WOW!!! Didn't know that. It could explain why connecting with someone you know is so important. When I think about it: Here is a situation that has a happened a couple of times in the past couple of years: Someone request to connect with me, we have a lot of the same connections and they really look like an all-star but there is no picture. I connected on the feeling "Why Not, a lot of my connections are connected to this person". I then get emails as if I subscribed to a much smaller service similar to a Monsters.com or Dice.com for technology related positions. I also get recruiters sending me emails for directly, and in one instance a recruiter called the main line to my employer and asked to speak with me and got transferred over.

I've always wondered how these things were taking place but never took the time to investigate because of how infrequent the occurrences were. It usually takes a while to unsubscribe from these services via email, so I just mark as SPAM. I just looked and they're still sending stuff, at least some are. I just removed all people I didn't know from shaking their hand from my connections; which includes recruiters that only request invitation to connect to talk about a job opportunity.

I wonder if LinkedIn knows about this sort of Growth Hacking type of SPAM or just doesn't care?

And I finally found a good reason to close my account. Thank you.