On LinkedIn, I love seeing all those little heads line up next to a skill I've put on my profile, with people ''endorsing'' my capability. I mean, it's one thing for me to say I can write communication strategies and pick out the grammatical flaws in a takeaway menu. But until everyone else attests to it, it doesn't really mean much, does it?

Over time, I noticed something weird. LinkedIn started suggesting to my ''connections'' that they endorse me for skills not listed on my profile. I'd spot one of the red notification flags signalling new activity, click on it excitedly and see that Bob Bobson had endorsed me for my skill in negotiating peace deals between Botswanian lions and water buffaloes. Which is nice and all, except I don't possess that skill. And I've never actually worked with Bob.

Then I faced a dilemma. Do I ''accept'' Bob's endorsement of this hitherto unknown skill of mine and quietly slip it on my profile? Maybe Bob knows more about my latent skill set than I do. What harm is there, eh? So with one click, I accept Bob's endorsement and the ''skill'' is visible on my profile, for my other connections to see.

When they log in, a question pops up amid a gallery shot of their other connections - ''Does Diana Elliott know about negotiating peace deals between Botswanian lions and water buffaloes?'' ''Yes!'' They click. So the little red flags multiply and before I know it, people I've never worked with are endorsing me for skills I don't have.

This seems very odd to me. So too, the mysterious tendency for LinkedIn to send out invitations to connect on my behalf. Recently, I've been getting notifications saying, ''Person X has accepted your invitation to connect''. And I haven't sent this person or the six like him, an invitation.