Don’t trust everything you see on LinkedIn. We created a fake LinkedIn profile with a fake job at a real company. Our fake profile garnered the attention of a Google recruiter and gained over 170 connections and 100 skill endorsements.
Everyone is talking about fake accounts on Facebook and fake followers on Twitter. LinkedIn hasn’t been part of the conversation, but Microsoft’s social network also has a big problem.
LinkedIn Doesn’t Verify Anything
We created a fake profile and connected it to a real company. Sadly, it isn’t hard. LinkedIn doesn’t ask for any proof or confirmation of anything. Instead, LinkedIn runs on a sort of honor system.
You can say you work for a large company and give yourself an impressive job title. It worked for us. Our fake profile (John) “works for HP” as an Innovation Technologist. You may think that’s a job title we made up on the spot, but it’s a real position we found in HP’s job listings. We also gave John previous jobs at Exabeam and Salesforce to round out his resume.
You might imagine that HP or someone else would notice and stop us. But that’s not how it works. LinkedIn doesn’t notify companies about new employee profiles.
We didn’t steal anyone’s identity or even use a real photo for our fake profile. See that photo of John? That’s not a stock photo of a real person. Instead, the image came from thispersondoesnotexist.com. Simply put, it’s a fake photo of a non-existent person generated by a computer algorithm. Here’s a screenshot of the fake profile for posterity.
Companies Can’t Stop Fake Employees
Here’s the kicker: LinkedIn automatically adds anyone who lists themselves as an employee to a company’s page. Right now, you can search and find our fake profile in the list of HP employees. All you have to do is visit the company page, click on people, and then search the directory of employees.
With our fake profile in HP’s “official employee list” on LinkedIn, John looks like a pretty legitimate employee!
