I have been lucky to receive no unwanted “invites”. Creepy! LinkedIn is a great resource for professionals to connect with others in their field. It will be a sad day when it completely succumbs to spam, dating inquiries, smut, and other such garbage. Oh, and the endorsements? What a crock. NMR structure elucidation expert? More like a routine user, LOL. I set my security to the level that only connections can see my full profile and I can only get invites from people who are somewhat connected. I need to go back and check if everything is still as I set it, because LinkedIn changes its rules.
As I understand, there is a pay version that allows you to send inmails and requests to people with whom you have no common connections. Recruiters use it, and I assume so can do spammers.
I use FB, Instagram, Snap Chat, Twitter and google+. Each has a use. But I hate LinkedIn. The endorsements remind me of a popularity contest. Utterly useless. I have been endorsed for things I didn’t even know I did by people who are obviously looking to have me reciprocate to make them look qualified. I’ve tried shutting down the whole thing and it won’t let me. I manage to stay in touch with people I want to in more personal ways. Don’t need to link to people who just want to sell me stuff.
There are fake LinkedIn requests that come into your email addresses. Looks just like a genuine LinkedIn request, but actually takes you to a malicious site. I always go to my LinkedIn account to see what invites I have and accept or deny them from there. Never click on an email invite.
Actually, the one useful thing I’ve used Linked In for is to look up where someone has worked before and gone to school. Sometimes that’s interesting. It’s a bit stalking-like, but interesting nonetheless.
Just get over the endorsements already! No one pays attention to them. The endorse button is in an awkward position so many people click it by accident.
But i do think it’s important to have a LinkedIn page. It’s a professional Who’s Who. Helpful to read people’s career summaries.