How to remove a fake employee from your company page on LinkedIn

We imagine most companies have experienced this problem. You login to your company page on LinkedIn, scour over the employees listed and spot a name you don’t recognise. Okay, so for larger companies this will be trickier to spot. However, if you head up recruitment for a small to medium sized company and deal with all new hires, that is concerning!

There are multiple reasons why an inaccurate employee listing can end up on your company page:

• Innocent Mistake Makers — Some businesses have very similar names. Case in point: Domino and Domino’s. So when people add details of their new role to their LinkedIn profile, we can kind of understand how they could mistakenly link up to the wrong company page. However, the company logo should be a give away. Make sure your company page is up to date and complete with a logo to reduce the likelihood of this scenario happening.
• Ex-Employees — Employees move on and forget to update their LinkedIn profile. If they were in a customer-facing position, this can cause confusion and send mixed messages to your clients.
• Impersonators — It might not be the obvious platform for criminals to carry out scams, but alas, they do! Impersonators pose as employees to appear legitimate. That way, they can more successfully spread misinformation, go phishing or commit identity theft. They will send messages containing malicious links or requesting personal or financial information.
• Chancers — Others may be looking for a job and feel like their CV is lacking. They make up their employment history on LinkedIn to improve their prospects. This is why references are so key.

Annoyingly, LinkedIn doesn’t provide a vetting service or approval process for employees to join your company page. Instead it relies on “the integrity of its members in providing true and accurate information in their accounts.”

We have had our fair share of inaccurate employees listed on the Appdrawn Software Development LinkedIn company page. The first time it happened, we searched for instructions on how to remove them. It wasn’t easy finding that information. LinkedIn has buried it in the deepest chasms of their website. It’s almost as if these instructions contain top government secrets!

We thought we would save others from the hassle and put a tech tip together on the matter. Instructions that cut to the chase and do not mess around. 

If you have an inaccurate employee listing on your company page, there are two things you can do:

Contact Them

In the first instance, contact them. A simple DM asking them to remove your company from their profile should do the trick, especially in the case of the ex-employee forgetting to remove themselves or a new recruit who has mistakenly linked up to the wrong company. However, if you don’t get a response or there is reluctance…

Submit a Formal Request to LinkedIn

Before we discuss how to report inaccurate employment, please be aware that:

• Fake profiles or impersonators should be reported using these instructions instead. You will get a quicker resolution.
• Employees with a confirmed company email address are the only ones with the ability to edit the information on your company page. Thus, they are the only ones who can report inaccurate employees.
• Requests are not always successful. LinkedIn will investigate the information provided in your claim. The minimum timeframe to remove an inaccurate employee from your company page is 14 days.
• “LinkedIn is not in a position to resolve legal disputes between third parties.”

How to remove an inaccurate employee from your company page on Linkedin

1. Go to LinkedIn’s Contact Us page: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/solve
2. Enter “Remove Member from Company Page” into the search field that reads “How can we help?”
3. Hit the “Enter” key.
4. Click the result listing entitled “Remove people from a LinkedIn Page.”
5. Scroll down and select “Contact us” under “Related tasks.”

You will be redirected to a page with the heading “Contact LinkedIn support” followed by 

“Let us know about inaccurate information listed on another person's profile.” Below that is a form you will need to fill out.

In a new tab:

1. Go to your LinkedIn Company Page > People.
2. Click on the person who is incorrectly listed as an employee.
3. Copy and paste the URL of the inaccurate employee’s LinkedIn profile.
4. Make a note of the inaccurate employee’s full name.
5. Return to the inaccurate employee report form.
6. Enter the full name and paste the profile URL of the inaccurate employee into the box provided under “Link to the inaccurate account or content.”

Please note: If you have more than one inaccurate employee listed on your company’s profile page, you can report them all at the same time. Saves you time and having to repeat the process. Just remember to separate each person’s name and URL by a comma.

1. Enter your company’s name into the answer box for “What is the name of the School, University, or company that is inaccurate on the profile being reported?”
2. Select “No” in answer to “Was the reported member or members previously employed or attended school at your organization?” Unless, of course, they did. A disgruntled ex-employee perhaps?
3. Provide an explanation as to “... how you know this account or other information to be inaccurate or false.”
4. Enter your full name into the field provided to act as a digital signature.
5. Click “Submit” to complete your request.

Once you have submitted the form, you will receive a confirmation email from LinkedIn along with a ticket reference number. If you have multiple open support cases with Linkedin, you can use this number to identify particular claims.

LinkedIn will contact the owner of the inaccurate profile, informing them that their profile will be removed from your company page within 14 days. If they receive a valid counter-notice, they will get in touch with you, asking for more information to investigate further. If a counter-notice is not received, the profile will be removed and you will be notified when this happens by the LinkedIn team.

If you haven’t had an update from LinkedIn beyond 14 days, here is how you can access updates on your claims:

1. Go to LinkedIn.
2. Scroll down until you reach the bottom of the right-hand column.
3. Click “Help Center” in the list of links.
4. Click your profile picture featured in the top right-hand corner of the new screen.
5. Select “View your support cases” from the dropdown menu.

Here you can access all the latest information relating to your open support cases.