Apparently, cybercriminals would be taking advantage of the perception that people have of LinkedIn compared to other social networks, of being a safe and professional site to share information and search for attractive job offers.
Although the scams and frauds through this network attend to recent cases, Since previous years, there have been cases of identity theft, also known as phishing, through job search platforms.
Normally, this type of cybercrime is focused, that is, it does not arrive with a standard message, but rather the body and the subject tend to be attractive to the user.
In 2018, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) released a report revealing that Job scams are the third most common form of fraud.
ESET, a cybersecurity company, prepared a report on theThe main forms of scam in this social network:
1.E-mails with Fake Notifications: qWho are dedicated to scamming online, send apparent emails with notifications from the platform, inviting the recipient to open the email, click on the attached link and enter personal information.
2. Highly paid job offers: false job offers are published with salaries well above average where part of the application process is the payment of amounts of money for training or medical examinations.
For this type of offers that could be very tempting due to salary and working conditions, ESET recommends doing a Google search to verify that the offering company does indeed exist and is legal.It should be clarified that under no circumstances will a company request money in the selection process.
3.Pyramid scams: ESET also reveals that it has become very common to receive messages on Linkedin from people who appear to be very neat and professional inviting to make part of investments in cryptocurrencies, the stock market or other types of assets. The goal is to convince the user to make a payment of money and then disappear profile.
Recommendations to avoid falling into these traps
-Review the emails from which the notifications arrive and if there is suspicion, do not open any attached document or link. In any case, it is recommended to access the notifications of the social network from the application or website itself.
-Avoid opening links that are sent in private messages inviting you to register your resume and/or apply for a position.
-Verify and update the privacy settings so that users who are not part of the contacts do not access sensitive information such as emails or phone numbers.
-Activate two-step verification or double authentication factor since in this way it will be difficult for the cybercriminal to access the user’s information, if necessary.
-When a message or an offer is suspected, make a formal complaint to linkedIn to prevent other people from falling for the scam.
-If something is too good to be true, it is most likely a scam.
Common Characteristics of Fake LinkedIn Profiles
1.Previously, they used photos of women taken from image banks or stolen from profiles true. Currently, they also use photos of very attractive men with the same dubious origin.
2.In the description of the profile texts are read that are also copied from accounts of real people. In this case, it is advisable to paste this description in the Google search engine to identify if it appears in other profiles.
3.According to Symantec, another cybersecurity company, the most common words in fake jobs and profiles on LinkedIn and other job search platforms are Manager, Engineer, and Training.
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