Fake LinkedIn accounts

LinkedIn is an effective tool for you and your business. Making valuable connections and fostering important Business relationships are all made possible by the creators of this magnificent platform. And, thankfully, LinkedIn pro-actively combats fake profiles. As the graph and table below show, many fake profiles are stopped at registration and then another large percentage is restricted before members report the profiles.

The number of accounts that were restricted after Members reported (in millions) is barely visible, the grey bar or line between blue and black represents 70,000 – 200,000 profiles per year. In my personal experience, reporting fake profiles is therefore a waste of your time since they are flagged by LinkedIn sooner rather than later.

To help you spot those really good fake profiles, especially the ones created from somebody else’s profile on a different Social Media platform and with the use of Ai tools, you should read the Forbes article (link below).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/11/17/how-to-identify-a-fake-linkedin-profile-in-five-minutes-or-less/

?Even though it was written in November 2022, the steps outlined are valid today and could be just what you need. Following the three steps most likely will take longer than the five minutes or less stated in the headline. The quickest way to more information is the [More] button and selecting the [about this profile] button. Which will show you Month and Year joined and most importantly Verifications! If you want or feel the need to dive deeper, go do the Profile Test, Content Test and Network Test.

The article below concludes: “Our findings suggest that the technology for creating generated fake profiles has advanced to such a point that it is difficult to distinguish them from real profiles”.

https://studyfinds.org/bots-social-media-fake-accounts/

?As Group owner/manager of a prominent, relatively large group on LinkedIn, I engage daily with my group to screen the profiles of prospective new members. Having zero (0) connections or followers is a quick and easy way for me to conclude it is a fake profile.

The next step then is: