LinkedIn is introducing new verification features to help tackle fake accounts over the coming months.
The business-focused social platform is a fantastic place to connect with like-minded businesspeople and to find new employees, jobs, and opportunities.
But thanks to this popularity, we’re seeing an increase in fake profiles created by scammers for more sinister purposes.
Bot-like accounts have been cropping up all over the platform. They’ve been spamming people, tricking genuine profiles into downloading malware, and scamming them into giving away personal data.
LinkedIn holds a lot of information on each member, including their job history, contact details, professional interests, and places of work – all valuable data that a determined criminal could use.
These fake accounts can be hard to spot.
This is because they look like real people (sometimes they’re AI-generated deepfake images), they seem to work for legitimate businesses, and the profiles have been carefully curated to look like the real deal.
LinkedIn is making changes over the coming months to help tackle these fake accounts through an improved account authentication process.
Microsoft owns LinkedIn and is partnering with the secure identity platform Clear to help verify accounts using work email addresses, government-issued IDs, and phone numbers.
It’s initially only being tested in the US, but if it’s a success, we expect to see a wider rollout over the coming months.
Once the relevant information has been provided, accounts will receive a verification mark, like the ones introduced by Twitter. However, unlike Twitter, LinkedIn will be offering verification free of charge.
We’ll keep you updated when we know more.
If you need help keeping all your accounts secure, get in touch.
Published with permission from Your Tech Updates.