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6 ways to get your Linkedin account suspended

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Linkedin is a great networking tool, and many are utilising its power to manage communications with their contacts. I make extensive use of Linkedin and was dismayed last year to have managed to have my account suspended – and I’m a paying customer! A quick email to their Customer Service department resolved the issue in under 24 hours which was a relief as I have heard of people waiting two weeks to reach a resolution.

Below are a list of activities you could participate in that may lead to you having your Linkedin account suspended, I’ve highlighted the one that I fell foul of:

  1. Extraneous information in your profile name – Your profile name is intended to be your name only, extra information is not permitted. No-nos may include an email address, LION (meaning “Linkedin Open Networker”), telephone number, showing your number of connections such as (2500+), or anything that is not considered part of your name. The only obvious exception to this is letters that represent your qualifications, however since your qualifications appear in your Linkedin profile, it is an unnecessary addition. You will see lots of accounts that breach these rules, but it is still a breach and Linkedin may well shut down such accounts at any time without warning.
  2. Using a company name in place of a profile name – I have seen many profiles on Linkedin that clearly are not the names of individuals but are that of companies. I’m not sure why people resort to this practice as it is very easy to setup your company or business on Linkedin, it may well be down to a lack of understanding. However, this does breach the rules and falls under the same category as point 1. Don’t do it!
  3. Creating a fake profile – Linkedin are eager to shut down fake profiles and it doesn’t really need much explanation why. There is no legitimate reason for needing more than one profile and what someone may wish to do with a fake one is questionable.
  4. Clicking on too many links/buttons – I fell fowl of this one. I spent approximately 30 minutes cleaning up my Linkedin mailbox, which resulted in quite a large number of clicks in a relatively short amount of time. My account was suspended while I was using it without notice! I have since discovered other people have succumbed to a similar fate for such innocent activities as categorising/tagging their contacts. Too many clicks in too short a time period will get your account blocked. You have been warned!
  5. Sending too many messages to your contacts – Yes, believe it or not, sending out a Linkedin message to all your contacts could get classified as spamming. People claim to have had their accounts suspended for such a reason. It is not clear whether this is in response to a complaint, or whether there is some sort of threshold that triggers it. It seems bizarre that sending messages to your contacts could be considered spamming, but it is, so be careful!
  6. Objectional material – This is an obvious one, but goes without saying. If you post objectionable or offensive material anywhere on Linkedin, it will likely lead to complaints and your account will be suspended.

You might think I’ve missed an obvious one here – DNKs. Linkedin says you should only connect with people you know, and when anyone receives a connection request, they do have an option of selecting “I do not know this person”, commonly referred to as DNK. Receive too many of these over a certain period of time and Linkedin are alerted, the exact numbers are not published. However, this does not automatically mean your account will be suspended, instead you may have extra restrictions imposed on your invitations making it more difficult to invite people to connect who Linkedin believe you may not know.

That’s enough for now. Continue to use Linkedin within the limits of their Terms & Conditions (of course we have all read them!), and you should be able to continue building your network and doing Linked up business.


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11 thoughts on “6 ways to get your Linkedin account suspended”

  1. Hello there! I just would like to give you a big thumbs
    up for the great information you have right here on
    this post. I’ll be returning to your blog for more soon.

  2. Hi Philip,

    Thank you for some valuable information. I had a question, if you would know, what classifies as a fake profile. How does linkedin identify fake profiles? I work for company that does not have a web presence yet (yes! there are such companies) but we are registered. Would this classify as a fake “according to linkedin”?

    Nevertheless I thank you again for the useful information, I feel I might have been a victim of “too many clicks in a short time” behavior.

    1. Sorry for the delay in my response. Only LinkedIn can accurately answer what they consider to be a fake profile. From my experience, fake profiles are generally used for negative reasons and other LinkedIn users will flag them. I have had to flag profiles for spamming before now. I suspect you have nothing to worry about.

  3. Good morning , my account has bn suspended this morning with I know the ppl or its ppl my company has bn in contact with over the phone over the yrs networking for local companies can only be a god think is there any way I can have my suspension lifted pls many thanks Steven MCNICOL

  4. Hello and thank you for your interesting info. I have a further question for you: is it considered against the policy to include a phone number or an email inside a LinkedIn message?
    Will the email get blocked eventually?
    Thanks. Michele Bianco

    1. I wouldn’t have thought so, but be careful about sending out direct messages to your contacts that they might think are spammy. Recipients can mark messages as spam, and this could cause LinkedIn to suspend your account.

  5. Remi van Dongen

    I know another one, contact tech support… I got MAXIMUM RESTRICTIONS for a small problem with my premium account they canceled by mistake. When I complained I got MAXIMUM RESTRICTIONS and get the silent treatment. Now my account is suspended and they did it in the middle of important conversations I had with people. I asked why several times and for evidence of content that would violate their user agreement, but it stays silent. I get no response and my account is still restricted. I also run a group of +- 60 VIP (Journalists, Member Nobel Committee, NASA, High level government, Special Forces, Military and a CNTV Achor are in this group) They don’t even respond after 20 appeal requests. I have no idea how to get the account UN-suspended. This way LinkedIn destroyed our anti-communist initiative. Of a group Called Section 21 PsyOPS, we aim to make people aware about the dangers of communism and the suffering communists worldwide cause. I have been nothing but polite, but LinkedIn just does not respond. We now need to regroup Section 21 is still on Facebook. But the LinkedIn format is much better for finding the skilled people we need for Section 21 PsyOPS. It is a tragedy they did this and I fear a communist has infiltrated their tech-support. If you think LinkedIn should not block anti-communist groups, send a complain to their tech support for us! Name Section 21 PsyOPS.

  6. I read about LinkedIn Snipers, but I met a communist LinkedIn sniper:

    Please explain why you believe that the account restriction is in error.: I did nothing wrong. Last Friday I had a premium account.

    Do you have any additional information to add?: I have sent the following information to all my group members using E-mail, they all know your claims are false:

    Dear Section 21 members,
    There is no talking to this people, to me they don’t respond, with you they don’t cooperate. They say I constantly abuse the LinkedIn platform, I had no idea….. But it looks like another standard mail for a permanent account restriction.

    One of the communist bastard immediately gave me that since he knew tech-support only send back automated messages, they don’t appear to be reading anything I write….

    I just get things about inappropriate or pornographic content and constantly abusing LinkedIn. I have no idea what these people are talking about…. But I think they are not talking these messages are auto generated it appears.

    As you all know my account is an example of decency, good behavior and good Christian morals.

    I never put anything like that on my LinkedIn page as you all know, if they just looked they could see that for themselves.

    Really the guy who did this should be fired.

    -Remi

    ______________
    Nothing I do seems to work now my account is HIGH RESTRICTED, I cannot log in, I have to click pictures of rivers, trees and streets signs and I get the silent treatment. I have been nothing but polite. These people can’t be reasoned with.

    Everyone that remembers my account knows how good it is!

    Please help me fight, and complain about mobile.unclexnl at gmail dot com
    being suspended. These articles I wrote for you, are yours too!

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