I would be leery. There are just too many scammers out there. Why take a chance?
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My DH did 2 separate surveys he got via linked in. They people are in Canada and swelled legit. The want to pay him via PayPal. They want us to invoice them. Seemed legit. Will handle it when he gets home. He has done interviews. No request for personal info.
My wife has done a couple of these in the past and received payment via PayPal. But they hadn’t asked for her DOB or SSN. That’s what triggered an alarm.
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She should ask them to,pay via PayPal. Seems to me if they won’t pay without personal info, thats a NO
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In my firm we do ask new vendors for a W9 (has a social or tax ID number) to send a 1099 at the end of the year but in 9 years we’ve never asked for a DOB. We have also never(!) reached out blindly through ANY social media platform (which LinkedIn is) - I say pass and immediately (if not already) lock all credit reporting companies. Change passwords too. After all that I’d deep dive into the person who contacted, and maybe (maybe) call their firm and see if indeed they were contacting.
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Yes, the reaching out blindly bothers me. I get all sorts of solicitations, some through LinkedIn, in my business email. If I ignore them, they contact me repeatedly. It’s very annoying.
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Yes, SSN is required to issue a 1099, but this wasn’t a W9 - it was a form on their website 
And yes, no one asks for DOB.
They did offer PayPal as an option, but insisted they needed all the other info so they could issue a 1099.
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They do not need to send a 1099 if the amount is under $600
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This was definitely under that.
Sounds like we were right to be suspicious.
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More scams:
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Right, kids need to change the setting to private! Venmo uses your contacts list and automatically shows anyone else who uses Venmo if their settings aren’t private.
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I like the official scales of justice in the top left corner. Surely the letter is legit!
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I don’t understand why Venmo would even have such a feature (letting others see your transactions). Why would anyone want that?
If it’s for parents to monitor minors, they do have Venmo Teen accounts.
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There’s a scam that apparently made the rounds of Fb a few years ago and has just shown up on multiple neighborhood groups in our area. Someone claims to be offering to arrange for lawn care with a discount from the yard service if a certain number of neighbors sign up for it. If you want to join the group to get that discount, you have to pay in advance to the coordinator via Venmo or a similar payment system.
Our former neighborhood group required new members to be referred by a current resident, or their real estate agent, and their name and address was then verified. One group nearby has just started vetting new members after some folks were ripped off by this scam. I think I’m pretty savvy, but can imagine being caught by this scam. I’ve spent hours trying to find a new yard service and would jump on one that serves multiple homes in our neighborhood.
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Sounds risky to me.
I found our current lawn service by noticing what trucks were in the neighborhood and calling those businesses.
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I had a FB friend message me with some “news” about her life and then segue into trying to get me to sign up for free money.
Not her account, not her, not her news. I was suspicious because she never contacts me on FB. The “news” did not sound like her. I asked her about something obscure she might be really doing this weekend, and “she” was clueless.
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I thought someone had duplicated my car’s license plate. I got sent fast track tickets from another state. Then after calling the other state- they thought our state duplicated my license plate.
But, after going to our local DMV- the problem was that the O (letter) was interpreted as a 0 (number) on fast track in the other state. The other state dismissed the charges because it was the wrong car but they never noticed the O/0 difference. I am awaiting any other fast track charges forthcoming. I changed my plates for $11. 
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Wow. Our front license plate was stolen recently when we parked at a shopping mall. I replaced the plates as fast as we could… same reason: tolls. Or to commit crimes in a car that was stolen. Check your front plates often to see if they are there!
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Glad our state doesn’t require front plates. But my SIL bought my s’s car for moocher BIL and she paid to have the car shipped across country. S neglected to take the plates off but had the tags cancelled and sent the title to Moocher BIL. But idiot BIL drove around for quite a while with the cancelled tags on it because he was too cheap or lazy or both to change them. My DH happened to be up there and discovered it and got his {&@^ bro to change the tags
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