What is "Linkedin", and is it above board?

[wanderings]

I keep getting emails from them, telling me that someone would like to connect with me.

The names of these people are sometimes those I have emailed but not met, sometimes names I don't know but there is a tenuous connection (similar profession).

I have ignored said emails because as far as I am concerned, they are unsolicited.

Is it a scam? Or is it some Facebook-like company which uses very clever methods (i.e. phishing) of finding people you might just know?

I use it, mainly for keeping in touch with former colleagues that I don't know well enough to have on my FB to be honest, as I'm not jobhunting. I have got back in touch with people I haven't seen for 20 years with it, very much like FB.

It was hacked a year or so back, ever since then I keep getting very spam looking emails to my alternative email address (one that I use for Freecycle and have never used on LinkedIn). I am not sure whether it is to do with the hacking or just people I have emailed on Freecycle sending out these auto requests from their LinkedIn accounts. Either way, if I don't know them professionally I don't click on them.

But I have to say that the tradesman who 'linked me in' shocked me with his racist comments, so I don't go there anymore.

LinkedIn is Facebook for the employed.

my dh has git lots if work off LinkedIn. bloody fantastic.

I don't think they can send you emails if you don't have an account with them, can they? How would they know who you know?!

I always think of linked in as 'facebook for grown ups'

I didn't really see the point of it for ages though, as most of the people I had on there were work colleagues who I see every day, and uni friends who I am still in touch eith - but a few months ago I got headhunted on there and getting an awesome new job which I can't wait to start - so I am now a definite fan of Linked In.

As NatashaBee said, emails purporting to come from Linkedin can be scams and not come from Linkedin at all, just like all the other scam or phishing emails that appear to be from Paypal/HSBC/DHL/Facebook/Natwest etc.

Anyone can send you an email if they know your email address.

I have LinkedIn, you don't. I say to LinkedIn "feel free to look at my emails and invite anyone whose email address I have who doesn't have an account". LinkedIn can then email you because I told them your email address. The same way that if I told my friend Sarah your email address, Sarah could email you.

I was recruited into my current job based on my linkedin profile (after over six years out of the business. It is legitimate.

Good to know that people have received genuine job offers through LI. I maybe had a bad experience on that one occasion. But the agencies do spam an awful lot!

I love the 'People You May Know' bit of LinkedIn. My list is like a who's who of arseholes.

Ah OK Trills I didn't know it worked like that - thanks for explaining! I had just assumed that people who didn't have an account wouldn't get emailed by them.

I have noticed that some of the emails purportedly sent by them are a bit fishy - I get invitations to connect with some random, and then when I go onto LI to see who that person is, there isn't an invitation in my LI inbox

I'm getting a bit tired of this thing it does now of inviting you to endorse all your contacts for their specific skills, I keep getting email saying I've been endorsed, which seems flattering but in reality anyone could be clicking on anything, I've been "endorsed" for things I've never done.

I use it to see who I used to work with and where they're stealing for a living now. I am a bad person.

I've had a couple of requests through my work email, which is very interesting as my LinkedIn account is registered to my personal email. Time to do a bit of noseying around I think

There are other professions beyond doctor, teacher and lawyer! Ever heard of engineering??? (and many more of course)

Yes it's a legitimate site, but if you are not a member beware of "invitations" because not all of them are genuine.
I'm a member but I regularly get invitations that are fishing for personal data.

If it is bad for stalking exes, please tell me that if I have not registered with them, but have googled the ex and found a basic profile on linkedin the ex is not sent information that I looked at it ....

oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/professional

Or oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/professional

No newname you are safe. Google will know you searched, , but he won't.

Thanks and Phew!!!!

WhoKnows: "I'm getting a bit tired of this thing it does now of inviting you to endorse all your contacts for their specific skills, I keep getting email saying I've been endorsed, which seems flattering but in reality anyone could be clicking on anything, I've been "endorsed" for things I've never done."

Me too. I have grown to hate LinkedIn - constant requests to connect from people I've never met, plus endorsements from people who I've never worked for or with. I can only assume they do it because they want to be endorsed back, which I'm not prepared to do. But that puts me in the awkward position of looking like a miserable, unhelpful sod - I prefer it (slightly) to doing something I regard as unethical, but only slightly.

Having just looked at Linkedin, you can choose what info is shown to whoever when you've looked at their profile.

You can choose that the person you've viewed can see:

1. Exactly who has been looking

2. A halfway option showing them that someone in a particular industry/location has been looking at their profile

3. You can be totally anonymous to the person, although I am not sure if they get to know that they have been viewed. They certainly won't get to see any of your details with this option.

Totally above board and very useful in certain fields for making business contacts. DP gets loads of work opportunities through it as all the HR and recruiting staff in his field use it.