LinkedIn introduced a new verification process today aimed at job recruiters, responding to an increasing trend of scams approaching unsuspecting users with fraudulent job offers, often aiming to gather sensitive financial information.

How Does Recruiters' Verification Work?

Verified recruiters will soon be distinguished by a checkmark badge on their profiles. When recruiters message someone, a badge will accompany their profile information, indicating their verification status and confirming their authenticity.

Recruiter verification undergoes the same process as other accounts on the platform, where users can submit a work email from a verified company or collaborate with partners like CLEAR. LinkedIn claims to detect the majority of fake accounts before members report them and address any remaining edge cases that may slip through detection filters.

Wei Tu, LinkedIn's vice president of trust engineering, highlighted the importance of providing members with transparency and control to make informed decisions. While the company is working on expanding verification to everyone, LinkedIn verification is not yet available in all markets, and the feature will begin rolling out this week. 

Will There Be Any Plans to Leverage AI for Anomaly Detection?

While discussions about emerging technologies have recently gained attention, artificial intelligence (AI) is not new for LinkedIn, which has improved members' experience for more than 15 years.

Oscar Rodriguez, Vice President of Product Management at LinkedIn, recently introduced a new deep-learning-based model, which proactively assesses profile photo uploads to determine if the image is AI-generated. It employs cutting-edge technology to identify subtle image artifacts associated with AI-based synthetic image generation without resorting to facial recognition or biometric analyses to bolster LinkedIn's automated anti-abuse defenses, facilitating detecting and removing fake accounts before they can impact members.

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How to Avoid Getting Scammed on LinkedIn?

To prevent falling prey to a LinkedIn scam and becoming a cybercrime statistic, it is crucial to discern fake profiles from genuine ones. Here are some tips for identifying red flags on the app:

• Lead with suspicion: It is better to be cautious than trusting. Look out for warning signs like spelling and grammar errors, generic job offers, and requests for personal information from new connections.
• Check the details: Examine profiles closely for consistency in professional and educational histories. Follow links to other social profiles and watch for any discrepancies.
• Monitor activity: Fake profiles are often less active than genuine ones. A profile may be fake if it appears isolated and lacks recent engagement with other accounts.
• Beware of too-good-to-be-true offers: Exercise caution with job offers or opportunities that appear overly lucrative, and conduct thorough research and due diligence before engaging with recruiters.
• Use antivirus software: Protect yourself from malicious links using antivirus software such as SurfShark, which can flag high-risk pages to help you identify threats and stay safe on the platform.

LinkedIn is developing a tool to identify and remove fake profiles before they reach users.

 

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