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Fake LinkedIn profiles have always been a problem, but the problem is escalating.
If you believe in what you find on LinkedIn, whether it is to find executives to talk to, for hiring or even just to validate that someone is who they say they are, that is probably not a good plan any more.
While the high-profile attacks are against Fortune X companies, all companies are at risk if they are being targeted.
The attacks pair bogus photos, maybe AI generated, along with real text from someone’s profile, to try and get people to believe the fraud. And it works.
After Brian Krebs wrote a story about it last week, he was flooded with responses.
The fakes target all executive roles and probably many others.
One LI group administrator that has 300,000 members has blocked more than 12,700 suspected fake profiles this year ago. He says they get more than 500 fake requests to join a week. Another says he gets a hundred a day.
And why not? On the Internet, the saying goes, nobody knows you’re a dog.
And it is not just companies. Pick the crisis of the day and the fake profiles appear. After Ian, there were fake disaster recovery specialists.
Linked In, like Twitter, doesn’t really seem to care much since the number of users is critical to ad revenue. Apparently, if a company screams loud enough, however, they might do something.
Worse yet, if you claim that you are from HR and reporting a fake profile, they won’t just take it down. There is a process they go through that takes weeks at least. By that time, there are more fakes.
SO, bottom line, like Twitter, Linked In has become a dumpster fire and needs to be accorded all the respect that you give to a dumpster fire.
You can police it and try to get LI to take the fake profiles down, but it will be a game of Whack-a-Mole. Still, it may be necessary. Credit: Brian Krebs