LinkedIn invite weirdness

[Mrs D]

i received an email inviting me to connect on LinkedIn with this guy I used to know. I don’t have a Linkedin account so it’s asking me to set one up.

The weird thing is he doesn’t know my email address so I’m a bit stumped as to how he has managed to send this invite to me.

I did use that email for a Facebook account on which I was once “friends” with him. However that account has long since been deleted.

So the only thing I can think of is that Linkedin asked him if he’d like to invite his Facebook contacts, and somehow that has included deleted accounts. Either that or he somehow managed to get my email himself from my old Facebook account?

Can anyone who uses LinkedIn shed some light on their invite process?

 

[weltweit]

I know that when you join LinkedIn (and frequently after that) LinkedIn asks you to invite people you already know, and specifically it asks permission to import your email list from your email program.

I haven't yet seen it ask for contacts from facebook though.

 

[danny la rouge]

Don't know anything about LinkedIn, but surely the most likely thing is that he does know your email address?

Maybe he learned it from a mutual friend. Maybe from someone sending out a multiple recipient email.

 

[Mrs D]

I suppose he could know my email address, but then I’m pretty sure he would have emailed me by now instead of this LinkedIn shenanaigans

Perhaps he has just invited everyone on some imported list that my email has found it’s way on to, but he doesn’t know that he knows my email, or that he’s actually invited me...

 

[danny la rouge]

It's entirely probable that he doesn't know he's invited you. LinkedIn probably just invites everyone in the address book unless you know how to tell them otherwise.

I've had invites from people who can't possibly know they're inviting me.

 

[Supine]

Yeah, LinkedIn basically uses every email contact - even ones you don't know you have! When you join you can skip the contract list part but they don't make it easy to spot.

The other person probably has no idea so either connect or just ignore.

 

[danny la rouge]

That's the thing about social media: it's not just your own security you need to worry about, but the security of every numpty who might have your details. Even the ones who don't know they do.

 

[butchersapron]

How on earth could this have happened?

 

[Chilli.s]

Surely the events of the last couple of years have shown us that the internet is a huge unregulated data grab to be used for advertising as never seen before.

 

[danny la rouge]

Surely the events of the last couple of years have shown us that the internet is a huge unregulated data grab to be used for advertising as never seen before.

:Sarcasm shock:

 

[Reno]

LinkedIn has in the past sent out hundreds of invites to connect to everybody who as much as was even Cc or Bcc in an email sent or received. That included people I have absolutely had no interest in ever having to speak to again (someone who once got me fired from a job by lying about me, an ex left on bad terms, etc). Really pissed me off and then I deleted my account. Unfortunately now I'm reliant on getting work via LinkedIn and I've got a new account.

 

[Ranu]

 

[Boudicca]

I had my Linkedin account hacked recently and for a while I became a sultry Abdullah Fatima wearing a very fetching pink headscarf. I then invited several hundred middle eastern men, mostly by the name of Omar, to connect with me, and several of them did.

I got it sorted out by Linkedin in the end, but I'd have been pretty pissed off if I was a serious Linkedin user.