Numerous LinkedIn users are claiming to work for established companies, with the companies often left powerless to act upon this problem.
According to a LinkedIn post by Andy Cuff, CEO and founder, Computer Network Defence Ltd, he has been alerted to at least seven profiles of people claiming to work for his company. He said in the post that 21 people were listed as working for the company, “of which seven are now imposters” and asked for suggestions regarding their possible intentions. “I've seen a recent upturn in LinkedIn members claiming to work for our company (CND), I'm not sure of their intentions but they don't seem to be farming connections (except one),” he said.
Speaking to Infosecurity, Cuff said that the profiles had been found by a member of his team, with one person falsely claiming to be working for CND “as a digital marketing executive in India.” Cuff said another member of his team said they had seen people claiming to work for him based in India, the Philippines and South America.
“As a business owner, you own the company page and can remove them, but what some companies were doing was if they had a bad falling out with an employee, they removed them so they had a gap in their career history,” he explained, saying that is why that option was removed by LinkedIn. “So the only way to sort it is to reach out.”
Cuff said that to block or report “is wholly ineffective” and the only way is to contact LinkedIn and ask them. “We are the oldest UK cybersecurity recruitment agency, and we rely on Linkedin,” he said. In one case with a person from South America, they claimed that they worked for CND in 2001, three years before the business was actually founded “and you couldn’t tell if the account was legitimate or not.”
He later published an update on March 14, saying that LinkedIn had passed it onto the relevant team, after he originally had “tried reporting them to LinkedIn with no effect.”
In a statement to Infosecurity, a LinkedIn spokesperson said: “Protecting our members and making sure that LinkedIn remains a safe, trusted and professional community is our number one priority. Fake accounts are not tolerated.
“At the end of last year, we published an expanded transparency report showing the steps we took to keep our platform and professional community safe. This included taking action on 21.6 million fake accounts, of which 19.5 million fake accounts – 95% – were prevented from being created at registration.
“We take a fake account report very seriously, and our team takes action on content and profiles that violate our Terms of Service and Professional Community Policies.”