Complaint about follow spamming
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WordPress really needs ot offer users a means of blocking follow spammers.
I’ve seen this raised in the past, and WordPress just seem to ignore it.
I’m fed up deleting numerous ‘Follows’ EVERY DAY by this creep, Bob Sherman…
https://healthybodiessupport.wordpress.com/
Like many follows now, this is clearly automated spam just to get his avatar and link to show on other people’s blog.
There’s never just a single follow – it’s always a double follow with the same time stamp.
I’ve used his contact form and requested he stop, or reply to me, for more than a week.
No reply, ever, and usually just get MORE double follow attempts.
We need a tool to block these people or blacklist urls that are clearly using some sort of code/bot to generate constant streams of double follows on our blogs.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there,
We do have measures in place to prevent automated and rapid bulk-following of sites. The owner of that site does not appear to have ever hit our limits in that regard, though, and they are definitely not using any automated system to follow sites.
I also don’t see any evidence of them double-following your site. I just see them re-following each time you remove them. Have you considered that they might just enjoy reading your site?
Also keep in mind that the only place his link and avatar will show if he follows your site is in your notifications. It doesn’t show anywhere on your site itself unless he comments or likes a post on your site, and you have complete control over whether or not you allow that.
If you’re getting double follow notifications it would rather point to a problem with notifications than anything that user is doing, so I’d appreciate if you can send some more details about exactly where you’re seeing this so we can investigate.
As for blocking, that is not really feasible. Your WordPress.com site is not a page on a social media network where we can restrict access only to people with an account, and then prevent specific users from accessing specific pages. Your WordPress.com is a full, independent website, which means it can be accessed by anyone with access to a web browser and an internet connection.
Even if we blocked someone’s WordPress.com account from following or even viewing your site, it wouldn’t prevent them from just logging out and viewing your site that way, following it using an email address not connected to a WordPress.com account, or even using a third-party RSS reader that we don’t control at all. The only way to restrict access to or control who can follow a website is make it private so only people you invite can see it.
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So we can assume no spammer/scammer is smart enough to throttle their efforts to avoid triggering detectors?
I would have thought you would have been better placed than me to find evidence of a problem with double notifications, since they are sent by WordPress when a ‘Follow’ is made, and the notification email is triggered.
Have I considered they might just enjoy reading my site?
I find it an odd coincidence that all the ‘problem’ followers are those who do not operate ‘real’ blogs, but the type which promote something, usually like a stream of posts about ‘The top 5 ways to attract readers’, ‘How to make money from your blog’, ‘The most powerful blogging techniques ever’, and so on.
I can tell when real people are writing blogs, and making genuine posts about people, places, and things they like – not self-promoting, or promoting stuff.
And, strangely, few of them ever make double follows, or trigger double follow notifications.
As for the good ‘Bob Sherman’.
If he is a real person, I doubt he would want to follow my blog multiple times per day, given the comments I have made to him about his honour using his ‘Contact’ form on an almost daily basis.
I certainly wouldn’t want to follow me after a few days of those opinions.
I was sad to see that after suspending the account of ‘adriana.itattoos’ recently, it reappeared a few days later, as this is another I consider to be spamming or scamming in some way, as it keeps following another of my blogs, regardless of being removed daily. I thought at least one had been dumped.
And, it has NO contact form, so cannot even be told it’s not welcome.
I didn’t really expect any help, as I’ve watched other bloggers ask for the same assistance for a year or two, and the response is almost a boilerplate.
Just because a follow cannot be seen by others…
Unfortunate victims of these spammers/scammers, blog admins, SEE EVERY ONE OF THEM – in the email notification, AND when they pull up the ‘Follower’ page to remove them, so it is a successful technique for getting their promotional blogs in front of eyes.
‘Nuff said – I’m wasting time I could better use to remove some unwanted followers.
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