I'm Not a Bot or Fake: Can You Verify?

How do you confirm that I'm not a bot or fake? Have you seen me in person? Have you talked to me on the phone? Have you seen me in a video? Has anybody whom you know personally confirms knowing me personally? If answers to all these questions are YES, then you can ALMOST be sure that my LinkedIn profile is not fake, and my profile is not a bot or a dummy profile.

Hold on. One can fake on all these by paying (bribing) some select group of people (agency)!

Don't agree? But my dear friend, we can very well utilize the service of a media agency to do that. One can create a dummy profile and engage a software bot to the profile. An agency can create intelligent contents and update regularly on behalf of the bot driven dummy profile.

One can fool the LinkedIn and other social media networks crowd by impersonating as whatsoever personality one wishes to project

It is very much possible. One can fool the LinkedIn and other social media crowd by impersonating as whatsoever personality one would like to project. As for example, one may project himself/herself as a kind and a wise "leader" who always likes to "recruit people over 50". One may also project herself/himself as a kind hearted leadership academics who publishes a book every year (either by self or ghostwritten). The bot driven dummy profile may also be utilized to sway political opinions in the social media networks. Don't exclude the recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica data scandal connected to 2016 US presidential election campaign.

Fake social media profiles may be utilized to influence business, social, and political opinions

[Fake "likes", comments may be also be created]

Fake follower base may also be created in the social media by using several bot profiles. Thus, one dummy profile may grow a huge fan follower and engagement. There are some social media marketing agencies which can supposedly grow the fan follower base of a profile (fake, dummy or real). The comments and the "likes" by these fake bots look very "real". These bot profiles can be utilized to influence business, social, and political opinions among the citizens. This is a growing business in the social media network circle including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

One may also become an experimental and secret Influencer of the social media platform without the public tag of an influencer

One can also promote self by paying a special price to Linkedin (or other social media platform), so that the word "promoted" would not appear on the promoted updates. One may also be a part of a secret "pilot" project "Super LI or Instagram Influencer" (say). Then, his/her profile would look like an ordinary profile with a secret power of a "Super LI or Instagram Influencer". The agency created contents would get super and secret promotion from the social media platform.

These are speculations, but a lot many dummy and fake profiles exist on LinkedIn and other social media networks

[Google search fake profile pics]

Why am I writing this article with all the above speculations? I wish to logically check all the possibilities of existence of fake profiles on LI (and elsewhere in the social media). There are evidences that a plenty of fake and dummy profiles exist in the social media. Moreover, the dummy profiles may also be empowered either by external media agencies or by secret projects of the social media platforms.

This "thought experiment" is carried out to warn the users that fake and dummy profiles can exist on LinkedIn and other social media platforms

I know that many of my social media friends may laugh at my "thought experiment". But social media is a paradise of fake profiles. Dummy profiles are also created for business purposes. There are social media bots to drive super engagement. So, don't believe whatever you see or read in the social media including LinkedIn. Try to understand that we all are portraying our virtual identities.

How to get rid of this digital identity crisis? Grab every opportunity to personally meet your virtual friends

The digital identity crisis can be solved by having a direct contact with your virtual connections. I used to meet many of my LinkedIn friends in the real world much before the LinkedIn-Local fest.

I invited one of my academic connections from US to Kolkata in 2014 for a workshop on evolution congruent thinking. In 2015, I attended a conference in Shenzhen, China invited by my LinkedIn connection.

I met two of my LinkedIn connections in SPIE Defense & Commercial Sensing Conference in Baltimore during 2016. I strengthened my LinkedIn friendship during my ETOP 2017 conference in Zhejiang, China in 2017.

I had a meeting with LinkedIn friend Lynda Spiegel when she visited Kolkata, India in Feb 2018. Then, I met Lynda's friend Irit Hillman and later connected on LinkedIn. I also meet a lot of LinkedIners in and around our home town Kolkata (Calcutta) -- The City of Joy.

The No-Longer-Virtual Conference series creates opportunities for direct meetings with virtual friends

The No-Longer-Virtual (NLV) conference series founded by Sarah Elkins is a very good invention to get rid of this dilemma of virtual identity. At NLV conferences the LinkedIers meet and brainstorm to fine tune their career growth curves. The next NLV will be held in Atlanta, Georgia during Feb 21-22, 2019 [ https://elkinsconsulting.com/no-longer-virtual/ ].

What do you think about dummy and fake profiles on LinkedIn and elsewhere in the social media?

[Google search dummy profile pics]

Don't you believe that fake and dummy profiles can exist in the social media? Have you come through any such experience? How do you tackle such a situation? Do you have any other view? I would love to get your opinion. Please share this article among your acquaintances.

Acknowledgement: I sincerely thank Anna (Motreanu) Niescieruk for stimulating me with a recent article that discussed the topic of dummy and fake profiles. Anna's article has directly inspired me to write this article.

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More of my articles related to Social Media

• Information Privacy and Social Media
• Can You Identify Facebook and Google as Greedy and Successful Data Brokers?
• Don't Delete Your LinkedIn Account, It is Still Too Good
• Can We Survive without Social Media?
• Is LinkedIn Upgrading to Microsoft Windows?
• What Enhanced Service Will You Offer Satya Nadella to the LinkedIn Users Who Never Use Microsoft Products?
• Is Microsoft Digesting LinkedIn?
• Why Does Microsoft Eat LinkedIn?
• Do You Face a Book or Facebook?
• Power of a LinkedIn Connection

For more articles, stories, and insights follow #DebeshChoudhury

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I am an academician and researcher of electronics and applied photonics. My current research focuses on Biometric Security and Privacy Protection. My friend Jose Munoz Mata and myself are testing distributed ledger technology for decentralized biometrics and other real world applications.

In June 2015, Dr. Jeffrey Strickland and I founded a new LinkedIn Group called "The Unfluencers". To learn about the history of "The Unfluencers" please read the seminal LinkedIn article by Dr. Jeffrey Strickland entitled -- "Who are the Unfluencers". This group is an open group. You are welcome to join this group and engage yourself in the discussions. The Unfluencer?? Logo is a registered trademark of Dr. Jeffrey Strickland.

Text Copyright ? 2018 Debesh Choudhury— All Rights Reserved 

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