Bengaluru woman claims stranger approached her with offer to rent out her LinkedIn account: 'Next wave of scams'

A Bengaluru woman’s viral post revealed a stranger’s offer to rent her LinkedIn account for money.

A Bengaluru-based woman has claimed that she was approached with an unusual offer—to rent out her LinkedIn account in exchange for money. Her post detailing the bizarre experience has since gone viral on internet, sparking concerns over online scams.

A Bengaluru woman shared a viral post about a stranger offering to rent her LinkedIn account in exchange for money.(Representational image/Pixabay)

A 'wild' experience shared on LinkedIn

The marketing professional took to LinkedIn to share her shocking experience, calling it "wild" and questioning whether LinkedIn renting had become a common practice.

"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?" she wrote in her post.

She explained that an individual had reached out to her, offering to "borrow" her LinkedIn profile for a fixed period in exchange for monetary compensation. However, the exact purpose behind this practice remains unclear.

Suspicious offer raises red flags

In her post, she included screenshots of the conversation, with the sender’s name blurred out. When she asked what "renting" meant, the sender replied, "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, "If you are willing to do so, I will pay you $20 per week. However, during this period, you cannot change any security information or basic data."

Furthermore, the individual assured her that her personal contacts would not be disturbed but insisted that her login credentials would be required.

"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 said.

LinkedIn responds

Following the viral post, LinkedIn addressed the issue in 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.