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I am certain that it is him; the profile has his same unusual first and last name and it says that he works in the position he works at (team of 10 programmers), at the company, etc, and the profile picture looks like him. However, I asked him about his education ("Didn't you go to university x?", as it stated on his Linkedin) and he looked at me bewildered and stated that he did not go there (much to my surprise!). So this appears to be a fake Linkedin account and I am wondering if I should let him know to confirm. I believe a couple of other coworkers have added this profile as well.

edit: I told him and he stated that he went there for one semester. Weird how he said he didn't go there at all when I originally asked. Apparently it was a "white lie". Thanks for your answers!

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    What harm do you think letting him know could do? In the absence of any downside, it just comes down to deciding whether you want be a good person.
    – Bernhard Barker
    Jan 20, 2018 at 10:08
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    Definitely tell him.
    – gnasher729
    Jan 20, 2018 at 12:57
  • Impersonating someone to gain confidential information is also a crime. Whoever does this should end up in jail. This definitely should be mentioned.
    – user81055
    Jan 22, 2018 at 12:33
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    Just because one fact was wrong does not mean it is a fake account. You should probably mention it without assuming it is a fake account, in case it was a legitimate mistake.
    – Brandin
    Jan 22, 2018 at 13:03
  • Faking someone else's social media account to get info from their contacts is a common scam. There's no reason not to let him know. Let him figure out if it is a fake account and what to do about it.
    – Seth R
    Jan 22, 2018 at 20:37

2 Answers 2

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Yes. Just mention him you saw a Linkedin account using his name, picture, role and stating he attended that University, and ask if maybe it is his.

If somebody is trying social engineering methods to gain access to reserved information, it is worth taking action before it's too late.

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It's fine and normal to mention it to him. If you're worried that it would somehow be inappropriate or that you're being nosy just be very matter of fact and move on to another topic. You could say something like:

Hey I asked you if you went to X the other day because I actually saw it on what I assumed to be your LinkedIn profile. I wanted to let you know since you said you didn't go there in case someone created a fake account claiming to be you.

That's all you need to say. It could be a fake account. It could be that he listed an education he started but never finished. It could be that he wanted to connect to a University group and mistakenly added it as an education section instead. It's kind to point out the potential issue and let him know. You shouldn't follow-up beyond that though, at that point you'd only be satiating your own curiosity.

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