So when you’re in the process of looking for employment opportunities, you tend to pay a bit more attention to emails and your LinkedIn profile.
On Feb. 11, I received an odd email from one of my LinkedIn contacts about what sounded like a lead to possible work. Since it was from someone I knew on LinkedIn, I trusted the link and opened it.
Note: I removed the sender’s name and business.
To read the entire message, you need to join the site, Referral Key, which as we all know only takes a few seconds to do. The message itself included this YouTube video, which instructs the user on how to export their LinkedIn contacts to their profile.
However, the video does not inform you that completing the process will email ALL OF YOUR LINKEDIN CONTACTS.
For someone who has 730+ LinkedIn contacts, that created quite the mess. I’ve already had to email countless friends and colleagues who messaged me to see if I had been hacked. (Apologies if you were one of them…)
Mashable endorsement?
So was I hacked? Technically, no. Apparently this site is real. I’m still having difficulty figuring out what its exact uses are, though. All I know, is that a few clicks can easily damage your reputation, so I advise you NOT to join this site.
The same exact thing happened to poor Cathy Miller…”How Referral Key’s Spammy Practice Embarrassed Pollyanna.” AND this article is another one I wish I would’ve read before this happened – it would have saved me a ton of grief.
Needless to say, I have already emailed the site and deleted my account. I also messaged the contact who initially invited me to the site.
Have you heard of this website? Has the same thing happened to you? I’d love to hear about it. Definitely NOT how I intended to spend my Wednesday afternoon…
*Update (2/13/14)*
It appears the site has removed the “Contact Page,” which is where I sent my complaint. Instead, they now have a “Support” page, which gives a quasi-FAQ. It conveniently has buried the fine print that the user is “100% responsible” for how they use the site. However, none of this verbiage was even on the site before. And, not surprisingly, I haven’t heard anything back from them.
Rebecca J. Forman 
Hi Rebecca: Thanks for the shout-out. I cannot believe ReferralKey is still using those same spammy (IMHO) tactics. We work hard on developing our business relationships and this could kill one in the beginning stage when the person doesn’t know you well enough to know that’s now how you operate.
Thanks for sharing the message. Hopefully, it will help others from getting the nasty surprise you & I did.
You bet! The worst part about it? I know better! I still can’t believe I fell for it – but because it comes from people you’re connected with (on LinkedIn of all platforms), you think it’s legitimate. I, too, hope this will prevent it from happening to others!
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