I have been a member of LinkedIn for many years and I am a great supporter of the site for professionals. I have used LinkedIn in the past to keep in contact with ex-colleagues, to make new contacts and more recently I have begun lecturing on how to use it to promote  businesses.

Earlier this month however I received my first phishing attempt via the site.

I am a member of the BNI International Group and through this group I apparently received a Season’s greeting from “Ashley Davis”. “Ashley’s” is also connected to someone I know in the Thames Valley who I have known for over 10 years. Interestingly enough when we double checked there is no link to “Ashley” from his account.

Here’s the message I received via LinkedIn:
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LinkedIn

Ashely Davis has sent you a message.

Date: 1/03/2012

Subject: Compliment of the session

Compliment of the session,

I am contacting you to know your Interest in Establishing and partnering with my client, who seeks for profitable business venture, kindly contact me through my direct mailing address, for more details regarding the establishment of the investment. I will wait to receive your response, below is my direct email contact for more details.

Email: [redacted]

Best Regards
Ashely Davis
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When I had noticed the message on LinkedIn I sent a non-committal response. I was already suspicious at the use of “session” rather than “Season”.

Here’s the email I received from “Ashley” :
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Hello

Thank you for your response towards my email to you on linked in. I am a private consultant for very eminent personnel in the Asian and Middle East region.Presently I have a client from Malaysia who has appointed me to source on his behalf a credible person with whom he can jointly entrust a reasonable amount of money, which will be channeled into a highly lucrative business venture.

Your role will be to manage the investments and make regular reports to show progress.

You shall discuss the sector which you can make investment with my client so as to give him a clue on how you shall invest and which area you can invest in.
The following sectors are area in which my client is looking for an investment

Real estate
Banking
Construction
Oil and Gas
Stock
Energy

But in case you have any other sector that you specialized  in and can carry out investment with great ROI, which can also be discussed. The Investment funds have been set on £89.5M (Eighty Nine Million Five Hundred Thousand British Pounds Sterling Only) If you think you can handle this amount and invest in a profitable project then you get back to me so that we can discuss more in regards to this.

Regards
Ashely Davis
Mobile: +[redacted]
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Definitely my first phishing attempt via LinkedIn.

The profile is here:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=145823486&authType=name&authToken=URv_&invAcpt=&goback=%2Emid_I268720391*49

And has been reported to LinkedIn.