Researchers at Stanford Internet Observatory did discover thousands of LinkedIn profiles with fake pictures and details. There appear to be 1000 profiles using AI-generated display pictures. These fake profiles are used as a marketing tool for companies. First, a fake profile contacts a real person with a predetermined message, if the other person shows any interest, a real salesperson joins in.

According to a report, nearly over 70 businesses were listed on these 1000 fake profiles, some of which told NPR that they hired outside marketers to expand sales. One reason for using fake profiles could be to get around LinkedIn’s limits on the volume of organic messaging.

The fake profile conundrum
This anonymity that the Internet provides to people is a very perfect way for any kind of identity theft, fake accounts, and strange behaviors. Facebook has struggled a lot with fake accounts as the service removes 1 billion fake accounts every quarter, highlighting the really big scale of the problem.

Fake accounts normally are very useful for spreading specific messages like scamming people in generating buzz around topics. In the case of LinkedIn, it seems the fake accounts are used to generate buzz around certain companies.