I’ve written about the fake recruiters who InMail you about a great position with their company. I shut up the fakes by requesting their corporate email address at their supposed employer. But what if LinkedIn could catch them BEFORE they ever sent that InMail to me?
LinkedIn is trying.
From HR Dive, brought to my attention by Jennifer Schlador on LinkedIn.
“LinkedIn is looking to take on scammers who falsely present themselves as recruiters or company representatives in the app, with an expansion of its company verification option, while it’s also making workplace verification required when a member adds or updates a leadership or recruiter-related role.”
Of course, the proposed Know Your Recruiter system isn’t foolproof; nothing is. Scammers can avoid the LinkedIn verification step by simply NOT choosing a leadership or recruiter-related job title.
And as much as people like me wish that people would care about verified identities…many don’t.
- If “Jones Jay” from Microsoft sends jobseekers an InMail about a wonderful position,
- some will blindly respond without even looking at Jones Jay’s LinkedIn profile at all,
- much less checking whether his identity and employer are verified.
But at least the attempt demonstrates that LinkedIn cares more about their real users than about the scammers who pay for Premium.
Bredemarket 