Another how-to query from a friend came to me on the same day as E’s question (see yesterday’s blog):
My son B, who is a financial planner hired C, an assistant to help him with his marketing. It seems there was a problem with that. He was unaware that LinkedIn contacted B, and his marketing assistant sent him the following email:
You were recently notified that your LinkedIn account has been restricted and that you will need to verify your identity in order to lift the restriction. I wanted to give you an update on this issue and what I have learned through my research.
Uh oh, B. Don’t give your ID and/or PW to anyone, even to C, your trusted assistant. I had a client with a worse situation a few years ago where a lawyer gave his ID and password to his “trusted” secretary and after they parted under some not-very-good-embezzlement-circumstances, she would not give him back access to his own profile credentials–she had deliberately changed his password!
As per LinkedIn customer support via the Help Center:
It’s against our agreement to access any other person’s account. Unfortunately, there is not an option to add an Administrator to another person’s account either. LinkedIn is designed to be used by each individual member for the purpose of networking. If this activity continues, your account, as well as anyone else’s that you log into could be permanently restricted.
The LinkedIn User Agreement and Professional Community Policies, which states that you agree to not:
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Use or attempt to use another’s account.
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Create a false identity on LinkedIn or create a member profile for anyone other than yourself (a real person).
Thank you for agreeing to the LinkedIn User Agreement and Professional Community Policies going forward.
So, what does B has to do to remedy this?
- First, a policy change: going forward no one other than B, the owner of the profile–not any of his representatives, C, or anyone(!)–will log in to his account to check-in or perform any updates or add content.
- How B can fix the current issue and lift the account restriction:
a) Appeal the restriction by verifying his identity. The easiest way to do this is to send LinkedIn a picture of the front and back of his driver’s license.
b) Then he can follow the instructions that are provided on the screen when he tries to log in to your LinkedIn account.
c) After this has been done B will need to reset his password.
d) After he has completed these steps, B should be good to go.
LinkedIn knows and sees all..And do not give away the keys to the kingdom again…
