Before you go rushing off to buy some of that hot new LinkedIn stock from their recent IPO, think twice about who’s joining LinkedIn these days. David (pictured below) can’t even spell his own last name. Why should that scare you?
You should be scared because spammers, sleazeballs and crooks are skyrocking on LinkedIn faster even than the stock. And, unless LinkedIn executives do something about it right away, I’m shorting LNKD.
You see, there really is no David Ccyris. In fact, there isn’t even a David Cyris. He’s a figment of someone’s imagination. As is his company – ADF Consulting, LLC. Don’t believe me? I invite you to do your own Google search, phone home or ask a librarian. My bet is he’ll be harder to find than Anwar al-Awlaki.
Still, David has managed to sucker 31 poor souls to link to him. Oh gosh, I just can’t wait to learn more about his “Bio degradable plates” website. And, wait, look, up in the air, it’s an LLC!! No, it’s a Sole Proprietorship!!
Spending time on LinkedIn and other social networking sites is like having a subscription to the Onion. It’s funnier than Tina Fey’s new book (if only it weren’t so dangerous).
David Ccyris’s LinkedIn profile does link to his Twitter account – @davidccyris. There you’ll find he has no profile and no company link.
David repeat tweets a series of messages on Twitter like, “We Bioworld are one of the leading manufacturers of Areca leaf plate machines.” Uh huh? Click on his links at your own risk.
Still David has snookered 383 dopes into following him, after pestering almost 1,500 people. These 383 folks must have their auto-follow drivers stuck on “Fast Follow Anyone.” Still, does Twitter throw David’s sorry butt out the Twdoor, for clearly and openly violating their spam rules? I’ll let you be the judge.
All of this is why these seedy entrapment cheats are so dangerous. Over the past few days, I’ve had no less than four friends whose computers were infected by social media viruses.
My friends have not been practicing safe friending, safe linking and safe following, as we wrote about recently in “With Friends Like That….” And, even if my friends were practicing safe social, and their friends are not… well, you get the idea.
You have only to do a few news searches for phrases like “facebook spam” and “social media viruses” and you’ll find hundreds of articles warning you about scores of different social media swindles. Here’s just one from Washington Post writer Melissa Bell, “After Big News Stories, Watch Out for Social Media Viruses”:
While most people are aware of e-mail scams, viruses that are spread on social media sites seem to befuddle folks. The success of social media is partly to blame: People trust them as a way to safely pass along links to their friends.
Which is why so many of us fall for false tweets, LinkedIn lures and Facebook come-ons from best friends like Betty:
They say you have to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. These days, though, you’d darn well better know them before you hold them at all.
The safe haven of social media is quickly becoming a crime ridden neighborhood of pimps and pushers. Would you invest your hard earned money in that neck of the woods? Not me. Not until I see LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter rolling up their sleeves and leading a vigorous and consistent clean-up campaign.
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Hi Guys,
Thank you for the great advice. Just today I received a LinkedIn request from a friend that I thought I had already linked to, but to be on the safe side, I LOGGED IN to LinkedIn and checked. We were not already linked but I checked his account and found the email request I received had not come from his true LinkedIn account. This has happened a couple of times from both Facebook and LinkedIn. When I’m in doubt, I log on to my account and look for the request there, and never accept a blind request that comes through my email. It never seems to amaze me that there are bad people everywhere!
Hi John,
It’s becoming almost like those email bank notifications telling you they need your password. The difference is that 90% of the time we don’t have an account for First Fifth Alabama Bank. With these we do have Facebook and LinkedIn accounts and they look identical. One thing I forgot to point out in the post was that this “invitation” didn’t even have the typical, “I’d like to add you to…” Nothing, again because there is no such person. Thanks John, as a former cop, I’m sure you well know “there are bad people everywhere.” The negligence here is on the part of the “leadership” (if there is any real leadership) of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. They don’t seem to care and even seem to encourage the pollution of their own strategies.
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