Have you ever received a spam LinkedIn invitation?

I think that your answer will depend on whether you see yourself as a vendor or buyer. Remember also the power of LI is how many people find you when they search on your expertise. It's another variation of quantity v quality.

I religiously accept all invitations to connect on LInkedIn - and am nearing 5,900 connections.
Do I know these folks - nah - BUT I have developed some amazing and interesting relationships with others on LInkedIn over the years. If I only accepted folks I know or to those that are already connected to others, I would have missed out on some awesome (and profitable) opportunities and new friendships.
AND I put my e-mail address into my profile (anti-bot format though) - so any human being can see it and interpret it to invite me to connect. Every Answer I provide in the Q&A forum includes the "LION" (LinkedInOpenNetworker) 'hint' so that others will invite me to connect. And when others answer my questions, I invite them to send me an invite to connect.
But I'd advise caution in being open and posting accessibility on communications in LinkedIn - my account was frozen for a week and a half until I tracked down their HQ"s in NW, USA and begged them to reopen my account. Another profile owner had almost 6,000 connections and LInkedIn deleted his account because he had "LinkedIn Expert" in his title of his profile. Personally I believe they should have given him a one time chance to 'reword' his title versus being so punitive.
But I DO LOVE LInkedIn!

Here's how I safely write my signatures in LInkedIn:

Dawn Boyer
LION
Twitter#Dawn_Boyer

I get 3-5 a week these days - have never accepted one so I can't comment on what happens but in general I'd say it's a very bad idea.

I rarely accept an invitation from anyone I don't know personally, although I occasionally make exceptions for friends of friends. But the value of LinkedIn is all about introductions and recommendations, why would I ever want to do either of those with someone I don't know?

Like Chris, I get Linkedin spam about 5x a week. I get 20X a week for my Linkedin group. I never accept.

Yes, just recently I received a LinkedIn invitation that resulted in an email that was quite clearly a scam. I wanted to report it but cannot see a link for support. Admit I've been very busy and haven't had a lot of time, but I think LinkedIn should be on the ball regarding this kind of thing.

Thanks Dawn, I'll go back and have another look. This was a variation on the theme where they ask you to give them your bank account so they can pay you x million. Sigh. I agree though, that most of the people on LinkedIn are professional and a pleasure to mix with.

If you define spam as a request comes from totally unnown person, yes I do receive few every week. But I reveiw (of course when you have time) their credential from public information before making a decision. If from a reputed organization or from similar professional background then I do accept

I've gotten a bunch of requests lately which have been blocked by my malware filters as really being links to "unacceptable risk" websites. In other words, they are not coming from Linked In at all!
Pay attention! Don't click on links that purport to come from Linked In. Go and sign in to Linked In by manually typing in the URL, etc.

LinkedIn has been way better than Twitter in this regard. I use FaceBook for my personal Social Networking and LinkedIn strictly for business. I often get invites from people in the music / entertainment fields (in which I dabble) on LinkedIn, but I politely let them know that I limit this medium to IT, and refer them to Twitter / Facebook.

If you are set up as a professional subject matter expert in a group and you are active with comments to discussions you will inevitably receive LI messages from other professionals or students of the subject. These messages can result in business leads or simply you helping (unpaid) a fellow professional (which I like to do). This is, in my opinion, not Spam.

I get 5+ a week. I don't answer them and I also think it detracts from the usefulness of the LinkedIn site itself.

I am with Dawn. LinkedIn is a University in the true sense of the word. You find great discussions from around our world plus opportunities to extend your knowledge. You also are provided with countless opportunities to help others for no cost other than a few moments of your time.

I'm experiencing two kinds of requests much more frequently these days. One type is a request from someone outside the U.S. Their profile indicates that they are very new to LinkedIn with very few connections and they are not in a related field. They do not personalize their request which I ignore. The second type is someone in a LinkedIn group of which I am a member. I've never met them or corresponded with them before, so it's pretty much a cold call. Some would say spammy. I accept on a case by case basis. Overall, I think LinkedIn Groups have some significant competition on Quora boards. There is far more substantive expertise that's accessible on Quora compared to LinkedIn.

Yes. Its the nature of social media.

Somehow, I once accidentally allowed LinkedIn to mine my entire Gmail account and send out invitations to everyone - including the contacts I already had. Strangely, the same thing happened to a few of my friends who accepted the invitation so I am not sure how much of the error was mine or LinkedIn's. It was very embarrassing as this went out to a few old girlfriends and some soured relationships. Nevertheless, I ended up with a few new connections on LinkedIn as well as facebook (including one old/ scorned girlfriend who is now married and extremely happy). It was great to make a few quality connections and see old friends that are happy. At the end of the day I would have to say that my accidental spam had very positive results.

I usually accept all invitations, but do not understand how my 'friends' get to send me the invite. When you say the person is a friend, LinkedIn asks for the email. Is there some fault in the system, I wonder. I have developed some very good relationships with people who I did not know outside of LinkedIn and have no complaints.

I have received quite a few scammers, and have reported them LinkedIn takes time, which is dangerous, as a gullible member may fall prey to the scam.

I always look at the link to accept/view the invitation. In outlook, if you hover over the link you can see what the URL is. If the link goes anywhere except LinkedIn, I do not click. This strategy can be used on all suspect emails. Never click a link that doesn't look like it matches where it should go. Numbered URLs are usually a bad sign.

For those on Facebook, this goes for posts as well. Recently I had a friend share a link to a free Starbucks card that was actually a virus. The URL was a numeric link.

Tons lately? I made the mistake of opening one and irt was for viagra! It looks like spammers found out LinkedIn seems to be a fertile ground for this kind of activity. I'm hoping LinkedIn finds a way to cut this down. The net effect is that I'm not opening any message from people I don't know, which is a pity because I could be deleting genuine contact requests.

Spam from LinkedIn? Well, what do you call it when a person (me) is not registered on LinkedIn, never has been, is NOT a professional (has no need for this network) but STILL regularly receives invitations from TOTAL strangers.....I call that SPAM, and no one seems to know what a person can do to stop it. It's not enough to trash it. Who has my name? Get off my planet.

I guess it's not technically SPAM, but I get a ton of messages from "recruiters" who spy a single keyword in my profile, and offer me an exciting 3-month contract assignment in B%^%ck, Arkansas. I think these guys would be better served to look at a full profile, and ask themselves "Gee.. If I had this guy's current position ... would I be considering a short-term contract assignment with a tier-4 Re-seller in a state where you can't get decent Chinese food ?

I vet everyone I receive invitations from. If who they say they are doesn't match up with with my search results about them, I decline their invitation.

Usually if the person sending the invite cant even be bothered to put a profile pic on there Linkedin account I'm not likely to accept, apart form that I have no issues accepting almost anyone.

In the case of the article. I read the opening and couldn't figure out how this could be possible. Linkedin's internal mail system is simple, you can't add attachments so there is nowhere to put virus or keylogger. Though the statement "LinkedIn invites in my Gmail spam folder" - Spam Folder says it all really.

Two simple rules to protect yourself:
First - Only open Linkedin Mail's via the linkedin dashboard not your email account.
Second - if it isn't 'what is says on the tin' report it.

Be aware also that sometimes a newly setup LinkedIn profile could be one of your competitors trying to get into your contact book. As a general rule its safest to keep your LinkedIn contact book open just for connections, and block such advances. Regards, Guy @ www.DigVertising.com