I hate having to apologize to everybody when it does that.
I guess it’s too late now, but the easiest solution is to not provide them with your address book in the first place. There is no requirement to link with your email, upload your address book, etc.
Beyond that, what kind of spamming are you talking about specifically? What action do you take and what does it result in? I’ve been using LinkedIn for years, and I’ve never had it send a message to all of my contacts.
I took no action, but it had my Yahoo account.
You must have allowed them access to your entire address book?
Anyone who does that to me doesn’t get a chance to apologise: you’re banned, deleted and blocked from any communication except for (maybe) phone and F2F. Once you hand out my personal email address to the Teeming Idiots, I no longer want to know you. How about you hand out my real name, cell phone and street address, along with all my passwords , too?
Ignorant people like the OP are the reason I do not use my primary email address, or an email addy that gives any clue as to my real name for anything other than really, truly, I-know-you personal shit.
There’s no way they retrieve your Yahoo address book without you providing them with access. You might not remember it, but you did.
Yes, you did. You gave LinkedIn permission at some point, by witlessly clicking (or unclicking) an OK button along the line. You gave them personal information for every person in your address book. You don’t realise this, seriously?
People like you really, really fucking piss me off. It is 2010, and you are an apparently minimally-functioning adult with a computer, yet you haven’t figured this out yet? Jeebus on a stick. This is like letting a child drive before they have figured out where the brake pedal is.
Jesus H Fucking Christ. Please go take a basic computer use course at a high school or something before touching a keyboard again.
umad bro?
btw it’s 2011.
Over the top and out of line for GQ, there chiroptera. Reported.
About once a month my professional email gets a LinkedIn invite from someone. I’m happy to know they aren’t doing it intentionally, because that thought was annoying the fuck out of me.
The fact that they do anything of the sort would make me abandon the service.
Yes OK fine, little school hall monitor-man Chimera, report away. Ask me if I give a shit, while you’re at it.
I admit I mistook GQ for IMHO. Primarily because I assumed that someone who has been a member since May 2000 (over elebenty-seven years of interwebal progress!) was a more recent member; you know, one with a clue. Plus I really, really dislike spammers, and the OP was at least honest enough to identify himself as such.
[Moderator Warning]
To quote long ago moderator manhattan, “I am the fucking hall monitor.” 
chiroptera, these remarks are insulting and out of line for GQ. For your information, they would be out of line for IMHO too. And you better give a shit, because if you continue to violate board rules you will find your posting privileges in jeopardy. This is an official warning. Do not do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Some of the people I know from my last place of employ have apparently let them access my email, and I get invites all the time.
I have been very hesitant to bother joining because I can find no apparent way to quit the site. I do not like joining any site I can not subsequently get rid of the account. Though I am also reluctant to join most all networking sites… closest thing I have to networking site is photobucket…
Furthermore, what I’d seen recently on LinkedIn, is even if you let it have your email account – you still have to select individual accounts to send invites. Maybe they’ve changed, but I don’t think so.
I still get stupid emails from people I know. They’re smart people, but email clueless. Once in a while, I’ll get chain letters. Recently, someone sent an Obama joke, that turned into a Tea Party rant fest. And I also get email virus warnings, even 'tho people have been told that that sort of thing actually creates a virus effect with the email crosstalk. But I don’t killfile people, I just politely explain how they’re mistaking the way to use the medium. Given that we still get wrong numbers, crank phone calls, and unwanted solicitations after a century of telephone usage – we shouldn’t be surprised there’s still the email clueless.
So possibly, people spamming their old professor with anonymous LinkedIn invites may not have been “tricked” by LinkedIn’s sleazy practices™ – they may have found it easier to just hit the button.
When LinkedIn presented me with the “service” to connect to my e-mail accounts, I was under the impression that it would simply scan my contacts and suggest (to me) those who already had a LinkedIn account, so that I could (manually) link them. I had a little nagging feeling, and decided not to do it just in case. Seems I was right to hesitate.
I get linked ins too. Before I lost my job due to being bat-shit, I thought it was a great way to find folks in the same field as me.
Now I’m getting stupid e-mails from people who just even have the same first and last alphabetical letters as my name.
How this is helping anyone find a job is beyond me.
Quasi
For what it’s worth, a few hours ago I got an email from one of the IT guys at work here inviting me to join his Linkedin network. He is a VERY knowledgeable and experienced fellow and without much thought, I joined up. It’s mostly a lot of folks we work with here. I just received another email from him saying that his address book had been hijacked by a Linkedin mask. And he said to feel free to join or ignore the invitation. So it can happen. Just sayin’.
Yes. Yes, you were.