Woman tracked down on LinkedIn by would-be date

A post shared on Mumsnet prompted other singletons to share stories about unsavoury matches

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A woman has claimed that she was tracked down on LinkedIn by a stranger she matched with on a dating app, using just her first name and second initial.

The woman took to Mumsnet to post about her experience and warn others about the man’s strange behaviour.

Going by the username Milomonster, she explained that she had exchanged a few messages with the potential date on the dating app Bumble, but he later sent her a LinkedIn request that “weirded” her out.

In the title of her post, Milomonster said she blocked the man on the app after he sent the request.

She wrote: “I matched with someone online last week on Bumble. I don’t use my name on my profile but only my initials. We had a few pleasant messages and he asked my name and I told him my first name only.

“I then receive a LinkedIn request, which weirded me out. I don’t message him for a day and then he messaged to ask if I started to ignore him.”

A few days later, Milomonster said she told the man she was “uncomfortable he sent me a LinkedIn request based on so little info”.

However, the stranger took things a step further by contacting her through her work email, using his own work contact.

“He’s just messaged me at work saying: ‘Thanks for the low behaviour wish you the same.’ It’s from his work email,” she wrote.

“I know there isn’t anything I can do except be vigilant and not give out my name in future, but I just wanted to share my experience.”

Mumsnet users were horrified and accused the man of being “an utter creep”. Some advised the woman to contact the man’s HR department to complain about his actions.

One person wrote: “Contact his HR and contact Bumble. This is a huge privacy concern. Any more emails off him, please ask your work to change your email address.”

Another said: “It’s awful… He wasn’t trying LinkedIn because your jobs are similar and for professional reasons, no. He wants you to know he can find out more info about you, send you emails at work. Turn up and who knows.

“He’s overstepping the mark big time. If you did want him to know this information you would in time [sic].”

The thread has since been deleted at Milomonster’s request. Before it was taken down, the post spurred other singletons to share their experiences with unsavoury matches.

One person shared that a man she had been chatting with started addressing her with a “specific nickname that only one friend uses for me when he comments on my Facebook pictures”.

“I knew he’d found me on Facebook (tight privacy settings but comments on profile pics visible. When I ended the chats… he told me he knew we would be together and nothing would ever come between us, ‘not even God or death’. He then emailed me at work and sent flowers to my workplace.”

Another said she “gave up on LinkedIn for this sort of thing”, adding: “Some very creepy men came out of the woodwork, including a many-years-ago ex, who just kept adding skills to my profile, which was really odd.”

A spokesperson for LinkedIn told The Independent: “As a professional network, our members rightly expect their experience on LinkedIn to be professional in nature and unwanted romantic advances are a violation of the LinkedIn Professional Community Policies.

“Our member’s safety is our priority and we encourage members to only connect with people that they know, block members who they do not want to be connected to, and report any content they don’t feel comfortable with to us so we can take appropriate action.”

The Independent has contacted Bumble for comment.