LinkedIn Is A Spam Wasteland. Here’s How To Fix The Nightmare

Almost every day, and sometimes several times a day, I receive spam messages through LinkedIn. They come in all shapes and sizes – usually annoying “offers” and “requests” arrive unannounced in my inbox, but there’s also a lot of comment spam on my posts.

It wasn’t always like that, not even six or eight months ago. I used to get legitimate requests for articles, nice letters from PR reps, and the occasional text from a long-lost friend who found me online.

It’s become such a problem lately that I’m wondering if LinkedIn has lost its value and purpose.

If you’re keeping track: I love to hate Twitter but still use it more than other social media platforms. Next is LinkedIn, which offers some wonderful business perks and connection-making features. Somewhere down the line is Facebook, which is pretty handy for groups and staying connected with co-workers (although I don’t post that often). I love Instagram and am slowly but surely starting to warm to TikTok, especially when it comes to watching helpful how-to clips.

I loved chatting and reaching out on LinkedIn because it’s so easy to find business contacts. The essence of this platform that is all about business connections is one where anyone can find and reach out to contacts even if they have to pay extra for it. The best feature (making connections) might be to create a messaging nightmare.

A shift came earlier this year when almost every new message involved a dubious trick. In the last week alone, 20-30 messages were all scams and none were helpful. The links are wrong, the claims are worse. An “expert” claimed he wanted to be a guest on my podcast platform. I don’t have a podcast platform. Many promise an Amazon gift card to give them “feedback,” and some provide links to crypto sites that are actually fake. It doesn’t help that LinkedIn even spams me and tries to get me to sign up for their “Sales Navigator” – whatever that is.

It’s getting to the point where I don’t really check my inbox anymore, and this crack in the foundation could lead to something much worse: I might stop using LinkedIn as much.

When the messaging has become so useless and constantly includes unsolicited messages to the point where they come in daily, it means the social platform is losing some credibility with me. Such messages do not arrive on Facebook or Instagram that often.

I suspect this is all related to LinkedIn’s tracking of scammers and spammers, those who have realized email spamming doesn’t work. LinkedIn literally makes money when people spam me. The messages also stand out on LinkedIn because (as far as I know) there is no real filter. We’ve been conditioned to respond to chat messages on social media platforms, but I’m starting to “condition” myself.

The solution, of course, is for LinkedIn itself to crack down on those annoying messages and stop inciting them so often. They need to radically improve their algorithm instead of providing the tools and paid options that allow scammers to send even more of these fake messages.

I realize that the scams on LinkedIn have to work because they have become much more prevalent. The scammers aren’t the brightest, but they tend to stick to the techniques that produce the best results.

Let’s just hope LinkedIn figures out how to block these messages and clean up their messaging system. It’s only a matter of time before we find greener pastures.