Lying About Your Job On LinkedIn? New Company Verification Tool Could Catch You

LinkedIn is rolling out new tools to tackle fake identities, misleading job claims and impersonation on its platform, making it harder for people to pretend they work for companies where they have never been employed. The Microsoft-owned professional networking platform announced the changes on Wednesday in a release, saying the new features will give users and businesses more control over how their professional identities and company affiliations are represented online.

"As AI reshapes the workplace, trust has become our most valuable professional asset. LinkedIn has invested tens of millions of dollars in verification, helping to build a more trusted professional community where more than 115 million members have now verified their identity or workplace for free. Now, we're continuing our expansion of verification across LinkedIn and integrating with new partners, giving members more ways to verify who they are and more signals to help you know who's real and credible, both on and off LinkedIn," a statement by LinkedIn read. 

One of the biggest changes will allow verified companies to remove accounts that falsely claim to be their employees. Businesses will be able to stop these profiles from appearing in search results linked to their company or being listed as associated employees.

The move comes as artificial intelligence makes it easier to create convincing fake profiles and identities. Such accounts can be used for everything from exaggerating work experience to impersonating recruiters and carrying out scams.

LinkedIn is also testing a new way for members to verify their professional experience by getting people they have actually worked or studied with to vouch for them. The people providing the verification must already have a verified profile.

LinkedIn says this system is different from its existing endorsement feature. Rather than recommending someone's skills, the new option is intended to confirm that a person has the experience or background they claim on their profile.

The platform is also piloting workplace verification for some companies. Under the system, people who list an organisation as their current employer may be asked to prove that they actually work there. To complete the verification, users would need to provide their work email address and enter a verification code sent to that address.

LinkedIn is testing the feature with a limited number of companies for now. The aim is to make it harder for users to maintain inaccurate employment information even when company administrators do not immediately spot it.

The changes could also have implications for online scams. A fake recruiter claiming to work for a well-known company may appear more trustworthy if their LinkedIn profile shows the same company as their current employer. Verification could make such impersonation harder.

At the same time, LinkedIn says the workplace verification requirement will not apply to everyone. Freelancers and self-employed workers, who may not have a company email address, can select exempt employment categories and will not be required to complete workplace verification.

The company said the fake-employee removal feature will begin rolling out to verified companies worldwide over the next few weeks.