar interests, and they probably came across my name through a mutual connection or on Twitter. While I’m always happy to meet new people and make connections, I almost always turn down these requests. Some of my colleagues, who have no restrictions on their connections and regularly seek out and accept new ones, occasionally ask me why I’ve adopted this policy. I have nothing against anyone who wants to make connections this way, but I’ve decided it’s not for me for a couple of reasons –

1. Fraud

There have been several instances where a cyberthief will create a new LinkedIn account either to impersonate someone else or to make up a fictitious person. Typically, the thief then uses the reputation and influence associated with this new profile for monetary gain or some other nefarious purpose. LinkedIn’s support site acknowledges this with a page that details how to spot a scammer.

One of the worst cases of LinkedIn fraud I’ve ever read about happened a few years ago (unfortunately, I can’t find the article about it). Someone pretended to be an employee of a particular company, connected with many of its employees by passing themselves off as a recent hire, then contacted the company’s IT department requesting access to various internal systems while referencing their LinkedIn profile as proof that they worked there. They were granted access, and as you can imagine, the story didn’t end well. Obviously, this company’s IT department didn’t have the necessary checks with their HR department in place, but in general, if I know you then I’ll know how to contact you and verify that you’re really behind the account that’s requesting to connect.

2. Recommendations and Endorsements

I really appreciate anyone who recommends or endorses me on LinkedIn. If we’ve worked together, then I consider it a kind gesture that you would publicly recognize what I can do, and I’m happy to do the same for my connections. There are some individuals, however, who try to connect with the purpose of padding their profiles with impressive numbers and praise from people who have no firsthand knowledge of what they’ve done. They may even go as far as asking for recommendations and endorsements, or give them to me in the hopes that I would reciprocate. This is just outright lying, and I won’t be a part of it.

Could this philosophy come back to haunt me someday? Possibly. Anyone who is looking for a new job wants to get the word out to as many people as they can. In a situation like that, however, I would rather take my changes with a smaller group of people that I can count on then a larger group of strangers whose motives are a mystery. As far as making connections with people I don’t know, there are plenty of other social media sites (e.g. Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) where that can happen.

Featured image Unplugged by Foomandoonian is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 and has been modified