Someone random suspiciously contacted me over my fake LinkedIn account out of the blue

stopcensoringpizzaga | 1 points | Nov 12 2016 20:53:02

Someone random suspiciously contacted me over my fake LinkedIn account out of the blue

I have been using LinkedIn to investigate many persons of interest - I just search their name on Google to find it (using a browser that I'm not logged in to any LinkedIn accounts).

For a while I've been able to view accounts without being logged in, but suddenly I started getting redirected to a login page in order to view profiles, so I signed in with one of my throwaway accounts and saw that I have a message (I've NEVER received a message from anyone on this account and I hardly ever even use the account)... the account is a complete fake and is completely empty.

Here is the message:

Big Data for Telcom Webinar

Hi,

Sorry to message you out of the blue like this, but I think you’ll be interested in joining our upcoming webinar, “Big Data to Transform Service and Customer Experience” featuring British Telecom and Cloudera on November 30th.

During our one-hour session on November 30, you will hear the story of BT’s big data journey and learn:

British Telecom’s big data vision and the impact on their organization The role of big data analytics in BT’s strategy to democratize data How BT has undertaken their big data journey without needing specialized skills Looking forward to “seeing” you there.

Best regards,

Christie Andersen Senior Marketing Manager - Datameer

I clicked on the link she provided in the email and it took me to a page that said the "event" was postponed until 2017. She literally just sent me this message within the last 24 hours. No way that she sent these out and then they suddenly postponed the event.

Who the fuck is this person? Did anyone else receive any messages like this over LinkedIn? It is very strange as yesterday I was posting a LOT of evidence regarding pizzagate. It may be completely coincidental, but it is very weird that I've never been messaged by anyone the entire time I've had that account, and that I have absolutely no relation to the activities this person is inviting me to join.

pizzathrowaway777 | 3 points | Nov 12 2016 20:55:42

I am pretty sure it is just a coincidence I get messaged by random people on Linkedin all the time.

stopcensoringpizzaga | 2 points | Nov 12 2016 21:01:11

Okay you guys, but I clicked on the link she provided in the message and it took me to a page that said the "event" was postponed until 2017. Worst case scenario it could have been clickbait to get my IP/data in their site analytics. She literally just sent me this message within the last 24 hours. No way that she sent these out and then they suddenly postponed the event. It's very weird.. everyone be careful if you start receiving strange contact from people you don't know, just in case.

alfy26 | 2 points | Nov 12 2016 23:22:22

Note that by clicking on the link you gave away your IP (if you're not using a VPN/proxy/tor while doing LinkedIn). Also, regardless of what you're connecting through, if the recipient page had an exploit kit and successfully exploited at least 1 flaw in your browser (and a huge market exists for 0-day flaws), your computer got hacked (and if you're using a laptop, the hacker is currently looking at you through the webcam :) ).

General rule: you should not trust links/attachments that were sent specifically to "you" (your account) if you're trying to hide your identity - i.e. i'm not talking about a link on reddit (although all redditers in a certain thread may be targeted), but something specifically sent to an account you are trying to hide your identity behind.

Leaving this idea here: if you want to quickly check a webpage without giving away your IP use Google translate (from English to English or whatever). Pretty much the same as using something like https://hide.me/en/proxy. Better, use tor browser.

Another idea: in this pizzagate investigation, if you want to legally further identify someone behind a social media account (i.e. get their IP), all you need to do is get them to click on a harmless link hosted on a server where you can check the http logs. EDIT: if you can get them to reply to you by email their IP is also in the email header.