LinkedIn is awful for this. Some people clearly have a mission in life to accumulate as many LinkedIn connections as possible. If LinkedIn suggests somebody as a connection, even if they’ve never met them before in their life, they’ll send the connection request anyway. For the most part, I just ignore them.
Ah, LinkedIn - I keep getting notices when my brother makes a new connection. He’s a CFO/CEO/big shot executive and I’m an engineer. His connections have nothing to do with me, and vice-versa. Mostly I just ignore everything from LinkedIn.
Ever since I removed the gender from my profile, I don’t get those automated “hottie” accounts, so I’m actually more likely to accept a request to give them a chance. That is, if checking their profile doesn’t make them look like a bot–being able to see their friends and where they come from is a pretty good indicator, as is just seeing if they have any real content.
I actually met this one woman from the Ukraine that way. And it was just before the Crimea troubles. So then I got a pretty nice insider’s look at all that stuff.
Oh hells, I sometimes decline requests from people I know AND care about.
OK, this is because the request was from someone spoofing the real person (this has happened to two of my friends).