I've been recently asking people with minimal LinkedIn or Lions Lair info on their profile to verify that they are actually who they are, not who they say they are...

There was a hacker conference a month or so ago that explicitly mentioned LinkedIn, facebook, and My Space as targets (not in that order).

In verifying these requests to connect, I've found that many never reply, but some go way above and beyond the call of a$$hole...

I'd like to know if we can put a list of banned buttheads together so nobody else has to get spammed by some joker with too much time on their hands, after a refusal to be linked. It's not good enough to say "I don't know xxxxx" to LinkedIn, because after you've asked for a verification, they have your e-mail address to abuse until you can get them kicked off their account or fired...

(below is my usual reply to invitations that have less than 2 jobs or college or recommendations on their profile)

--Begin reply--
How can anyone tell from your profile that you're not a troll or a hacker looking to exploit networks?

I'd be glad to link with you if you can satisfactorily answer the preceeding question.

-Robert

--End of reply--

I don't think that's too bad is it?

Comments?

Post edited by: rspaldi, at: 2007/11/25 04:46

I've just jumped back into the lair for this very reason. 50% of invitations received over the last week are empty profiles at free main domains.

I'm thinking of IDKing all future empty profiles. But that may be harsh as I am a libertine.

My email address is public anyway, they don't need to link to me to get it. I think there is a further reason.

Anybody got any ideas?

Regards

Paul

Mr Dallas Blue, Marc Freedman, has started this group to allow people to comment on profiles: http://groups.diigo.com/groups/linkedin

I guess this would include trolls.

I came across a profile the other day which was simply an attempt to bomb, with the same phrase etc repeated time and time again. very disappointing.

I'm not sure there are any concrete answers. Strikes me that a good rule of thumb is that the more open something is the more susceptible to abuse it is, by its very nature. That includes open networking, by default. As part of something open you need to add the regulation *yourself*, either by checking through emails, checking membership of the Lair/Google Groups etc etc. But if that regulation is included as part of the package, then the openess diminishes.

Long thought short: there is and will be abuse. its up to LIONs to put the regulation they feel the most appropriate/comfortable with in themselves. that way the network will remain as open as possible. self-regulation, that's the buzzterm.

Chris


http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismilton

Thanks for the reply Chris

I've joined that diigo group and have tagged 16 apparently fake ID's hopefully others will also do the same.

Now that I've done that, I'm thinking that I probably should have used the public urls for them instead of the http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key= suggestion from Marc. Oh well.

Regards

Paul

Well that process didn't seem to help much, but I've moved on. Here is my first attempt at naming and shaming trolls. These linkedin accounts have empty profiles and in almost every case emails to the addresses bounce. Yet they have 500+ connections.

I've marked the reason for the suspicious status for each. I generally disconnect if they have 2 out of 3 bad marks.

I think LIONs should treat them as a blacklist and
1) remove the blacklist email addresses from any invitation list
2) disconnect from these trolls if you happened to accept an invitation.

If you want to add anyone to the list I'm happy to maintain it.

The reason for the edit is to upload the file as .txt The board doesn't like .csv

Post edited by: paulzag, at: 2008/07/20 19:20

Just curious... what are these trolls doing once they're connected to us? Other than adding no value networking-wise (not passing along introduction requests, etc.), are they openly spamming us or exposing us to some sort of malicious content or attempting identity theft or something? Just curious what folks have experienced... I'd like to weigh the time and effort involved in going into my contact list to remove these trolls.

Thanks!
Stacy Zapar - 10,000+

Post edited by: szapar, at: 2008/07/21 14:47