Watch out! Fake LinkedIn invitations look like the real thing

If you receive a LinkedIn invitation that appears to be genuine, but you don’t recognize the sender — or even if you do — double-check to make sure it’s legitimate before clicking on the link to accept the invitation. One way to test is to position your mouse pointer over one of the links. The pop-up should reveal whether the sender is associated with LinkedIn or not.

I received such a fake invitation a few days ago. At first, I thought it was the real thing because the name of the purported sender was similar to that of an acquaintance. However, I soon realized that something was amiss. A couple of days later, a friend forwarded a link to an article on Office Watch that describes the scam.

Here’s the Office Watch article. Note that there’s nothing in the article that indicates that clicking the link will trigger a virus or other malware, but it’s always best to play it safe in these situations. So if you’re uncertain, avoid clicking any link in the message until you’ve satisfied yourself that the invitation is legit.

If you do receive a fake message, simply delete it.