A Bengaluru woman’s account of being asked to rent out her LinkedIn profile for payment has gone viral, raising concerns about potential online scams. Her post detailing this strange proposition has sparked widespread discussion.
Marketing professional Nikhita Anil described her recent experience as “wild” in a LinkedIn post, where she recounted being asked to rent her account and questioned whether this practice is becoming widespread.
“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?” Ms Anil wrote in her post.
According to her post, someone approached her with an offer to “borrow” her LinkedIn profile for a set period in exchange for monetary compensation. However, the exact purpose of the request remained unclear.
Ms Anil shared screenshots of the conversation, with the sender’s name blurred. When she asked for clarification on what “renting” entailed, the sender explained: “My friend’s company needs some LinkedIn accounts to expand their market. Would you be willing to rent yours in exchange for compensation?”
The sender then outlined the offer, stating she would receive $20 per week for allowing access to her profile. However, she would not be permitted to change any security settings or personal information during this period.
The most alarming part of the proposal was the request for full access to her LinkedIn login credentials. The sender assured her that her contacts would not be affected.
“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 wrote.
