LinkedIn is shedding light on an alarming piece of news that has caused it to further crack down against fake profiles.
This past week, the platform noticed how a huge number of its users listed Apple as their workplace and in just 24 hours, that was reduced to half. This is because they were fake and that is what led to the sudden dropdown in figures overnight.
Apple had nothing to do with this huge turmoil but it was interesting to see how LinkedIn became super active and began eliminating all those profiles outlined as fake, spam, or bot accounts.
A developer by the name of Jay Pinho says he’s responsible for tracking down data that belongs to the famous professional app. He was the first to highlight the great fall in the number of employees working at both Apple as well as Amazon. On that note, he went about sharing the statistics with another fellow security expert.
On the 10th of October, nearly 570,000 profiles put Apple as the place that they were currently employed, and the following day, that fell to 285,000. And the same took place with Amazon where a staggering 33% drop was noticed in the headcount for employers on the app.
Speaking to media outlets recently, LinkedIn says the massive nosedive just goes to show how much fake accounts are prevalent. Moreover, it also put into the spotlight the app’s decision of making use of automation with human reviews to crack down against such behavior.
According to experts in the world of cybersecurity, these figures are so alarming. Fake accounts are utilized for purposes like fraud and even scams. Moreover, scammers tend to grab a hold of so many companies and even leading universities and start to enlist them on the profile. They believe that by doing that, they’re adding credibility to the fake account.
Ever since the whole scenario of Twitter and Musk’s dilemma regarding the exact number of fake accounts on the app, it appears that LinkedIn’s battle of fighting against such behavior has been overshadowed.
So much of the public’s attention has been related to Twitter that other apps were left far behind. But seeing LinkedIn’s recent crackdown just goes to show how serious it is in being transparent with its issues and its efforts. A lot of the efforts were reported as scams and recruiters were warned against such behavior. They were requested to do their own research before jumping to conclusions and hiring people blindly based on the app’s enlisting.
LinkedIn seems to have taken swift action against the ordeal after this particular tweet went viral of overnight drops seen in Apple and Amazon employee headcounts.
In the same month, the app has gone about admitting that there has been a similar rise in fraudulent behavior on the platform. Hence, it’s now issuing warnings to users to be careful of those asking for funds through the forum.
Meanwhile, one spokesperson for LinkedIn has gone about highlighting how serious they consider such issues to be. Moreover, they added that tackling the matter is definitely a huge challenge but one the app has readily accepted to take on to better the experience of others on the platform.
With time, more and more actors are getting sophisticated with their approach and that is what makes it so much harder to prevent fakes from acting before it’s too late. In the same way, the LinkedIn spokesperson hopes that they’ll continue to prevent the vast majority of such behavior from occurring as they’re doing currently.
There are days when the app is forced to deal with 96% of fake profiles and nearly 99% of spam accounts. And that just goes to show how big of a struggle it has become.
Read next: New Study Says More Than 50% Of Passwords Are Reused And Put User Data At Risk
This past week, the platform noticed how a huge number of its users listed Apple as their workplace and in just 24 hours, that was reduced to half. This is because they were fake and that is what led to the sudden dropdown in figures overnight.
Apple had nothing to do with this huge turmoil but it was interesting to see how LinkedIn became super active and began eliminating all those profiles outlined as fake, spam, or bot accounts.
A developer by the name of Jay Pinho says he’s responsible for tracking down data that belongs to the famous professional app. He was the first to highlight the great fall in the number of employees working at both Apple as well as Amazon. On that note, he went about sharing the statistics with another fellow security expert.
On the 10th of October, nearly 570,000 profiles put Apple as the place that they were currently employed, and the following day, that fell to 285,000. And the same took place with Amazon where a staggering 33% drop was noticed in the headcount for employers on the app.
Speaking to media outlets recently, LinkedIn says the massive nosedive just goes to show how much fake accounts are prevalent. Moreover, it also put into the spotlight the app’s decision of making use of automation with human reviews to crack down against such behavior.
According to experts in the world of cybersecurity, these figures are so alarming. Fake accounts are utilized for purposes like fraud and even scams. Moreover, scammers tend to grab a hold of so many companies and even leading universities and start to enlist them on the profile. They believe that by doing that, they’re adding credibility to the fake account.
Ever since the whole scenario of Twitter and Musk’s dilemma regarding the exact number of fake accounts on the app, it appears that LinkedIn’s battle of fighting against such behavior has been overshadowed.
So much of the public’s attention has been related to Twitter that other apps were left far behind. But seeing LinkedIn’s recent crackdown just goes to show how serious it is in being transparent with its issues and its efforts. A lot of the efforts were reported as scams and recruiters were warned against such behavior. They were requested to do their own research before jumping to conclusions and hiring people blindly based on the app’s enlisting.
LinkedIn seems to have taken swift action against the ordeal after this particular tweet went viral of overnight drops seen in Apple and Amazon employee headcounts.
In the same month, the app has gone about admitting that there has been a similar rise in fraudulent behavior on the platform. Hence, it’s now issuing warnings to users to be careful of those asking for funds through the forum.
Meanwhile, one spokesperson for LinkedIn has gone about highlighting how serious they consider such issues to be. Moreover, they added that tackling the matter is definitely a huge challenge but one the app has readily accepted to take on to better the experience of others on the platform.
With time, more and more actors are getting sophisticated with their approach and that is what makes it so much harder to prevent fakes from acting before it’s too late. In the same way, the LinkedIn spokesperson hopes that they’ll continue to prevent the vast majority of such behavior from occurring as they’re doing currently.
There are days when the app is forced to deal with 96% of fake profiles and nearly 99% of spam accounts. And that just goes to show how big of a struggle it has become.
Read next: New Study Says More Than 50% Of Passwords Are Reused And Put User Data At Risk
