Linked In Romance Scammers

It does seem a bit odd, but it seems that romance scams are alive and well on Linked In. 

So you get a connection request from a somewhat random person.  It could just be a person that saw something you posted and said "Hey, I like what they said" and connect... OR it could be a new person just trying to build some kind of connections.. OR it could be a romance scammer.  What can you do?

#1 - Right off the bat, right-click their profile picture, grab the image link,  and do a Google image search.

Now select Find Image Source

Right off the bat, you see the profile picture belongs to a Twitter account.  Not conclusive, but certainly not a match for name of the person messaging you.  Something odd as well, while she's clearly Asian, her Linked In says she's in Spain (seem to see a lot of those).  

Looking through @Lininna6 (Rina)'s Twitter feed, there are enough pictures of her in enough places and in believable contexts to accept Rina is probably real.   She hasn't been active for a year, so either she fell off the planet or decided Twitter is an utter cesspool and went to Insta.  

So this picture was taken from her profile.  Personally, if I were going to steal a photo for a Linked In profile, this one is far more realistic.  But "Amy Nelson", self-employed Real Estate Agent from Valencia, Spain is looking doubtful.

Interesting thing.. I got a connection request from "Wendy Patterson" (also new account) and if you look closedly, this is ALSO Rina.  Same exact phone and phone grip, and same ring on her finger.  These stolen Rina pictures are getting quite the workout.

So I let the chat proceed and she sends me a new pic and wants to go to WhatsApp... that's where the romance scam part takes place.  No matter what platform you are on, an attempt to move you somewhere else is the hallmark of a scam.   The originating platform probably has some detectors for scams, so they want to move you to a place that doesn't.

I've only let it go this far for this article, but lets look at the pic she sent before we finish.

Looks like it could be Rina, not part of her Twitter cache, but apparently very popular as a profile picture on Linked In. 

SMH

And soon as I put this one in the rear view mirror.. another.   I think I'll just create a running catalog.

These scammers don't even try.. it looks like Alyson Rene Gilliam is the real profile, but her profile picture is very popular with the scammers,  Here's the message, they didn't even bother to update the template:

Hello, I noticed you work for [company] and I am interested in learning more about your experience there. Let's connect and chat!

Typical lead in: "I'm expanding my connections on LinkedIn, and I hope I'm not intruding on you, and I hope to become friends with you! "