LinkedIn Spam Calls

[andyb28]

I am getting a constant stream of calls directly to my mobile, since advertising a job on Linkedin. Sadly, not from potential new employees but from 100's of Recruitment Agencies.

I just snapped at the latest one and pushed him to see how they got my mobile number. He said it's on LinkedIn.

I do not have 2fa setup and there are no phone numbers listed on my profile.
However, when I got one of my colleagues to look me up, there is an additional section for "Phones".

In it are all my numbers, part of the number is X'd out and it says, "Subscribe to one of our Phone Plans to access them!".

I had no idea that this information was available and I am struggling to understand how it got there in the first place.
Anyone else had similar, or figure out how to get your mobile number off this system?

[Caddyshack]

andyb28 said:

I am getting a constant stream of calls directly to my mobile, since advertising a job on Linkedin. Sadly, not from potential new employees but from 100's of Recruitment Agencies.

I just snapped at the latest one and pushed him to see how they got my mobile number. He said it's on LinkedIn.

I do not have 2fa setup and there are no phone numbers listed on my profile.
However, when I got one of my colleagues to look me up, there is an additional section for "Phones".

In it are all my numbers, part of the number is X'd out and it says, "Subscribe to one of our Phone Plans to access them!".

I had no idea that this information was available and I am struggling to understand how it got there in the first place.
Anyone else had similar, or figure out how to get your mobile number off this system?

I think linked in is only useful for people wanting something from you so just delete the account. In my experience it is just a recruitment consultant database now.


Seems strange how they got that info but I guess the data has been auto collected elsewhere and pre-populated

[andyb28]

Looking at this, it would appear this is a breach of GDPR rules too.

https://net-defence.com/is-prospecting-through-lin...

Maybe I should start gathering info and send to ICO.

[Mr Pointy]

A colleague may have uploaded his contacts list ("for your convenience") in which you were included & it's correlated the phone data. If you read the LI T&Cs you may find you've agreed to it.

[NorthDave]

I get that too. Extremely annoying! I assume it is in there small print but the last thing I want is marketing calls to my mobile.

I always assumed it was a third party doing the data crunching but I will have a look now if this is a setting on Linkedin itself.

[Simpo Two]

Sad that so much 'business' these days relies on getting your unwitting 'agreement' to something, then exploiting it or selling your data. Shifty, immoral and dishonest come to mind.

[Sheepshanks]

andyb28 said:

I do not have 2fa setup and there are no phone numbers listed on my profile.
However, when I got one of my colleagues to look me up, there is an additional section for "Phones".

In it are all my numbers, part of the number is X'd out and it says, "Subscribe to one of our Phone Plans to access them!".

Where do the numbers show? There isn’t one in my profile ( but you’re saying that too) - I looked at the contact info for a few of my 1st degree contacts and only one (and I’m not surprised who it was) has a phone number listed and I can see it in full.

If LinkedIn is picking up numbers from somewhere I guess it could be from Microsoft accounts, as Microft owns LinkedIn. I think they auto-link through Office365 unless turned off.

[Driver101]

I've received phone calls from a few recruitment agencies that I have never been in contact with. They somehow have accessed all my personal information I don't believe I've shared anywhere.

[andyb28]

This is what she sent me. This is in the bottom right corner of the page, its a profile page for contacts.

[RTPT]

That screenshot doesn’t look like it’s directly from LinkedIn. Are you sure it’s not just a third party database? If so you will need to contact them to get your details removed.

[bigpriest]

I'm on the desktop version of LinkedIn but under Me > View Profile is a smaller link for 'Contact Info'.

On mine this only contains the LinkedIn profile link and an email address, no phone numbers. If I choose to edit it, there is the option to add phone numbers. I've had a profile for years so if they were harvesting numbers I'm sure mine would have been updated by now.

Not sure how they got there but it sounds like phone numbers have been added to your profile.

[andyb28]

My apologies, I misunderstood where my colleague found the information.

It came from something called RocketReach, so it would seem that recruiters find us as a company, look up contacts on LinkedIn, then use websites like Rocket Reach to find my mobile number.

Interestingly, since I stopped sharing the vacancy on my linkedin profile, I have not had any calls. I wont be advertising any future vacancies on LinkedIn, thats for sure.

[RTPT]

You can have your details removed from those services.

https://knowledgebase.rocketreach.co/hc/en-us/arti...

[andyb28]

Thank you.

I have removed my profile after claiming it. Which is what that document recommends.
Fingers crossed, thats the end of it.

[deja.vu]

Simpo Two said:

Sad that so much 'business' these days relies on getting your unwitting 'agreement' to something, then exploiting it or selling your data. Shifty, immoral and dishonest come to mind.

Look how many times you have to opt out of cookies on the same website.
It’s sadly unavoidable