Conman steals Carnival Luke Smith’s LinkedIn profile to trick his way into job
A conman has lifted the career history of Carnival Cruise Line’s head of international sales Luke Smith from his LinkedIn profile to try to bag a job in the travel industry.
Smith was alerted to the trick by Leigh Collis of Stewart Travel, who warned him that someone was passing round a CV to travel businesses claiming he had worked for Carnival Cruise Line and Carnival UK.
Colis said the man ‘seemed a bit dodgy’ when interviewed over the phone and passed his CV on to Smith, who was alarmed to find that it included his own early career history.
The man also seems to have got hold of a covering letter Smith has used in the past.
"It appears that a guy by the name of Hugh Harben who lives in Norwich has decided to go on my Linkedin profile and steal my identity to try and get a job," said Smith, who has reported the possible ID theft to the online and cyber crime reporting agency Action Fraud.
"If anyone has had his application or knows the name then please let me know and obviously disregard it," added Smith. "Action Fraud have been made aware as I don’t know if he has stopped at my Linkedin profile."
Smith’s LinkedIn profile states he started his travel career in 2006 as a reservations consultant with Carnvial, later joining kgb as national account manager and then returning to Carnvial as account manager before working his way up to head of international sales.
Smith said that the conman might not have committed a crime unless he gained credit from stealing his career history, but he said he wanted to alert the travel industry to prevent ‘Hugh Harben’ from fooling his way into a job.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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