Teams at LinkedIn – like the one I help lead for trust, privacy, and equity – are tasked with the hard work needed every day to ensure that you can safely and securely connect to opportunity. Over the last few months, we’ve seen a rise in fraudulent activity happening across the Internet, including here on LinkedIn, and heard questions on how we are working to prevent it.
First, our policies are clear on prohibiting fake profiles or fraudulent activity, including investment and financial scams. Through paired use of technology like artificial intelligence and teams of experts, we stop and remove the vast majority of policy violating content that we detect before it ever goes live – 96% of detected fake accounts and 99.1% of detected spam and scams are caught by our automated defenses. We also collaborate with peer companies, policymakers, law enforcement, and government agencies, in efforts to keep you safe.
While our defenses catch the vast majority of abusive activity, our members can also help keep LinkedIn safe, trusted, and professional. If you do encounter any content on our platform you believe could be a scam, be sure to report it so that our team can take action quickly. This includes anyone who asks you for any personal information, including your LinkedIn account credentials, financial account information, or other sensitive personal data. We also encourage you to only connect with people you know and trust. If you’d like to keep up with someone you don’t know but that publishes content that is relevant to you, we encourage you to follow them instead.
Be wary of and consider reporting:
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People asking you for money who you don’t know in person. This can include people asking you to send them money, cryptocurrency, or gift cards to receive a loan, prize, or other winnings.
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Job postings that sound too good to be true or that ask you to pay anything upfront. These opportunities can include mystery shopper, company impersonator, or personal assistant posts.
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Romantic messages or gestures, which are not appropriate on our platform – can be indicators of a potential fraud attempt. This can include people using fake accounts in order to develop a personal relationship with the intent of encouraging financial requests.
In addition, keep an eye out for these signs that could indicate the content, profile or job posting is inappropriate or fraudulent and should be reported:
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Profiles with abnormal profile images or incomplete work history. Look out for indicators including inconsistencies in the profile image, work history, and education.
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No connections in common. Also keep a lookout for relatively new profiles, generic names, few connections, and anything else that looks out of place.
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Bad grammar is a simple, important red flag. When you see it, question the credibility and even legitimacy of the member that you’re communicating with.
Our work continues to keep LinkedIn safe, trusted, and professional. We’ll continue to enforce our Professional Community Policies, our rules that detail what is and is not allowed on LinkedIn, taking action on false or misleading content, fake profiles or jobs, and spam and scams.
If you have questions or need additional support, you can get in touch with one of our experts through our Help Center. We look forward to sharing more updates on this work in the weeks and months ahead.
