emails from fake followers

aggiegoddess · Member · Mar 31, 2018 at 4:55 pm
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I keep WP getting emails saying that someone is following my blog. When I check my blog stats, they are not there. The email addresses of the followers look suspicious and they are all from outlook.com.

Does anyone know what’s going on?

Thanks.

The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
aggiegoddess · Member · Mar 31, 2018 at 4:57 pm
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Never mind. I see that it is a recurring and known issue. Hopefully, it will be resolved soon.
staff-zinnia · Staff · Apr 1, 2018 at 12:56 am
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Hi aggiegoddess –

Yes, this is a known issue that we are actively working on. Can you tell me if you are marking them as spam manually or if our spam filter is catching them? Thanks.
sdalton43 · Member · Apr 1, 2018 at 11:51 pm
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This has started happening to me as well. My blog site is musingsamidthethorns.com. I get email notifications about new followers, but I do not see new followers reflected on my WordPress site.
palotasakos · Member · Apr 2, 2018 at 9:13 am
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The same happened with my blog as well…
Anyway, it made my day that I got so many followers :) devntestblog.wordpress.com
morethanabitdeaf · Member · Apr 2, 2018 at 11:00 am
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Hello. I had this problem with weird outlook followers a couple of months ago, which WordPress sorted (thank you!). Overnight I’ve had about ten suspicious “likes” from someone with a “www.sexy……..random letters………website”. I deleted the email notifications of these without clicking on them, but now I’m wondering if I should be doing something else on my site as a result?
morethanabitdeaf · Member · Apr 2, 2018 at 11:12 am
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See comment above. For the moment I have removed the like button from my site. Should I be doing anything else?
laurieh111 · Member · Apr 2, 2018 at 11:48 am
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Update on my WordPress woes: I no longer get phony emails that look like they are from WordPress saying that I have new followers. I now get phony emails that look like they are from WordPress describing “likes” that my posts have gotten. Watch your notification emails closely! The tip off for me is that I got several at the same time, and each email address (from several different blogs) had “sexy” in it.
staff-zinnia · Staff · Apr 2, 2018 at 2:54 pm
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Plerase share the username or blog addresses from these emails. This way I can investigate their accounts.
staff-zinnia · Staff · Apr 2, 2018 at 2:55 pm
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ooof! sorry for the typo. That first word should read *Please*.
mydustyflipflops · Member · Apr 2, 2018 at 3:22 pm
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I have also been getting notifications of new email followers who have outlook email addresses. When I look at my followers list they are there, but then disappear a few hours later. It seems like the same issue that was happening a little while ago. Good to know wordpress are on the case again with it, thank you!
aggiegoddess · Member · Apr 2, 2018 at 3:30 pm
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staff-zinnia
My spam filter has not been catching these and I have not been marking them as spam but will do so now.

Here are some fo the email addresses of my fake followers:

(email visible only to moderators and staff)
(email visible only to moderators and staff)
(email visible only to moderators and staff)
(email visible only to moderators and staff)
(email visible only to moderators and staff)
(email visible only to moderators and staff)
(email visible only to moderators and staff)
(email visible only to moderators and staff)
(email visible only to moderators and staff)
(email visible only to moderators and staff)
(email visible only to moderators and staff)
aggiegoddess · Member · Apr 2, 2018 at 3:31 pm
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Hmmm. Not sure why the emails are redacted… how should I submit them?
laurieh111 · Member · Apr 2, 2018 at 3:36 pm
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Kaizen BT is the blog user name (which is a blog that I actually follow), but the email address is not correct.<www.sexy.esoreret.ru> is the email address.
aggiegoddess · Member · Apr 2, 2018 at 3:38 pm
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This is a sample email content
“(email visible only to moderators and staff) just started following you at http://accidental-goddess.com. They will receive an email every time you publish a post. Congratulations.”

They are all email addresses on outlook.com
aggiegoddess · Member · Apr 2, 2018 at 3:39 pm
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breaking up the email address:
“calderaxsharmainepx (at outlook.com) just started following you at http://accidental-goddess.com. They will receive an email every time you publish a post. Congratulations.”
timethief · Member · Apr 2, 2018 at 5:11 pm
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Hmmm. Not sure why the emails are redacted… how should I submit them?

Staff can read all redacted email addresses. They are redacted by our software.
sdalton43 · Member · Apr 2, 2018 at 8:10 pm
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Here are the addresses of my recent fake followers:

judgeejoyl

cuthbertsondileonilan

dinkinstandrewpw

swaneyodanyelxu

yoonkebonimn

Thanks!

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staff-zinnia · Staff · Apr 3, 2018 at 2:51 pm
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Thanks everyone.
sashataakheru · Member · Apr 5, 2018 at 12:58 pm
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I’m still getting a whole bunch of these, at least every few days, though they don’t stay in my follower list for long. I only had one to clear out just now. I can trawl through my email notifications to grab the spammy addresses if that would help.

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