LinkedIn Fakes: The Rise of Spoof Profiles Threatening Brand Reputation

Last year set a new record for fake profiles removed from the LinkedIn platform. This shows that fraudsters are dedicating more time and effort to scams that involve some use of LinkedIn. Fake LinkedIn account volume more than doubled, increasing 152% over 2021 to more than 80 million fake profiles removed in 2022. Allure Security’s in-house team of takedown experts handles LinkedIn takedowns every day. With this article we will explain recent scams proliferating on LinkedIn and how they harm your brand’s reputation online. An upcoming blog post will dive deeper into responding to brand impersonations on LinkedIn with information about how to go about reporting and taking down fake accounts impersonating your brand or employees. A bar chart showing the increase in fake LinkedIn profiles identified and removed in 2019 through 2022 Brand Costs of Fake LinkedIn Profiles Not only do victims lose up to millions-of-dollars each to investment scams distributed over LinkedIn for example, but rampant brand impersonation also damages businesses and their reputations. As the FBI explained in a warning issued in February 2022, impersonated brands risk the following: Unaware they’ve been scammed, victims of fake job postings may write negative reviews of the impersonated company, affecting
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