As a seventh dan in trolling, I confess I’ve regularly used the tool for a laugh, like getting people to post random nonsense in the comments. Until I was surprised to see start-up bosses turning up among the users.

Which, taken to the extreme (and with great maturity), can make people say some strange things. But it also raises the question of who is responsible for the post if there’s a problem or illegal content, since it really is a real account doing the posting.

I did the same thing for the launch of the Zero Bullshit LinkedIn page, which flushed out Top Voice accounts using Podawaa:

But also influencers who sell brands, at a hefty price, an audience that could well be fake.

Same goes for this seller of turnkey buy-to-let deals, or this “investor and buy-to-let property expert”, a disciple of Cédric Anicette (true fans will remember), who sells courses for €4,000 (well, €3,997, obviously) and is trying to build credibility by buying a few likes on the sly. Or this property finder, co-founder of a fractional property fintech. All of them, except Manuel R., are still active Podawaa members in December 2024.

A co-founder of a fractional ownership platform is also a long-standing regular of fake engagement. Over the past 2 years, at least 3 people, including a partner in the platform, have told me that this audience was an asset for the company, and that it impressed people. Except that, once again, it’s greatly inflated.

But the con goes up a level when it’s actual sellers of LinkedIn services who cheat and use their own accounts to prove how good they are… when they’re cheating. As shown by this list of people penalised in a Favikon ranking in 2022:

Named on the list, Guillem Salles Turrel admitted the practice at the time:

“I used Podawaa in 2021 when I launched my business on LinkedIn. […] On my first posts I must have scraped 50-60 likes, and I quickly dropped the thing along the way.”

Today, his posts stand on their own and let him make a living as a ghostwriter, and his account has never resurfaced among the platform’s users.

For his part, Jason Beraud, another LinkedIn influencer, whose activity I can trace from 2022 to the present day, has always owned up to using Podawaa to “kick-start his posts”.

Which isn’t the case for this “LinkedIn expert and influencer - ghostwriter”, as he describes himself, who was thrown out of the ranking altogether because his scheming had got so out of hand, to the point of creating an army of bots to:

• Spam prospects;
• Make his company look big;
• Like his own posts.

Same story for this alumnus of The Family, a Paris start-up accelerator, who uses his LinkedIn numbers, pumped up by fakes, to sell courses. For a long time he was ranked among the biggest influencers, according to Favikon.

And as it happens, the Favikon rankings feature several profiles that cheat. The most blatant account is one of those dominating the top spots²². This wealth adviser, who boasts nearly 60K followers, is so proud of his ranking that he has displayed it on his profile since May 2023. True, his explainer cards, heavily inspired by those of Guillaume Simonin, get at least 100 to 200 likes per post. And often just as many comments.

Except that, since his very first posts, this account has shown up as very active on Podawaa and, on at least 50 occasions²³, it has requested fake engagement. In December 2024, the account is still active on the platform, though it’s no longer possible to tell whether engagement is being requested or not. The same goes for at least 3 others in the property and personal finance lists. 5 have used Podawaa in the past, but since their last logins date back more than 6 months, that’s not necessarily representative of what they do today.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of this ranking.