October 7, 2025 LinkedIn has filed a federal lawsuit accusing a data-scraping company of creating more than a million fake accounts to harvest user information, in what it calls one of the largest automated attacks ever against the professional network.
In a complaint filed in California, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn alleges that ProAPIs used bot networks to collect data from member profiles, including names, job histories, and connections. The company says the operation violated its terms of service as well as U.S. and California laws that prohibit unauthorized computer access.
Court documents claim that ProAPIs used roughly one million fake or automated accounts to mimic legitimate users while scraping the platform’s data. That information was allegedly resold through paid APIs or data-access subscriptions. LinkedIn says the activity not only violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, but also undermined trust in the network and exposed users to potential scams.
The company says it has strengthened its systems to detect and block fake accounts and will continue to pursue legal action against those who automate data collection. “We remain committed to protecting our members’ data and taking action against misuse of our platform,” a LinkedIn spokesperson said in a statement.
The case recalls LinkedIn’s earlier legal battle with analytics firm hiQ Labs, in which U.S. courts ruled that scraping publicly available data wasn’t necessarily illegal. By focusing on fake accounts rather than public scraping, this lawsuit could mark a new line in the debate over where data rights end and privacy protection begins.
