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Many moons ago, the blue checkmark was a coveted badge on a popular social media platform with a cute bird mascot. That was a simpler time. The landscape has since been upended by an eccentric billionaire, but back when humans “tweeted,” the blue checkmark noted to other users that the person communicating on the platform was indeed who they said they were.
Popular business and employment-focused social media platform LinkedIn rolled out a last year. Professional users could verify their identity using Clear Secure, Microsoft’s Entra, or with work email addresses from thousands of companies.
This week, LinkedIn announced another iteration to its verification program, this time to address a growing issue in the digital talent acquisition space: job scams.
Recruiters using the platform can soon have a “Verified Recruiter” badge on their InMail messages and their profile, so job-seekers can trust the information they’re receiving.
“Based on our own data and reports from platforms across the internet, we know that posing as a recruiter is a common way bad actors attempt to scam people,” VP of product management Oscar Rodriguez said in a LinkedIn post. “While we successfully intercept the majority of detected fake accounts and scams, verification is a step in our ongoing efforts to help foster genuine and trustworthy interactions on LinkedIn.”
This new verification will be based on a company’s subscription to LinkedIn Recruiter. Verification is available globally, although not yet in every market, according to Axios.
Zoom out. The move comes as job scams continue to afflict job-seekers and recruiters alike.
HR Brew reported last month that job scams are on the rise; in the US, they grew by 23% in 2022, according to the Better Business Bureau.
The rise of remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic along with new GenAI tech have made it easier for scammers to craft passable messages, creating the perfect conditions for wreaking havoc.
Scammers target victims on social media platforms like LinkedIn and FlexJobs, posing as a recruiter from a prominent company. They’ll try to get victims to pay for equipment, or woo them into sharing personal information, such as a Social Security number. Oh, and there’s no job.
Last summer, the FTC published resources for spotting and reporting job scams.
