The Perils of Networking: Beware of the CONnectors!

Most of us go into networking with the best of intentions. But not all of us. Do you know how to spot deception while networking? Follow a few simple steps to avoid the scammers, fakesters and frauds.

Mar 08, 2024

Everyone likes to talk about the great connections they made or deals they closed because of business networking.

I’ve met some amazing people and life-long friends through networking. People I care deeply about and they care about me.

But, for all the great people I’ve met and the profits I’ve generated through my network, I’ve also seen the dark side of networking.

For example, a few of my networking initiatives resulted in the following:

Scammed by a venture capitalist
Fleeced for $100k by a Christian businessman
Conned by a professional I met at the gym

I’m embarrassed to admit that each of these bad experiences could have been avoided if I had been more diligent and observed some the glaring red flags that were right in front of me.

“Diligence is the mother of good fortune”
-Benjamin Franklin

By being diligent, you should be able to detect many of the warning signs and react before any damage can be done.

Warning Signs

Networking, whether it’s social networking (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), professional networking (LinkedIn) or business networking (groups, associations, etc.) is a prime breeding ground for scammers.

Con artist and scammers will often display many of the following characteristics:

Blend in - they will try to fit in with others
Great talkers - they will be friendly and relatable
Excessively giving complements and praise
Oversharing of personal information (to disarm you)
Overly aggressive in helping you and “unusually” kind
Masters at manipulation - they have a lot of practice in getting what they want
Display sporadic and unpredictable behavior
Gaslight you into thinking you’re the problem
After they get what they want, they avoid your calls and emails
Eventually, they disappear - only to reappear incognito later

If you notice a few of these traits in a new connection there’s no reason to be alarmed, just proceed with caution and be a little more shrewd with your interactions.

But if a new connection displays several of these attributes?

It may be time to sever ties.

Due Diligence

The most effective method to detect the “bad networkers” is to do a thorough due diligence of a professional.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the time, money, or even desire to do a deep-dive into a professional’s life.

As an alternative, simply following these steps will help:

Search - Do a Google search for reviews and complaints
Seek confirmation - Ask others you know what they think about the person
Observe the little things - Do they call you back? Do they return your emails? Do they follow through with what they said?
Start small - Don’t commit to anything major; work on small projects together that have little-to-no risk.

Finally, do a gut-check with yourself.

Is there something that just doesn’t sit right with you?

Are there things that just don’t seem to add up?

Trust your gut.

It always seems to know.

The LinkedIn Feed can provide you extremely useful information.

Or, it could be useless.

It all depends on what content the LinkedIn algorithm decides to feed you.

A key tactic to get the information you want is to let the algorithm know what’s important to you.

TOP WAYS TO TRAIN THE LINKEDIN ALGORITHM

Following - Follow the creators who post content you like
Unfollowing – Unfollow the creators who post content you prefer not to see
Commenting – Comment on the content you want to see
Saving – Save the posts that have content you like to read

If you do this, it shouldn’t be long before LinkedIn starts to provide the content you want in your feed.

Want to learn more?

Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-marcellus/

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