Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tiffiny Smith-Esther on August 1, 2008 at 10:56am

Ryan,

Were you contacted by someone that wanted you to pay them money and they would increase your network??? I am asking because I was contacted by someone who asked me to do 1 of 3 things to increase my network...pay to become an "accepted member" of some organization and my network would be immediately increased by like 300,000 - something like that - OR he wanted me to "sell some kind of business services" for him and he would give me all of his contacts, OR, lastly, I could even try to GET people to "sell this business service" for him and he would send me 1/2 of his contacts!!! I am wondering if it is the same person!? Looking forward to hearing from you...

Tiffiny Smith-Esther
tiffinyesther@comcast.net

Permalink Reply by Tiffiny Smith-Esther on August 1, 2008 at 10:57am

P.S. - I told him to "take a hike," for lack of better wording...I just wanted to make that crystal clear. Have a great day!

Permalink Reply by Ryan on August 1, 2008 at 5:16pm

Hi Tiffiny, thanks for posting.
Indeed, there are people offering this service, in the forms you mention. I wasn't contacted personally but have seen several of these ads on networking websites. I will not give specifics as I would not like to do publicity for them!
This type of activity seriously undermines the credibility of everyone's network and any use it might have for recruiters. Even in their absence, everyone benefits from having (or appearing to have) many contacts, so it's in everyone's interest to connect with as many people as possible. Some can't be bothered because they are engaged in other things they believe are more important. This doesn't tell us much.
I would be interested to hear how recruiters deal with this fact.