Are your LinkedIn connections fake?

Yes, LinkedIn in is awash with fake, duplicate and fraudulent profiles

Not all of them, obviously.

But a lot more than you ever would have believed.

How does 100 million fake profiles sound to you?

This is terrifying to me.

How about you?

This clever piece of research makes it very clear that at least 100 million LinkedIn profiles are fake. Proven fake without doubt.

Some countries have more LinkedIn profiles than adult residents!

I am clearly very naïve.

I anticipated the odd fake or scammer, but 100 million! At least?

This research comes from a fellow called Toby Culshaw. Here is the original work. Hats off to Toby. And I saw his work highlighted on Hung Lee’s Brainfood newsletter. Thanks Hung

So, none of the original work here is mine except this blog. And you are reading this blog, so…

Check out the ‘Penetration Rate’ by country. That means the number of LinkedIn profiles as a percentage of adults in the labour force

Highest Penetration Rates: UAE (157.9%), United States (141.8%), UK (136.4%), and Canada (125.4%) exceed 100%, suggesting multiple accounts per worker or significant international membership. So for example UAE has 5,699,000 adults in the labour force – but is showing 9,000,000 LinkedIn profiles! Huh???

Mature Markets: Most Western European countries and English-speaking nations show penetration rates between 90% and 140%.

The top 10 countries show penetration rates over 100%, which means there are more LinkedIn accounts than there are adults in the labour force, which must mean an enormous number of fake or duplicate accounts

Conservatively 100 million fake LinkedIn accounts

Which is a worry.

So is it now a fact that most of the content on LinkedIn is AI-generated slop posted by people who are not even real?

Great.

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Twenty thousand recruiters cannot possibly be wrong, can they?

(Well, actually, they can, I suppose)

But in this case, they are right!

20,000 copies of Savage Books have been bought by recruiters globally, so far.

Surely a perfect gift for your favourite recruiter (you?)

The Savage Truth

Recruit. The Savage Way

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  • Posted by Greg Savage
  • On April 13, 2026
  • 5 Comments

5 Comments

Daryl Daniels
At the end of the day Greg, a database is only as good as the information in it. LinkedIn are extremely evasive when you challenge them about data integrity. They are not willing to incorporate a simple "when last active" field to assist recruiters. I think that if they were to do this, recruiters would push back when it comes to the fees they are being charged (if you take up their Recruiter products). Alas Australia a small bleep on their radar.
Tai
Love your content Greg but here this research seems to be overstating the issue of fake profiles. These are probably mostly people who are currently based in another location (e.g., in India) who want to work in the location they listed (e.g., UAE). They think (right or wrong) that their chances of getting a job in their target location increase this way. So while I think there are fake profiles on LinkedIn, I don't think it's that many. Plenty of other issues with LinkedIn but that's a separate topic.
    Greg Savage
    Interesting observation. Never occurred to me but you think it would have been taken into account by the researchers themselves? Do you think this is what is happening with all 12 countries that have a penetration rate of over 100%? is that really likely?
Phil Martin
I spoke to someone at Linked in for their thoughts on this blog (as we are looking to use them for advertising) and this was their response... At a high level, while no platform at scale is completely immune to bad actors, LinkedIn puts a significant amount of focus on data integrity and member authenticity, because the value of the platform depends on it. A couple things worth noting: • LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions business continues to grow because customers are seeing real outcomes, qualified candidates, response rates, and placements. That wouldn’t happen if the data wasn’t reliable. • There are dedicated trust & safety teams and automated systems focused on identifying and removing fake or low-quality profiles; it’s an ongoing, active process. • For recruiting specifically tools like Recruiter and Job slots allow you to filter by activity, responsiveness, and intent signals, so you’re not just reaching out blindly; you’re prioritizing engaged talent. • MSFT acquired us for $26BN based on the value of our data - second largest tech acquisition in history We do not take fake profiles lightly and proactively take them down. Another thing to note: Our data is a more accurate than all the alternative platforms that scrap it and it becomes stagnant!
    Greg Savage
    That morphed very quickly into a sales pitch...

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