Fake People Suck - Especially on LinkedIn??

There are so many awesome people on LinkedIn...and then there are the fake ones. I mean, literally FAKE profiles - these "people" do not exist. Fake profiles are an epidemic on LinkedIn yet many users are unaware of this issue, how to spot them and more importantly, what to do about them.

According to the most recent LinkedIn Transparency Report (covering Jan-June 2021), they were able to catch 97% of fake accounts at registration - approximately 11.6 million! As you can see in the graphic, nearly 4 million more accounts were caught once the profile was live on LinkedIn and the smallest number comes from users reporting these accounts.

I want to share with you the most common red flags to identify fake profiles and what you need to do when you come across them. And just so you know, the examples I am sharing are all from profiles I have personally received outreach from on LinkedIn.

1. Something Feels Off - You get a connection request and can tell these is something odd from the sender. This is an extreme example since they came in back to back, but if you see something like this, it is a very obvious sign that these ladies are not real.

2. They have a really incomplete profile - These are profiles with very little information and the information that is provided tends to be generic. It's unlikely that they are connected to any company or have a banner image.

3. They have an extremely small network - Fake profiles almost always have less than 100 connections. They circulate, add a few people, get reported and disappear. Combine that with the incomplete profile and it should be a major red flag!

4. The photo is suspicious: In the case of Scarlett here, her photo also seemed questionable when combined with the other red flags I have shared. By doing a simple reverse image search, I found that this photo is a stock image - see the upper left of this photo.

What do you do when you come across these obviously FAKE profiles?

Simple...REPORT AND BLOCK! Please don't simply ignore these profiles. If users are not empowered to report them, they will continue to infest LinkedIn.

Follow these steps:

1. Choose MORE on their profile. Then select REPORT/BLOCK.

2. Select REPORT THIS PROFILE

3. Finally, choose the second option since this is not a real person

FAKE profiles ruin LinkedIn for REAL people!

• Do your research before hitting ACCEPT if something looks odd
• REPORT the Fake profiles
• Never use bots or automation on LinkedIn - we can tell!

Where Can You Find Me??

I host LinkedIn Mastery on LinkedIn Audio Events every Tuesday at 4pm EDT from the Thought Leadership Branding Club. Each week Bobby Umar and I welcome some special guests for a great conversation about LinkedIn best practices, trends and more. You can find the links to the events on my profile.

I also start my Tuesday mornings at 6am with the weekly #LadiesofLinkedIn Clubhouse room, "LinkedIn to Rock Your Brand and Business", hosted by Wanita Zoghby-Fourie. This room is a part of the Online Business Academy Club.???

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Till next time...thank you for reading!