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LinkedIn Invites Gone Wild: How To Keep Close With Exes and Strangers

Posted by timothy on from the say-what-you-will-about-facebook-at-least-it's-an-ethos dept.

sholto writes "An aggressive expansion strategy by LinkedIn has backfired spectacularly amid accusations of identity fraud. Users complained the social network sent unrequested invites from their accounts to contacts and complete strangers, often with embarrassing results. One man claimed LinkedIn sent an invite from his account to an ex-girlfriend he broke up with 12 years ago who had moved state, changed her surname and her email address. ... 'This ex-girlfriend's Linked in profile has exactly ONE contact, ME. My wife keeps getting messages asking 'would you like to link to (her)? You have 1 contact in common!,' wrote Michael Caputo, a literary agent from Massachussetts."

2 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. People are using the address book feature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    From what I can gather, people are using the "upload your contact list" / "connect to your email account" feature, without realizing that it automatically sends out invites to your contacts. I'm pretty sure it spells that out quite plainly, though; at least I vaguely recall that it did last time I decided not to use the feature.

  2. How it works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I guess most people aren't aware of how this actually works. Notice that if you visit LinkedIn on a computer that you normally use, it already knows who you are without having to sign in. So when you think you are casually using LinkedIn to look up an old girlfriend or co-worker that you detest, it logs that activity. Then it WAITS A FEW DAYS AND THEN ASKS THAT PERSON IF THEY KNOW YOU. Yes, it is that creepy.