deleting ssubscribers who are spambots
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I have 8 email addresses on my followers list who I have identified as spambots.
Your forum discussions suggest that there is no way that a site owner can delete email followers. If this is true, is there some way you can delete them for me?What exactly are the dangers of leaving these addresses on my website, for me, and for WordPress.com?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hey there,
Thanks so much for your note about subscribers. Besides adding themselves as followers to your site, are these subscribers leaving spam comments on your site?
If you’re concerned about this, you can blacklist them from ever publishing on your site:
https://en.support.wordpress.com/unwanted-comments/This link describes a bit why we don’t remove followers from public WordPress.com blogs, and actions you can take if you feel as if you’re being harassed:
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/unwanted-followers-may-spam?replies=4If you have any questions at all about this, please do let me know. I’m more than happy to provided assistance or further explanation.
Many thanks!
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Thank you for your instant reply!
No they are not leaving spam comments, as Comments are not enabled. I will blacklist them anyway – can you do this if Comments are not enabled?
The staff comments at https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/a-follower-who-just-linked-my-blog?replies=31#post-2183095 are reassuring, but just to be clear – is their aim only to leave adverts as Comments? Is there anything else they are after?
Many thanks
Barbara -
No they are not leaving spam comments, as Comments are not enabled. I will blacklist them anyway – can you do this if Comments are not enabled?
The blacklist only keeps them from leaving comments. If you don’t have comments enabled you don’t have anything to worry about.
is their aim only to leave adverts as Comments? Is there anything else they are after?
They may also be hoping you’ll visit their site when you get the follower notification email. So long as you don’t do anything when you visit their site (other than report it as Spam) they can’t do anything to hurt you or your site.
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That’s the thing – I haven’t been getting any follower notification emails. I have another website: leweshistory.wordpress.com, on Twenty Ten, and that one sends me follower notification emails. The infested site is on Coraline. I have 8 of these spammer followers, and I would have spotted their suspicious-looking email addresses if I had been sent a notification email. (The emails did not go in my junk/spam box). I can’t see where to control notification emails?
If they are not WP users, any notification email would not give their site address surely, only their email address?
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Hi @qsfe8,
I have 8 of these spammer followers, and I would have spotted their suspicious-looking email addresses if I had been sent a notification email. (The emails did not go in my junk/spam box). I can’t see where to control notification emails?
I took a look at the subscriber list for friendsoflewes.wordpress.com here:
https://wordpress.com/my-stats/?blog=24926235&blog_subscribers&type=email&unit=1
I’m not seeing any subscribers more recent than 2 months. Could you clarify where you’re seeing these 8 spam follows?
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I followed your link, and on that page I see the 32 email followers. The most recent is 2 months 2 weeks ago. This is a real person. The next 7 are spambots. There is another spambot listed in the 14th position.
I don’t understand the significance of your mentioning that there are no subscribers more recent than 2 months. Can you explain?
Many thanks
Barbara -
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for clarifying! I only pointed this out as you mentioned the following:
I haven’t been getting any follower notification emails.
I wanted to make sure there weren’t more recent followers that you had missed a notification for.
To recap, there seems to be two individual issues:
1. Spam followers – As of right now, there isn’t a way for you to remove these followers from your subscriber list. We’re working on ways to limit the number of spam subscribers, but as of right now, there isn’t a way to remove them.
2. Notification emails – I want to make sure you’re receiving notification emails for new followers. I just followed your blog. Can you let me know if you received a notification?
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Hi Jeremy
I haven’t received any notification email, and I see it’s 13 minutes since you started to follow my blog. I’ve checked my spam/junk box.
I see you have followed as a WP user. I don’t get emails whether people are logged on WP users, or just email followers.
Just to reiterate, I DO get notification emails on my other website which is on Twenty Ten.
I can’t find anything that I need to turn on to get these emails.
Barbata
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Thanks for confirming Barbara! Can you update the setting here for “Email me whenever”?
https://friendsoflewes.wordpress.com/wp-admin/options-discussion.php
You’ll want to check off “Someone follows my blog.” Let me know when you’ve done that, and I’ll unfollow/refollow to make sure this is working!
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Ah – that’s where it is…..I’ve now ticked the box.
I see I managed to tick this box on my other site some time ago, or it was pre-ticked.
Many thanks!
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No problem! I unfollowed and then refollowed your blog. Can you confirm you received a notification?
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