Social media network LinkedIn has defended its anti-scam policies after it came under fire from boosst.financial when it fell prey to a cloning scam.

Financial Planning Today previously revealed how that cloning scammers were trying to copy the Milton Keynes firm’s business brand to cheat the public.

Reacting to the ruse Josh Butten FPFS, boosst director and Certified Financial Planner, said the firm initially noticed suspicious social media activity with a new user in the US falsely claiming to be an employee of boosst.

He said: “We monitor our social media channels very carefully and recently noted suspicious activity on LinkedIn, where a new user based in USA was falsely claiming to be an employee of boosst.

Mr Butten said the user had also used profile text from one of the firm’s own team members’ from his LinkedIn Profile.

He was critical of LinkedIn, adding: “As we could not prove that they had undertaken any fraudulent activities (albeit we clearly knew that he has never been a boosst employee) LinkedIn gave the new member 14 days to remove the incorrect details or provide evidence that they are an employee of boosst.

“In our opinion, LinkedIn’s approach gave the user impersonating us too much protection.

“The profile has since been deleted.

“LinkedIn currently seems to allow anybody to say that they work for any business, without any form of verification - we believe that this makes it too easy for fraudsters to impersonate employees of regulated firms.”

But today LinkedIn defended its record on scammers.

A spokesman for the firm told Financial Planning Today: “Fake profiles are a clear violation of our terms of service.

“When fake profiles are identified on LinkedIn, we take the swiftest course of action to remove them.

“We continue to invest in cutting edge machine intelligence and human monitoring to prevent fake accounts or fraudulent activity on our platform, and are committed to keeping LinkedIn a professional community for real people seeking real opportunity.”