| Two of these fake accounts tried to connect with me over LinkedIn, using two very eerily similar but distinct profile pictures (one was white, one was more Hispanic). I knew it was odd at first glance. Then I sat on it and realized a few things: 1. The names are very generic or downright odd. Not to reveal too much detail, but one of them had an Irish last name (e.g. O’Connell) but without the apostrophe. The first name was very uncommon. 2. The second person had a common, generic Hispanic name. What stood out was the fact that they were a contract employee at my company since 2018, in a role that converts contractors to full time usually 6-12 months in. 3. The faces were very centered, without imperfections, and things like the nose and teeth were 90-95% matching, but slightly and convincingly tweaked from photo to photo. The teeth were almost an exact match, and it was only obvious when putting them side to side. 4. Their work history gleams, often capped at 3 past jobs and a generic but known university degree. 5. The accounts routinely posted links to NYTimes, BBC, and Wired articles at least 2-3 times a week, often repeating the same articles week to week. 6. From every example I’ve seen, usually the fake account is a woman. I’m not convinced by the article’s point that it’s for sales/digital telemarketing. It may be state-sponsored/influenced, but the only thing I could think that they could gain was broad access to people’s lists of connections and build a web on professionals at top companies. People accept requests on LinkedIn today like people did back in the early days of Facebook (now people seem to be more guarded, usually only allowing friends and family into their profile). For the professional world, you have to succumb that that one random person at your company (or even coworker) is going to blindly accept the request and give them access to a trove of data. |