#terrible website

A week ago, a user on LinkedIn with the same name as me created an alternate account or added my email address to an existing account. It is unclear.

Since then I have been bombarded with LinkedIn verification emails, job opportunities, tips for improving "my" profile etc. There was no means of directly contacting LinkedIn or otherwise correcting this error that I could see.

The email named the intended recipient and his job title, so I made a LinkedIn account under a different email address in hopes of being able to contact him.

LinkedIn does not allow freely messaging other users. You have to set up a free trial of a premium account and I am not giving them my card details based on this. I tried to get around this by sending a "connection request" (like a friend request) to the account in question.

LinkedIn support staff are bordering on useless. I was told they couldn't address the problem unless the account itself contacted them due to privacy concerns. I challenged this by pointing out I was receiving security emails for another user so his privacy was already compromised.

They told me to tell the OTHER user to contact them and explained what he needed to click to do so. This was a process I had already solved in contacting them myself. I asked, as I was already receiving security emails intended for another user, why could they not intervene?

They misunderstood and thanked me for "reporting inappropriate content". I clarified that I was not doing that at all, but trying to get my email taken off someone else's account. They returned to the privacy concern line and told me to click "the following link" with no link provided 🙄

Each time they reply, they close my case as if solved. They did it here for example when they told me to click a link that they didn't provide.

I reopened and was provided with a link, to an email contact form so I could theoretically try to make contact from the address in question.

This link had to be used in an incognito browser window because if your browser has any trace of a LinkedIn account in the cookies (such as the one I created to deal with this mess) they intercept such links and require you to sign in.

I completed the form but have received no response.

In the meantime I contacted the other user's employer via their own email contact form in hopes of reaching him. He replied days later and said he would try to sort out the situation, then went quiet on me.

After a couple of days I chased him and he claimed to have forgotten the password. His suggestion was that I reset the password as it was tied to my email and, on ME accessing HIS account, simply delete it. While this is super dodgy I do at least have written instructions from him to do so. Unfortunately this would require him to verify from his app.

I emailed him to this effect but he has not responded (is it even possible to be logged in to two different LinkedIn accounts via the app?)

I then realised that the account in question appears to be an incomplete duplicate of his main one, based on a typo in the job title.

I have sent another incognito window contact to LinkedIn, emailed the other user details of the duplicate account and suggested he might try reporting it for impersonation (no response).

In the meantime I have accrued a mountain of connection requests and other notifications.

I did not want a LinkedIn account and I am being bombarded with material which I cannot opt out of because I cannot access the account that has falsely registered my email address.

The other user is not very responsive (and may have stopped replying) and LinkedIn support are useless.

So what am I to do? Currently I'm processing masses of unwanted emails via filtering rules as people continue to try to connect with or sell things to the false account.

It may be that I need to set up an aggressive filter to delete anything with the slightest mention of LinkedIn but I'd rather not while there's still a question of possible account impersonation and/or me being accused or being responsible for any of it.

Alternatively do I give up an email address I've used for over 20 years?

It may be oversharing to say this is impacting my mental health.

The fact that a false email can be registered like this without the owner ever verifying, leading to an endless bombardment of LinkedIn garbage is ridiculous.

Again, prior to creating an account with a different email to address this, I have never had a LinkedIn account. It's not me.

Whilst I don't expect to ever use LinkedIn, I shouldn't have to have my email server pre-emptively smite anything that even mentions it. There should be a simple method to dispute ownership of an account. As I control the email address, I should be able to prohibit its use by anyone else.

There may be more instalments to follow, but as the other user is not responding to me, and LinkedIn are not responding via the email contact form they directed me to use, I am at a point of wanting to at least record this absolute farce somewhere.