5 Ways To Stay Safe On LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a popular platform professionals use to connect with past and current colleagues, network within their industry, improve business connections, and look for new opportunities. However, like any form of social media, it can be a challenge to stay safe on LinkedIn.

If you don’t know how to use LinkedIn safely, you could fall victim to phishing scams, cyberattacks, data breaches, and more. Therefore, understanding how to use this business and employment-focused platform safely is critical to your success and overall online safety. With that in mind, we’ve outlined five ways to stay safe on LinkedIn.

5 Ways To Stafe On LinkedIn

1. Don’t Fall For Fake Job Advertisements

According to a LinkedIn report, there are more than 830 million users on LinkedIn and more than 14 million job listings at any given time. Therefore, when using the platform to look for a job, you must avoid any fake advertisements.
Unfortunately, not every job listing you come across on LinkedIn is legitimate. In fact, hundreds of thousands of job listings on LinkedIn are fake.

With threat actors using more sophisticated technologies and artificial intelligence to target professionals and companies with more realistic job postings, now, more than ever, is the time to learn how to spot a fake ad. Luckily, there are a few tell-tale signs to look out for.
First, if a job listing sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Other common signs that a job listing on LinkedIn isn’t real include:

• Grammatical errors and misspellings
• Lack of information about the company or recruiter
• Communicating only via chat
• Money is involved immediately

2. Don’t Click On Suspicious Links

This next piece of safety advice applies to any online platform, not just LinkedIn. When using an online platform, you must avoid clicking on any links unless you’re 100% certain you know they’re legitimate.

This is particularly important when using a platform like LinkedIn because cyber criminals can quickly contact you via the messenger. If you receive a message containing a suspicious link, you should immediately delete the message and block the user.

Under no circumstances should you open the link unless you’ve received clarification that the link is legitimate. One way you can check the legitimacy of a link is by using Google’s Transparency Report URL checker.

This tool will tell you if the link you’ve received contains any unsafe or malicious content. You can also identify a malicious link by reading the message you received. Messages containing a link sent by threat actors often contain spelling mistakes and inaccuracies.

3. Be Mindful Of What You Share

Social media platforms like LinkedIn encourage users to share details about their lives. On LinkedIn, users are encouraged to share content that aids career development, helps find clients, and builds business relationships.

Some examples of what you might share on LinkedIn include your career history, skillset, current employment, and hobbies and interests. However, you must exercise caution when posting any personal information.

Never publicly share sensitive information about your finances, phone number, address, and family. If you do, cybercriminals could use the information to target you with scams, set up an account that impersonates you, and use your sensitive information to conduct identity theft and other fraudulent schemes.

Additionally, you should be mindful of the content you share because it can impact your personal and professional life in the long term. For example, you should never share inappropriate comments or negative things about your former employer because it can negatively impact your personal brand and future job prospects.

4. Know How To Spot Phishing Emails

One of the biggest threats to your safety on LinkedIn actually comes away from the platform and takes place in your email inbox instead. That cyber threat is phishing emails. Phishing emails are a type of online scam cyber threat actors use to obtain your sensitive information, including passwords and credit card information.

Cybercriminals target their victims by sending emails that appear to be from a well-known company. These emails encourage consumers to provide personal information, click a link, or open an attachment. These attachments are often filled with viruses and malware.

In 2023, LinkedIn published a post warning users about the potential dangers of phishing emails appearing to be from the platform. It detailed the key ways users can spot a LinkedIn-style phishing email.

Here are some of the takeaway points:

• LinkedIn will never ask for sensitive personal information over email.
• All valid LinkedIn emails will contain a security footer.
• LinkedIn will never tell you to open an attachment or install software updates.
• Phishing emails contain errors and misspellings.

5. Make Sure You Know Who You’re Connecting With

Finally, one of the easiest ways to keep yourself safe on LinkedIn is to be aware of who you connect with. Unfortunately, not everyone on social media is who they claim to be. In 2022 alone, LinkedIn removed over 32 million fake profiles.

While not all these fake profiles were set up to scam other users, the majority had ulterior motives. In fact, LinkedIn had to remove almost 12 million profiles before they were launched because they were deemed fraudulent during registration.

With this in mind, you need to make sure you know exactly who you’re connecting with. The most obvious thing you can do is connect with the people you know. However, that will restrict your ability to build a network.

Therefore, you need to do a few things. Firstly, trust your instincts. If someone’s profile doesn’t look legitimate, it probably isn’t. You should also do your research. A quick Google or reverse image search will help you determine if the person you connect with is genuine.

Make Sure You Stay Safe On Linkedin

That was our list of five ways to stay safe on LinkedIn. Like most social media platforms, LinkedIn can be dangerous if you don’t know how to use it safely.

However, as you can see from the information we’ve covered, you can do many simple things to ensure you stay safe when using the platform.

If you follow our advice, you can make connections, interact with other users, and grow your professional network safely on LinkedIn.