The advice given here is based solely on tests carried out internally. Be aware that it's an AI that is in charge of detection so there is no absolute truth and there is always a risk of getting your account banned.
➡️ The full article with bonus tips is here.
How to create a fake LinkedIn account?
First of all if you want your account to live, definitely do not share cookies with other accounts!
💡LinkedIn also considers disconnections and reconnections as a multi-account alert.
To avoid this, two possibilities:
🥇 Create several Chrome sessions (simple and free version but not infinite: you will not be able to create 15 accounts per day).
🥈 Use a proxy/vpn service as there are many of them.
Step 1: Name your persona
For your fake LinkedIn account, you can be inspired, in which case you should do yourself a favour. But avoid John Doe and other classic names, it's not very credible when you add them.
💡 A little tip: give strong preference to student profiles. Innocent in the professional world, they tend to be accepted more easily and are in the E-reputation. You can always edit the profile little by little once it gains connections 😉
If you are not inspired, here is a site that can help you create a fake identity.
Step 2: Create an email accordingly
When creating your email, remember that your 1st level contacts will see it. So make the email credible to your persona.
Step 3: Find a credible photo
Some say that AI-generated photos work well. Personally, all the fake accounts created with AI photos got banned pretty quickly. Correlation or not, I prefer to avoid it. To choose a profile picture, you have several options:
Use a royalty-free image bank (Unsplash, Exactitudes, ...): we like to do this but the risk that your image is known or too classic "royalty-free" is risky.
Using a Google image: the problem with this method is that you do not have the rights to the image. It would be a shame to have rights problems, but it gives you an endless catalogue of fake profile pictures.
In both cases, we advise you to modify the image a little.
Step 4: Create your LinkedIn account
You have opened a new chrome session or use a VPN without sharing your cookies with your first account. You are ready to create your fake LinkedIn account.
Go to LinkedIn through Google. Let's go through the steps: ⬇️
Enter the information and submit,
I enter my information and LinkedIn asks me to verify that I am not a robot by entering my phone.
You arrive in the LinkedIn onboarding.
It will first ask you for your position, choose what you want, then it will ask you for your job.
Give your persona an experience, if they're a student, put them in a fairly well-known, big school. If he is working, put him in a permanent job or a work-study programme in a big company.
Step 5: Add your first contacts
This is a crucial step in creating a fake LinkedIn account: your first connections! ✨
A low acceptance rate because no one knows you is likely to alert LinkedIn's AI.
Send a connection request to the contacts that LinkedIn offers from the start.
Your former colleagues,
Your friends,
Your current colleagues,
People related to your business,
Step 6: Make the account human
Once the account has been created, the first invitations sent and the photo set up, complete the LinkedIn profile of your persona. You can add hashtags or even skills. LinkedIn will have less of an impression that this is a fake account with a fake LinkedIn job or a fake LinkedIn employee, as will active users of the social network.
Step 7: Grow the account
Your LinkedIn account needs to grow now. The solution to keep it human without you having to do anything?
With Waalaxy! 👽
From the moment someone accepts you, you have access to their connections (if no one has accepted you from the people suggested, you can send invitations to Premium members, they tend to accept much more easily).
Once you have reached 100 connections and your account has at least 1 week of life, you can download Waalaxy. Export as many people as possible from this search, 1000, to Waalaxy. I advise you to simply use the filters "Person" and "2nd connection".
You will then just have to launch connection requests (I advise you to leave the notes empty) on these people. Since you will only be second degree connections, they will tend to accept you much more easily.
Remember to set up Waalaxy so that your working hours look normal and not 24/7, as your account is still fresh.
Good practices for your account to survive
The first few weeks:
Each time you log in, improve the profile a little. A previous job, a bio, a university... We advise you to add a past with a big account. It seems that it is more complicated for LinkedIn to verify and gives you the benefit of the doubt (thanks to Guillaume Albisetti). Do yourself a favour! Executive at Total or Sales at Orange?
For each job or school, add a full description. LinkedIn doesn't like empty job descriptions.
Once it's ready:
Aim for relationships 2 first. If you have a low acceptance rate at once, LinkedIn may ban you.
Bad practices
Using Artificial Intelligence photos, ❌
Making too many applications in the first few weeks,
Completing your entire profile on the first day.