How do you know if they are Fake Profiles?
Honestly, I don’t always know what are fake profiles and what aren’t. But I 
recently read this article from LinkedIn about what they are doing to combat Fake Profiles – An Update on How We’re Fighting Fake Accounts | Official LinkedIn Blog
In the past year my Facebook account was cloned. You can read about that here. I was surprised I was hit because I do all the password things I am supposed to do. I don’t click on suspicious email links. But it happened. It made me very leery about connecting with people that I don’t know, especially on Facebook.
I know I have connected with fake profiles on Twitter. I am pretty sure I follow some fake profiles on Instagram, but not as many. On Facebook, I always look at the invitations from people that I might know to see how developed the profile is and who mutual friends / connections might be. If it is a repeat invitation from someone with whom I regularly communicate, I will send a text or message them through another social platform before connecting.
One of my Facebook friends recently decided to switch her account to a “grown-up” version and sent out several posts alerting people to the fact that she would be closing down the old account in an effort to share the more adult/professional version of herself.
On LinkedIn, I find that not as many people are trying to scam others. Based upon the article linked above, LinkedIn is doing what I would consider a decent job of nipping fake profiles in the bud.
7 tips
Here are my tips to do your due diligence before falling into the Fake Profile trap:
- Use a recent image of yourself on personal profiles.
- Brand your company profiles with a logo or a different image of yourself.
- Personalize any invitations that you send to people who might not know or remember you.
- Check profiles before you accept.
- Alert all connections if your account is compromised.
- If you do connect with a fake profile, be careful of any messages or requests asking for you to send money. If it is out of character, then it is probably fake!
- Don’t use the same password for all of your accounts to prevent a mass breech if you are compromised.
