14 DAY TRIAL // “David sent you an invitation to connect 4 days ago. How would you like to respond? Do you accept or ignore him privately?”
In case you come across a LinkedIn notification that looks something like that, you should know that there’s a chance it’s actually part of a cybercriminal campaign that’s designed to spread some nasty pieces of malware.
The folks from Hoax Slayer have analyzed the fake LinkedIn emails and they have found that the links contained in them don’t point to the social media site, but to a malicious website where they’re presented with a “Please wait.....connecting to server” message.
Moments later, victims are redirected to another domain that’s cleverly set up to serve malware with the aid of the BlackHole exploit kit or other similar crime packs.
Since social network notifications can be easily replicated, the best way to protect yourself against fakes is by making sure that you check the URLs to which the links point before clicking on them.
Also, keep your antivirus permanently updated, along with the operating system and all the other critical components.