Weird followers

ktlockhart · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 2:58 pm
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I am experiencing the same issue. Thank you for looking into it! I have had three strange follows from gibberish outlook addresses over the past two days and thought it was strange considering that I have been on hiatus for the past month. It’s interesting that it’s not just active posters that are getting these strange follows.
mercurywoman · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 3:14 pm
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Thanks for helping with this issue. I received at least 6 of these email notifications of weird outlook followers in the last 48 hours. It seemed suspicious. No gravatar, just email. I have now removed them and hopefully these odd followers will dry up soon. Nice to get followers just not the ones that are up to no good.
fitzcarraldoblog · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 3:29 pm
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bristolboyabroad wrote:
” I’ve deleted all the obvious ones – two are hispanic sounding names with outlook email addresses which could actually be genuine, so I’m leaving those for now!”

If they are long local-parts (like ‘torresbymanuelocc’) then I’ll wager they are spam Email Followers.
leawalkerblog · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 3:33 pm
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Hello, I received about 5 new followers from outlook today. Just letting you know @Happiness Engineers that this attack isn’t over yet. Thank you.
bravenewmalden · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 4:58 pm
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My spam followers now outnumber my legit followers.
brandonjadams1 · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 5:09 pm
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10 such followers in 5 days. All email followers, no blog to link back to. Thanks, WordPress staff, for telling me I’m not crazy.
kungfunaomi · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 5:45 pm
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All right, well, I’m turning my e-mail notifications off. @kokkieh thanks for reassuring us that there’s no danger to us personally. I think I will just leave them until I make a new post and delete them all at once, I can’t keep logging in every time I get a new one.
canmeans · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 5:46 pm
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I have the same problem. I have about 7 in the last two days.
kjs123 · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 5:53 pm
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I’ve received 11 since January 12th. Glad to know WordPress is diligently working to find a solution.
ghsmith76 · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 5:56 pm
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When I first started seeing these weird followers I saw a connection I believe via some comments to a Vietnamese Blog Marketing company
tscrapsrva · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 8:10 pm
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I followed everything here, read everything, and today another slew of spammers signed up.

My solution:

I have removed all email follow buttons on all my 12 blogs.

I have set all controls to comments for logged in users only, and approval of comments,

I have left follow blog for now.

I simply can’t do this everyday, so until WP gets a fix for this, I will just have to forfeit email sign ups.
I am assuming that folks that were already signed up for email will continue to get theirs, but no one new can sign up.

Peace…
96isaiah · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 8:51 pm
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@bravenewmalden,

Thank you for a great laugh and a smile that can’t be wiped off my face…… Your positive attitude is a most welcome relief……. It should help everyone with their rumbly, grumbly feelings……. Have a most wonderful day!
timethief · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 9:06 pm
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I’m just mentioning that there is no danger to your sites posed by fake followers.

Please see https://en.support.wordpress.com/followers/
How to Remove a Follower https://en.support.wordpress.com/followers/#how-to-remove-a-follower
poooodles · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 9:24 pm
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happened to me too! 8 follows so far today from the same spammy outlook.com email addresses. I’m not trying to remove them since, like timethief says, they don’t seem to pose a risk. But would be nice to know what they’re up to.
timethief · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 9:32 pm
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@dearseagoat

Reading this may be helpful https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/weird-followers/page/2?replies=94#post-3064023
amywinn · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 9:41 pm
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Just throwing in here that I’ve seen exactly the same; about a half-dozen sketchy “outlook.com” email followers. Raised my eyebrows, but no spammy comments yet. Thanks for the reassurance that there’s no imminent danger.
poooodles · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 9:43 pm
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Thanks, timethief. Very helpful.
timethief · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 9:45 pm
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@amywinn
@dearseagoat

You’re welcome.
bhaidin1 · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 10:15 pm
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I’m getting @outlook.com fake followers, too.
timethief · Member · Jan 17, 2018 at 10:19 pm
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@bhaidin1

Many bloggers are getting these.

My advice is remain calm and carry on knowing
(1) Staff are aware of and addressing the issue and
(2) there is no danger to your site being posed by any fake followers ie. spam followers.

Please see https://en.support.wordpress.com/followers/
How to Remove a Follower https://en.support.wordpress.com/followers/#how-to-remove-a-follower

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