More than half of businesses in Canada, the UK and US were targeted by at least one scam on LinkedIn this year, new research shows, but a security expert warned that the Middle East could be the next target.
“It is common for threat actors to test and refine their scams with the core native English-speaking countries and history tells us that the Middle East region is often targeted in their next wave of campaigns,” Head of Security Solutions EMEA at Netskope, Rich Davis, told Arabian Business.
“It is likely that the Middle East region will start seeing campaigns targeting local LinkedIn users, now that the threat actors have identified that they work.”
According to research by NordLayer, big companies tend to be the most affected by such scams which are often in the form of connection requests from an unknown person with a suspicious link in the message – the most popular scam that was encountered.
“Like in every social media platform, attackers and scammers seek information and money to ruin reputations,” said NordLayer cybersecurity expert, Carlos Salas, said in a statement last week.
“We know that employees are considered to be the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain, and LinkedIn has millions of professional accounts, making it an even more appealing target for scammers. So no one should let their guard down, no matter how professional a message might look.”
LinkedIn scams target professionals with deceptive tactics
The report also found that 58 percent of medium and 31 percent of small companies in those countries were contacted by a scam or fake account on the platform for professionals.
The most prevalent LinkedIn scam was fake job offers, accounting for 47 percent of them. But companies also faced other forms of malicious activity, including phishing attempts (47 percent), connection requests from unfamiliar people containing suspicious links (41 percent) and fake tech support (38 percent).
“LinkedIn scams abuse trust in both the LinkedIn brand and the brand of companies using the platform with the aim of luring users, usually through fake job adverts,” Davis told Arabian Business.
In a disturbing trend, LinkedIn users have become the latest target of cybercriminals seeking to deploy malware or extract sensitive information through deceptive tactics.
In an effort to distinguish themselves from typical phishing emails, these scammers on LinkedIn employ a more personalised approach, establishing a prolonged and seemingly trustworthy rapport by engaging in regular dialogue with unsuspecting victims, according to Davis.
“People need to be on the lookout for invitations to connect from unknown LinkedIn users, and to be especially careful of anyone sharing files or links, even after ongoing dialogue,” Davis said, but acknowledged that LinkedIn is aware of these scams and has since taken a proactive approach in detecting and removing scam accounts.
“This effort is not 100 percent accurate, so users need to take their own precautions,” he explained.
“On all social platforms, consider who you connect with, look at their existing connections, who you know they are connected with and the length of time on the platform… Always try and validate any requests via different means. For example, look at the organisation’s careers page or call the company directly to validate job offers.”
Commenting on the matter, a LinkedIn spokesperson told Arabian Business in an exclusive statement on Wednesday:
“Scams or fraudulent activity are a clear violation of our policies and we’re always working to stay ahead and keep our members safe. While scammers are continually trying new and more sophisticated tactics, we use technology including artificial intelligence paired with teams of experts to stop fraudulent activity – 95 percent of detected fake accounts and around 99 percent of detected spam and scams are removed by our teams before members ever see it.”
“We’ve also launched a series of new features including an optional advanced safety feature that, when enabled, displays a warning on LinkedIn messages with high-risk content, such as a request to move the conversation away from LinkedIn, as this could be a sign of a scam. We also encourage our members to report anything that might violate our Professional Community Policies so we can investigate. You can learn more about the work we do to keep LinkedIn trusted and professional here.”
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