We live in a world dominated by social media, where the concept of privacy seems to have become little more than a word. With the immense influence of social media, people are sharing their personal details easily on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and more.
Among all the social networks,
LinkedIn is often seen as a professional platform, and indeed, it serves as one
of the best spaces to build a professional network. However, scammers are now
exploiting this platform to collect personal information and misuse it for
their own gain. Unfortunately, many of us are careless when responding to
posts.
Scammers often create enticing
job postings—both local and international—that
promise a handsome salary with minimal experience required, sometimes offering
30,000 to 60,000 a month for just 5 days of work. Driven by necessity or greed,
many fall for these traps and share their mobile numbers and email
addresses with the scammers. These scammers then sell
this personal information to others who are involved in financial fraud.
It’s important to understand that
your mobile number and email address are crucial pieces of information, often
linked to your bank accounts and various other apps on your devices.
You might think you’re aware of
these risks,
but I felt compelled to write about this after scrolling through my LinkedIn
feed and seeing how common these posts have become. In fact, it seems like
every fifth post on LinkedIn is a job offer that promises a high salary with
minimal work. Given that LinkedIn users are typically educated and sensible,
it’s concerning to see people casually sharing their personal details in
response to such posts.
So, why do we fall for these
scams? The answer is simple: scammers create a sense of trust through their
posts by sharing a mobile number and asking you to call or wait for a response.
I dare ask: how many of you have actually received a call back from such posts?
Here are some tips on how to
protect yourself from these scammers:
- Check the account that is posting the job offer.
- Verify the authenticity of the person asking for
your credentials.
- In most cases, these accounts are fake.
- Visit their profile to review their job history.
- Many of these scammers claim to be digital
marketing influencers, freelancers, self-employed or entrepreneurs.
- Be aware that many immigration consultants engage
in similar tactics, collecting personal information for fraudulent
purposes.
- Ask for details about the company behind the post,
such as their website, social media presence, office address, etc.
- Determine whether the account belongs to a real
person or is AI-driven. You can usually tell by reading their profile in
detail.
- Never call the phone number provided in such posts,
as they will try to convince you to fall into their trap.
- Ask detailed questions about the job profile to
gauge its legitimacy.
- If you have connected with such accounts, remove
them immediately.
These are just a few points to
consider before sharing any personal information on fake job postings—not only
on LinkedIn but across all social platforms.
It’s also the responsibility of
LinkedIn to protect its users from scammers by introducing more security
features during profile creation. They could use AI to verify account
authenticity and take other measures to safeguard their users. However, until that
happens, we, as social media users, must stay vigilant and keep our wits about
us when encountering such posts.
As many successful people have
said, "There are no shortcuts to success." It’s up to us to learn new
skills, explore traditional approaches, and avoid falling for scams that ask us
to share our personal information.
I hope this helps you become more
aware of the risks we face in our daily lives, risks that we often ignore. From now on, let’s be more cautious and protect not
only ourselves but also those around us.