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It is no surprise that LinkedIn does not like fake accounts or spam. They’ve made this very clear on their policies and even clearer with how often they execute them. However, everything is changing now. LinkedIn has recently launched a massive internal update that is now getting LinkedIn accounts suspended or restricted with much more frequency than before. This site-wide change has affected a lot of accounts, even real ones too. In this guide we will share how you can effectively verify a restricted LinkedIn account and get it back up in no time, just in case yours got affected too.
Option 1: Automated Verification of Restricted LinkedIn Account
Your first option will be to complete LinkedIn’s automated ID verification process. This can be done by simply trying to login to your restricted LinkedIn account and completing the next steps you see as you do. When it comes to automated verification, you might find yourself facing one out of two scenarios explained below:
Scenario One: ID Verification
You will get a message saying “your account has been temporarily restricted as a precaution” and a “Verify your identity” button will be available for you to click, which you should. This will take you to another screen where you will have to verify your identity by taking a picture of a valid government issued ID, drivers license, or passport. Make sure the name on the ID matches the name on the LinkedIn account you want to verify. If done correctly, your account should be verified within 1 - 4 days. If you get stuck, find any errors, or don’t get it verified this way, feel free to move to Option 2 explained further in this article.
Scenario Two: Phone Verification
If you don’t see the first option, then that means you’re being prompted to verify with a phone number. This phone number verification does not work and it doesn't really matter how many times you enter a valid phone number, no code or call will ever arrive. So just ignore this part and don’t waste your time here, proceed directly to Option 2 explained further in this article.
Option 2: Manual Verification via LinkedIn’s Support Channels
Okay, so you’ve exhausted the automated channels and your LinkedIn account is still restricted. No worries, you still have other options and this one in particular involves actually speaking with real humans, in this case LinkedIn’s customer support. The way you do this is by heading to LinkedIn’s help center and opening a ticket with their support team.
When opening the ticket, you will be asked a couple of questions including your name, account email, and a brief summary of why you’re opening the ticket. Please be as extensive as possible in this option, explaining how you’ve read LinkedIn’s terms and have not violated any of them. Be explicit and say you’re not impersonating anyone and can gladly verify your identity via any means they deem appropriate. Take it even further and send them your ID and a short video explaining the situation.
Once your ticket is ready, submit it. LinkedIn’s customer support team will review it in about 1 - 4 days and send you a link to verify your LinkedIn account or just say they will keep if suspended. If they do the former, please try verifying your identity with that link. If they do the latter, move on to Option 3.
Option 3: Verify with Affidavit
They say the third time’s a charm, and we’re about to test that hypothesis with LinkedIn. Your third option to verify a restricted LinkedIn account would be to use the affidavit verification. This option is a little bit more expensive and technical, as you need to fill out a document and have it notarized by a public notary.
In short, this affidavit confirms that you’re the person you say you are and the LinkedIn account actually belongs to you. This option is also used by those who don’t like sending their government issued IDs for privacy concerns. In case you want to verify with an affidavit, you have the links to those over here: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1342243
If you need a public notary, feel free to reach out, we can connect you with one in any jurisdiction or country.
Option 4: Reach out on X (formerly Twitter)
By now you’ve experienced how inefficient and annoying LinkedIn’s support channels are, so you might as well try one more. In this case you will be using Twitter or X, depending on what year you were born in. Reach out to @LinkedInHelp on X/Twitter and send them a DM with your LinkedIn email address and the situation you’re encountering. In some cases they’ll help you restore access to your restricted LinkedIn account.
Option 5: File a BBB Complaint
Your final straw would be to take it outside LinkedIn by bringing others involved. By others we mean the Better Business Bureau. You can head to their website and file a complaint against LinkedIn, explaining how they’ve restricted access to your account without any justification. The BBB (Better Business Bureau) will reach out to LinkedIn directly and add extra pressure. Best case scenario, this helps you restore your restricted LinkedIn account. Worst case, the BBB will tell you the outreach was futile. If that’s the case, move on to the next step.
If All Else Fails…
Okay, so bad news. If you’re here it means your account has been restricted and it is highly likely it will remain so. Best you can do is continue appealing suspensions every two weeks and see if you get lucky. Good news is, you can still create a new account, though you’d have to do so from a different email and IP address. Our suggestion would be to wait a little longer instead of creating a new one right off the bat, as you might get it restricted too. If you need to urgently use LinkedIn, you can evaluate renting a real profile like the ones Akountify (cough cough) offers.
Remember The Best Practices
So whether you got your restricted LinkedIn account back or are in the process of creating a new one in case you didn’t, you still need to be aware of LinkedIn’s best practices moving forward, otherwise you’ll end up in the same hole. This topic is so extensive and important that it deserves a separate article entirely, so we will work on that. However, we can’t leave you blue balled without at least covering the main ideas. So here they are:
Avoid using fake accounts, those don’t have IDs to pass LinkedIn’s verification walls. Use real ones instead.
Don’t use fake pictures or fake names. Keep it real and organic.
Don’t abuse LinkedIn’s daily activity limits, which are 20 connections per day.
Obviously don’t sell anything illegal, keep it ethical.
Hope this guide helped you verify your restricted LinkedIn account. If you need additional help expediting that process, don’t hesitate to contact our support team at Akountify. We are experts at everything on LinkedIn, including verifying restricted accounts.
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