diff --git a/src/JobsMedical.Web/Services/Scraping/IngestionService.cs b/src/JobsMedical.Web/Services/Scraping/IngestionService.cs
index 8483649..d70e945 100644
--- a/src/JobsMedical.Web/Services/Scraping/IngestionService.cs
+++ b/src/JobsMedical.Web/Services/Scraping/IngestionService.cs
@@ -430,7 +430,6 @@ public class IngestionService
     public async Task<(int merged, int cleaned)> MergeAndCleanFacilitiesAsync(CancellationToken ct = default)
     {
         var facilities = await _db.Facilities.ToListAsync(ct);
-        var placeholder = facilities.FirstOrDefault(f => f.Name == UnknownFacilityName);
 
         var jobCounts = await _db.JobOpenings.GroupBy(j => j.FacilityId)
             .Select(g => new { g.Key, C = g.Count() }).ToDictionaryAsync(x => x.Key, x => x.C, ct);
@@ -438,6 +437,15 @@ public class IngestionService
             .Select(g => new { g.Key, C = g.Count() }).ToDictionaryAsync(x => x.Key, x => x.C, ct);
         int Listings(int id) => jobCounts.GetValueOrDefault(id) + shiftCounts.GetValueOrDefault(id);
 
+        // The shared "unknown" placeholder is worded differently in older data
+        // («مرکز درمانی (نامشخص)») than the current constant, so an exact-name lookup found nothing and
+        // the junk-fold step silently no-op'd. Match by the «نامشخص» marker and pick the bucket actually
+        // used by the most listings — that's the real placeholder junk should fold into.
+        var placeholder = facilities
+            .Where(f => f.Name == UnknownFacilityName || FacilityMatcher.Normalize(f.Name).Contains("نامشخص"))
+            .OrderByDescending(f => Listings(f.Id)).FirstOrDefault();
+        var placeholderId = placeholder?.Id ?? -1;
+
         // Removable = purely crawl-generated and unmanaged. Never the placeholder, an owned, or a
         // verified facility (those carry real employer data / verification).
         bool Removable(Facility f) => f.OwnerUserId is null && !f.IsVerified
@@ -463,8 +471,8 @@ public class IngestionService
                 cleaned++;
             }
 
-        // 2) Merge same-city Persian-fuzzy duplicates into the best keeper.
-        var remaining = await _db.Facilities.Where(f => f.Name != UnknownFacilityName).ToListAsync(ct);
+        // 2) Merge same-city Persian-fuzzy duplicates into the best keeper (never the placeholder).
+        var remaining = (await _db.Facilities.ToListAsync(ct)).Where(f => f.Id != placeholderId).ToList();
         var done = new HashSet<int>();
         foreach (var f in remaining)
         {