Spam Subscribers

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  trevordrewfoley · Member · Jun 5, 2018 at 5:37 am

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  Hello,

  There are a lot of spam subscribers subscribing to the website these days. Currently, we use the Follow via E-mail widget, but with this widget, people can subscribe too easily, only by submitting their e-mail address. Is there a way to insert a captcha code or other method for preventing spam subscribers? I do not intend to upgrade to professional or to use wordpress.org.

  Thank you,
  Trevor

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  fstat · Staff · Jun 5, 2018 at 9:12 am

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  Hi there,

  When someone enters their email address on that widget they need to verify the subscription by clicking on a link that we send them. This process blocks almost all bots and it’s better than CAPTCHA since there’s a human element involved.

  Also, can you please let me know if those spam subscribers are using outlook.com email addresses?

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  alwaysfullfull · Member · Jun 5, 2018 at 9:18 am

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  Hello, I have this problem that I am getting SPAM followers by using outlook.com email addresses. How do I solve this please?

  Thanks
  Poulomi

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  kokkieh · Staff · Jun 5, 2018 at 9:24 am

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  @alwaysfullfull

  There is nothing you can do about this from your end. We are working on blocking these fake subscriptions from all sites on WordPress.com, but for now the best option is just to ignore them.

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  tobascocat · Member · Jun 8, 2018 at 5:21 am

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  Ditto on receiving lots of notifications about outlook.com addresses following the blog. It looks to me, though, that they are not actually becoming followers, so that’s good.

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  kokkieh · Staff · Jun 8, 2018 at 6:01 am

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  @tobascocat, for some reason they’re unfollowing the moment they confirm the subscription which, frankly, makes no sense at all. We’re hoping to be able to block them from subscribing in the first place, so it won’t constantly generate annoying notifications either.

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  alwaysfullfull · Member · Jun 15, 2018 at 9:05 am

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  Thanks @kokkieh!
  Meanwhile, it wouldn’t hurt the security and authenticity of my site, right?

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  gemmacevans · Member · Jun 15, 2018 at 11:25 am

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  Hi alwaysfullfull,

  it wouldn’t hurt the security and authenticity of my site, right?

  That’s correct — followers don’t have any special access to your site, account or content so they won’t be able to make changes without your knowledge.