I received a very unusual private message on my LinkedIn social media site that initially had me scratching my head. The person sending the message seemingly did not herself have a profile on the site and was identified only by the name “LinkedIn Member.” That was the first red flag.
I have had this happen to me before, so I was aware that this could happen, but the previous times I simply cut off the conversation and reported it to LinkedIn. This time, however, I decided to engage the person to see more specifically what was going on. While I never found out for sure, based on the way the person was engaging me, it felt like an attempted scam of some type where the person was trying to get personal information from me. In the beginning, I simply tried to brush the person off, but she was persistent so I decided to turn the situation around and use it as a witnessing opportunity.
Under circumstances like what exists on LinkedIn, this person actually had a way to look at my profile and was able to find out certain things about me – nothing extremely personal, but enough to engage me in a somewhat familiar way.
But since this person did not have a profile for me to look at, there was no way for me to know who this person really was. Just a warning, if you ever try to engage people like this yourself, be extra vigilant to be sure they don’t get information they can actually use to scam you.
Because this was so suspicious, during the process of engaging this person, I still felt compelled to contact the LinkedIn administration and let them know what was going on. I did that hoping that they would respond quickly enough to actually see what was happening. Ultimately they did contact me (but not until the next day) and indicated they were going to investigate. I have not heard back from them since, so at this point I still don’t know any more.
My point in sharing this conversation here, though, is to show that there are all kinds of ways to share a witness for Christ, even to scammers on social media. (BTW, I also do this to scammers who send me porn links by e-mail by replying to their e-mails with a witness for Christ.) These are, obviously, people who do not know God and who need to hear about His love for them.
LinkedIn Member
Hello
Are you the person who did the charity work at E Park Ave last weekend? We talked, but I don’t know your name
Julie Foster
Freddy Davis
Not me.
LinkedIn Member
I’m sorry because that person looks like you and even though I got the wrong person I’m glad to meet you and I hope my message didn’t disturb you.
Mr. Davis do you do a lot of volunteering as well?
Freddy Davis
Who are you? You don’t have a profile.
LinkedIn Member
This is Emily I don’t use linkedin often but I edited my profile what do you mean I don’t have a profile?
Freddy Davis
You are listed as “Linkedin Member.” There is no profile page for you. And why did you sign your name earlier as Julie? Is this something I need to report?
LinkedIn Member
Julie is my name in Switzerland. My family and friends usually call me Emily.
Freddy Davis
So why don’t you have a profile?
LinkedIn Member
Sorry I don’t know what I should do for you to see my profile. This is also a learning exercise Can you teach me please?
Freddy Davis
Go to your profile page, copy the URL and paste it in here.
LinkedIn Member
No I have a profile, but I don’t know why you can’t see it
Ok I will try
https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-f-71b6a0274/
Freddy Davis
The message comes up: “This page doesn’t exist. Please check your URL or return to LinkedIn home.”
LinkedIn Member
https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-f-71b6a0274/
Freddy Davis
Same thing. Who are you?
LinkedIn Member
Is this because of linkedin membership? Maybe from somewhere you can open such access?
Mr. Davis it’s Emily
Freddy Davis
Emily who? Have we met?
LinkedIn Member
Emily Hill. Like I said above do you volunteer on weekends?
Freddy Davis
No I don’t. Volunteer where?
LinkedIn Member
It’s weird it feels like you’re teasing me and I said the address in the first sentence.
Freddy Davis
Not teasing. I told you it was not me.
LinkedIn Member
Ok but I’ve told you where it is. I assume you do a lot of volunteering too, right?
Freddy Davis
What kind of volunteering are you talking about? Doing what?
LinkedIn Member
Help some people and children in need
Freddy Davis
That is not me.
LinkedIn Member
What kind of charity events do you usually attend?
Freddy Davis
Why are you asking me these questions?
LinkedIn Member
Because I do a lot of charity events. I’m just asking. I’m sorry if this makes you uncomfortable.
Freddy Davis
I am not uncomfortable, but this is just very weird.
LinkedIn Member
Just getting to know each other if you also like to do charity activities maybe we can become friends in the future we can plan to organize charity activities together. We can also talk about work things maybe we can also become partners
Freddy Davis
Where do you go to church?
LinkedIn Member
Church?
Freddy Davis
Yeah. Where do you go to church?
LinkedIn Member
Sorry I’m an atheist, but I respect every religion.
Freddy Davis
Really? How can you possibly believe that something came out of nothing? It is completely anti-science.
LinkedIn Member
Really
What is your faith?
Freddy Davis
I am Christian. God exists, has revealed Himself, and we can know Him in a personal relationship.
LinkedIn Member
I know a little about Christianity and I’m interested in knowing more. May I ask you if I can learn more from you?
I’m sorry can I know what the situation is?
Freddy Davis
It can be explained by answering three questions:
1. What is the nature of ultimate reality? (Who is God?)
2. What is man?
3. What is the ultimate a person can achieve in this life?
Check out a couple of my articles. You might find them interesting.
http://www.marketfaith.org/2022/10/the-overarching-structure-of-a-biblical-worldview-can-it-be-true/
http://www.marketfaith.org/the-ultimate-foundation-of-the-christian-worldview/
LinkedIn Member
Thank you. I read your article and there is a lot of knowledge that I have not been exposed to.
I’m sure we can have more meaningful and interesting discussions. I love meeting new people and learning and if you are too that would be really great. I’m not here very often, if you don’t mind us texting each other.
Freddy Davis
My specialty is on the topic of worldview with a focus on Christian worldview. If you liked the articles, there are tons on our website (www.marketfaith.org). Most of the articles and other worldview resources can be found at: http://www.marketfaith.org/worldview-resources/.
And if you want to do a little self-exploration about your own beliefs, you can check out the worldview survey at: http://www.marketfaith.org/worldview-survey/
If you send a message on Linkedin, it will show up in my e-mail.
LinkedIn Member
Thank you. My e-mail doesn’t have a lot of mail. It’s more convenient to communicate by text message. If you don’t mind we can exchange numbers.
Freddy Davis
Not best for me.
LinkedIn Member
So what chat program do you usually use?
Freddy Davis
Linkedin works fine.
At this point, she seems to have gotten the message that I was not going to fall for any kind of scam and she dropped the conversation. I am fully aware that my witness to her will probably not, at this point, convince her to come to the Lord (though you never know). But it was an opportunity to possibly break up some hard spiritual ground in her life, and who knows, some day she may come to the Lord. And if so, it is possible that I may have been a part of that process.
Let me encourage you to think outside the box when it comes to sharing Christ. In our modern cultural environment, there is a LOT of evil that we come face to face with every day. Every one of those is an opportunity to point a person to Christ. We should not let evil go unchallenged in our society. Not only is order in society at stake, so are the souls of those who are promoting all the disorder and evil.
© 2023 Freddy Davis