LinkedIn: Beware of this scam targeting job seekers

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With more With a billion members, and around 30 million users in France, LinkedIn is an extremely popular professional social network. This large audience logically attracts malicious actors who use the platform to carry out large-scale scams. The cybersecurity company Malwarebytes has just sounded the alarm on this subject.

Some pretty well-crafted scams

Experts warn us in particular about the presence of bots configured to detect #opentowork or the keywords “I was fired” before taking action. It can therefore happen that, a few minutes after this type of publication, a job seeker directly receives links or requests to be added from these fraudulent accounts.

A few minutes after a publication, dozens of accounts start to respond with links or requests to be added as a connection. The idea is always the same: to try to recover their personal data and/or steal their money.

Malwarebytes also reports more subtle scams where the scammer contacts their target via message. They sometimes use premium accounts to impersonate someone in human resources.

In one example, we see a message from someone informing the user about a job opportunity at Amazon Web Services. His name “Kay Poppe” is somewhat suggestive (it’s reminiscent of K-pop), as is his profile picture, which appears to have been generated by AI. His message links to a page that mimics LinkedIn. The idea here is again to retrieve the victim's information.

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Where these scams are pernicious is that they target people who have just lost a job and are therefore very motivated by the idea of ​​relaunching their career. They therefore risk jumping at the first opportunity and getting scammed.

Researchers therefore advise you to treat these requests with suspicion and to take your time before acting. If you’ve fallen for this scam, don’t panic, Malwarebytes suggests:

• Be on the lookout for unusual account changes.
• Proactively perform a full password scan.
• Contact your bank and credit card company.
• Inform your contacts who may receive fraudulent messages from you.

LinkedIn is not sitting idle

As a reminder, LinkedIn is well aware of the scams that are present on its platform. The company recently explained:

Fraudulent activities, including financial scams, are not allowed on LinkedIn. We work every day to keep our members safe, and that includes investing in automated and manual defenses to detect and address fake accounts, false information, and suspected fraud.

She also said she wanted to increase user awareness to better help them understand the risks they face.

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