Over the years LinkedIn has become a must-have social network for everyone aspiring to develop their career or look for job opportunities and alternatives. If you manage your profile properly, LinkedIn becomes a one of a kind online resume. Recruiters scan through the network daily and every once in a while, an interview invitation lands in your inbox, without the trouble of emailing your CV multiple times and without the stress of waiting for the answer. But what if one morning you wake up, and it’s all gone?

LinkedIn might be perceived as a large market for job seekers and seekers of job seekers. We consider that to be a good thing. By putting an accent on professional interests first, as well as news relating to the economy, personal development and technological progress, LinkedIn has freed itself from reality TV discussions, Instagram photo trends and overpersonalization of posts seen on Facebook.

But, if you want to take advantage of all the benefits LinkedIn has to offer, you should build your network carefully, or to put in simple words: on LinkedIn it’s all about who you know. 

Why does LinkedIn restrict accounts?

When we sing up for a profile in any social network out there, we rarely read the fineprint. Then, when an unwanted event (like a restriction of our account) happens, we bash our heads against the wall. If LinkedIn discovers you’ve been acting strange, they’ll put you on lock down in a blink of an eye. 

Here are the top reasons why accounts get restricted (find the full explanation on LinkedIn help pages):

1. An unusually large number of page views from the account.
2. The name used in the account profile is in violation of our User Agreement.
3. Inappropriate or illegal activity detected on the account.
4. A history of repetitive abusive behavior on the account.
5. The account may have been hacked or compromised.

You’ve been restricted: what to do next

This actually happened to a few us at RCMT IT Europe and it’s a sad story but a true one. To verify your account LinkedIn asks you to upload a scan of your personal ID card, or a passport. You can not get around this step, if you want your account back. It’s not pleasant to give out such information, but LinkedIn assures us that’s it’s safe. And if you’re under restriction, opening a new profile won’t help. Even if you sign in with a different email, as soon you start adding connections, or enlist the company you’re working for, LinkedIn will shut you down. Again. So, we’re back to uploading scans of personal documents. 

The problem here is that for an unknown reason, our documents turned out to be unreadable both ID cards and passports and both scans and photos.

How we lifted the restriction

A logical thing would be that we’ve gotten in touch with Linkedin support. And that’s exactly what we did, after two months.

Why it took so long? Because a link to LinkedIn support was nowhere to be found. From the page where they tell you you’re banned from LinkedIn, there’s not a way that you can contact the support. 

So, one of us got really determined, poked around in Help pages, googled like crazy and eventually found it on Quora! 

LinkedIn support is contacted by a contact form. Once (finally) there explain your case, be honest and tell them if you created new accounts. 

Someone from the support team will contact you shortly, hopefully, to let you know that the restriction has been lifted.

They might also ask you to shut down the new account, so do that the first chance you get.

We hope this solved your problem and wish you happy linking. 

For more helpful content and a piece of our everyday company life visit our LinkedIn page.