A woman from Bengaluru has claimed that she was approached with an unusual and suspicious offer—to rent out her LinkedIn account in exchange for money. Her post detailing the bizarre experience has since gone viral, sparking widespread concern over potential online scams.
The marketing professional named Nikhita Anil took to LinkedIn to share her encounter, calling it "wild" and questioning whether the practice of LinkedIn account renting was becoming common.
"Most of you, all urban working corporate slaves like me, must be living in rented apartments. And some of you lucky ones with generational wealth are probably renting out your apartments. But, have you ever heard of renting out your LinkedIn account?" Anil wrote in her post.
According to her post, an individual reached out to her with a proposal to "borrow" her LinkedIn profile for a fixed period in exchange for monetary compensation. However, the exact purpose of the request remained unclear.
Anil included screenshots of the conversation, with the sender’s name blurred out. When she asked for clarification on what "renting" meant, the sender explained: "My friend's company needs some LinkedIn accounts to expand their market. Would you be willing to rent yours in exchange for some compensation?"
The sender then elaborated on the offer, stating that she would receive $20 per week for renting out her profile. However, during this period, she would not be allowed to change any security settings or personal information.
The most concerning part of the offer was that the individual demanded full access to her LinkedIn login credentials, assuring her that her personal contacts would not be disturbed.
"You need to provide the account and password, and we will log into your account. We will pay a $10 deposit for goodwill that same night. Once rented, you cannot change the password at will. We will update all your personal information, but we won't disturb your existing contacts. You will only need to help lift the restriction if your LinkedIn account gets restricted; other than that, you don't need to do anything," the sender wrote.
Following the viral post, LinkedIn issued a statement to The Indian Express, warning users about the increasing sophistication of online scams.
"As the world’s largest professional networking platform, we use technology and teams of experts to find and remove scams, with 99.7 per cent stopped proactively before a member reports them. We encourage members to report any inappropriate comments or messages on LinkedIn so our team can help protect them," the statement read.
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