01.18.18
by

A Series Of Strange Outlook.Com Accounts Have Just Subscribed To This Blog

WTF Is Up Wit Dis Shit?

This one’s not a joke.  (No, really, it isn’t).  About 12 Outlook.com accounts with gibberish names signed up to follow this blog in the past 24 hours.  As far as I can tell, they are not real accounts.  I wonder what benefit it is to spammers to do such a thing?  I mean, these accounts signed up to follow me, they didn’t try to leave spam comments on a post.  I’m rather perplexed.   If these are not fake accounts, and the people they belong to read this post, please comment here and tell me why you think a name like vbftgyhmosheer@outlook.com is a good email address to have.    And if this was done by the Academy Awards wanting to give me yet another “Best Actor In A Motion Picture Yet To Be Made” award, I’m not interested, so just stop.  (But, really, this did happen and I am quite curious as to what be up.)

46 thoughts on “A Series Of Strange Outlook.Com Accounts Have Just Subscribed To This Blog”

  1. Okay, so at least I’m not crazy! At first I thought, yay! new followers…then it just kept coming every few days, then multiple times in a day now and that’s when I thought, this can’t be real. I realized they were mostly this outlook.com and then I went on a hunt to find an answer and here you are…thx for clearing that up!

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    • Yeah, it’s crazy. I unsubscribed from the “notify me when you get a new follower” button on WP, and now I don’t get these any more. WP automatically deletes them from your followers list, too. Some group or company, or who knows what, is really spamming WP with this nonsense, however. Hopefully they’re looking into it.

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  2. This has been happening to me, too. Like, a lot… 12 or so followers per day. Then, when I go to my followers or email subscribers, they’re not there. I get an email everytime someone subscribes. So I have the email address even though they don’t show up on my subscribe list.

    Not sure why it’s happening but it’s kind of annoying. I’d like to delete the emails but I can’t help but think I may need them in the future? Maybe? If I delete the emails, I won’t have the email addresses. So it’s junking up my email inbox lol.

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  3. I have a Hotmail/outlook account. Nothing like this has happen. I should check my junk spam see if anything by that name appears.

    That sucks. You should just spam them as junk and you won’t receive any of that.

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  4. I may have figured out what the email subs are. I have a commentator named Alex who posts basically the same weird comment on random posts. I looked at the data with the comment and while it has the same name it comes from different email address and different IPS. I keep flagging them as spam, but I noticed that a few other blogs I subscribe to also have them. Hope this helps. Hugs

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  5. This happened to my blog, too, so I checked it out with WordPress. It’s been happening to a lot of blogs. The new followers don’t pose any security risks to bloggers. However, they could affect WordPress. Every time someone posts, WordPress sends an email to all email followers. Imagine what that would do to the capacity of the system if hundreds of blogs all got a host of new outlook.com followers. The good news is that WordPress knows and is working on a fix. It’s relatively easy to remove any followers if you choose to do so.

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    • Thanks for this. It seems like several of these “followers” have been deleted already from my blog. I didn’t do it but, if I needed to, how do I do this? I can’t seem to find a “delete follower” button anywhere. Is there one I’m missing? Or do I need to ask WP to do it? Thanks.

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    • If you click on your site and click on “stats” you’ll go to a screen called “traffic” in the upper title bar. Next to it is a choice called “insights.” If you click on insights, it will take you to a screen that includes a list of all your followers (bottom right). The list is usually set on WordPress followers, but beneath you can click on email followers. If you choose “View All” at the bottom of the list, you will see the entire list. On the right side of each follower is a simple choice – “Remove.” If you click on it, they disappear… I hope this helps…

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  6. Yes indeed my friend, I have had about 20 of these so far, though in the last day or so they have disappeared! Most odd.

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  7. I have seen the same thing on my blog too. If the government wants to know what I am up to, they should follow me on twitter or be brave enough and just stop me on the road and ask.

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  8. It’s the damn government man! They are out to get us. Anyone else want a toke off of this? It’s good shit man!

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  9. I have the same issue. I have no idea why they are doing it. Hugs

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  10. I’m just speculating here, and I’m probably wrong, but here-goes.

    If I was in the business of monitoring social media for the purposes of understanding what we non-mainstream media bloggers are up to, secretly following their sites would be an effective way to do that. Now, who is in the business of monitoring social media? I can think of several obvious candidates:

    corporate media analysts
    journalists who want to keep tabs on what’s going on
    big business interests, especially those under scrutiny
    the NSA and CIA
    political analysts, especially those working for the two major parties
    political advocacy organizations
    foreign operatives having interests in America
    religious institutions
    internet trolls with an axe to grind

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  11. Mine seem to originate from linux.org … with various email addresses.

    Liked by 1 person

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  12. It is occurring on a lot of WordPress blogs. The forums have been overwhelmed with this problem. WordPress is assuring bloggers that our privacy is not compromised.

    So far, I seem to be getting ‘followed’ by porn sites. Oh my! I should never have posted that ‘stripper’ blog! Geesh!

    Liked by 1 person

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  13. Yep, me too! It is happening all over WordPress. They say there is no problem with these “followers” they can just be deleted and they are looking into it.

    Liked by 1 person

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