We all get them. Those connection requests from LinkedIn (especially after you have polished your LinkedIn profile. But what do you do with the requests? Should you automatically connect?

Hold your horses! We need to have a chat about stranger danger.

You know those lectures you give your kids about chatting to strangers on the net? You need to sit yourself down and have a serious talk with yourself about chatting to strangers.

Now, this may surprise you, but not everything and everyone you see on the internet is true.

LinkedIn has an increasing problem with fake profiles created by hackers, spammers, spies and trolls, and unfortunately, most small business owners are too trusting when it comes to LinkedIn.

The head of MI5 in the UK, Ken McCallum, said that malicious profiles linked to hostile states are being created on “an industrial scale.”

People can easily set up a fake profile with just a few clicks – and the good-looking twenty-something female web designer you thought you were connecting with in the UK suddenly turns out to be a middle-aged hacker in India.

While LinkedIn is active in removing fake accounts, when there are 645 million members, all governed by a pinkie promise system to tell the truth, abuses will happen.

There are no checks and balances. LinkedIn works on an honour system so people can make up any details they like (including companies they have worked with), and there are no notifications or checks done as to whether the information is true or false. 

Why Hackers Want to Connect

Before we explore how to spot the baddies, let’s start with why they do it in the first place.