The resume is a first filter for human resources teams. That is where they identify if a candidate may be suitable for a job before an in-person interview and while LinkedIn had been an ideal tool for finding candidates, it now faces a problem: the proliferation of profiles created through Artificial Intelligence.
According to the report by journalist specialized in cybersecurity, Brian Krebs, digital identities combine profile photos generated by Artificial Intelligence tools with texts copied from legitimate accounts and are even reaching the Human Resources departments of companies.
The expert stressed that these are not low-profile accounts, but that they are posing as businessmen with important positions, such as directors of information security in several companies belonging to the Fortune 500 list, including Chevron, Exxon Mobil or Hewlett Packard, among other.
This is not a minor matter, since even when searching for a certain position of a large multinational through Google, fraudulent accounts appear among the first results, while the real ones are in the background.
Hamish Taylor, who with more than 300,000 members, who is in charge of detecting fake profiles on the platform, said that more than 12,700 suspicious accounts have been blocked so far this year.
The specialist explained that many of these fraudulent accounts are “cynical” attempts to exploit the capabilities of an expert in crisis contexts that require their services immediately.
“We receive more than 500 requests from fake profiles to join (the group) weekly. It’s been hell since January of this year. Before that, we didn’t have the swarms of counterfeits that we experience now,” Taylor said.
Other fake account detection specialists have also highlighted more aspects of how fake accounts work on the platform. They mention that “when a bot tries to infiltrate, it does so in waves” and that is the reason why so many requests with the same type of information are detected.
While fake accounts are not a new problem on LinkedIn, the more relevant issue is that there has been a significant increase in the creation of fake accounts, suggesting that entities are having greater success in creating mass accounts.
LinkedIn, meanwhile, is already aware of the issue and said it is considering some ideas to address the issue, such as offering the ability to validate a company’s domain so employees can prove they actually have that role. .
What is the purpose of these fake profiles and how to spot them?
According to a LinkedIn post, on many occasions these scams have the objective of collecting personal or financial information from users who fall for false job offers, or are strangers looking for people to invest in cryptocurrency trading platforms that they eventually confiscate the money when the victims try to withdraw it.
To detect these types of profiles, the company recommends paying attention to images or incomplete work history. They also mention that if there are no common connections it is a point of concern, as well as the fact that they send romantic messages, since they are not inappropriate for the platform.
