I run a blog for a friend of mine and we've noticed the same thing with her followers.

Is this a WP problem or something we need to do on our end?

Please let us know if you need any further assistance!

@momentsinthestory: please post your request as a separate, new thread so we can track your request. Thanks!

Akismet is a learning engine, so as long as you keep marking them as spam, it will adapt to the new spam trend.

In a normal 24 hour period, my blog gets 20 or so spam comments which avoids the Akismet scanner. They land in my inbox and I have to tend to them on daily basis which is a chore. As you can expect, this takes up quiet a lot of time on daily basis. I believe marking-them-spam does not really work (or else I should see a decrease over time, no?). My blog has been suffering with this issue for more than a month now (it wasn't always like this). The number of legitimate spam comments (which Akismet grabs properly) are in hundreds, but they don't bother me because I don't get emails.

So what are my options? I opted out of receiving email notifications on spam-followers issue which is discussed in this thread (so I don't have to waste my time on it). But I am now stuck with tending spam-commenters emails on daily basis.

I'm migrating my blog from http://dedostorpes.wordpress.com to http://dedostorpes.com

I've already installed the jetpack plug-in.

I would like some assitance to migrate my followers to the self-hosted blog.

could someone in the staff help me?

thanks in advance!

I hope that clarifies things!

I checked out your site stats and the number listed on your Stats front page (screenshot) is the same as your subscriber list (screenshot).

If you're seeing a different number, please take a screenshot and upload it to your site's media gallery. This page has some helpful tips for taking screenshots: http://en.support.wordpress.com/make-a-screenshot/

Also, sometimes I will get an email notifying me of a new follower, but it will not come up as a notification, and my number of followers doesn't increase. It's incredibly frustrating.

I'm sorry you're feeling frustrated. While you do get notified of new WordPress.com followers, you don't get notified if someone stops following your site. It's entirely possible that someone accidentally followed your site which generated the email notification to you, then unfollowed right away. In addition, your Stats page does not reflect real-time stats, but instead is updated periodically throughout the day, so any new followers won't be immediately reflected in your stats.

I hope that clarifies things!

But if the problem was just new bloggers not knowing what they were doing, then why has the number of new/suspicious followers increased so dramatically over the past few months?

Because the number of new WordPress.com users has increased dramatically over the past few month too, and new folks probably want to read blogs too.

Anyway, this all just highlights why this won't be a quick fix, as we are collecting and analyzing the data to find the best way to identify and combat spam followers without inconveniencing legitimate followers.

I understand that not all bloggers, particularly new ones, have the same level of expertise or themed content. But if the problem was just new bloggers not knowing what they were doing, then why has the number of new/suspicious followers increased so dramatically over the past few months? There is clearly something else going on.

Thank you

blog has only one or two posts

The Reader requires a WordPress.com account, but we don't force people to use their blogs just to use the Reader.

posts are just a photo plus a one or two word caption, and photos don't have anything to do with each other

Perhaps they're just getting started with their blog. Not everyone launches into a novel on a day 1.

posts are reblogs from different sites, and reblogged posts don't have anything to do with each other

Reblogging is a very popular feature, it's also encouraged during some signup flows.

majority of blog elements have not been changed from original template (e.g. subhead still says something like "just another WordPress.com site")

We have plenty of legitimate popular blogs who have not changed their tagline.

What I'm trying to say with this is that a splog (a blog filled with ads or designed to drive traffic off-site) is spam, but a nearly empty or unaltered blog is not. That's just profiling, which never goes over well, just like how you wouldn't arrest a kid for simply walking out of a store.

Either way, neither of the above would necessarily prove that the Follower is not legitimate, it simply proves that they're not a skilled a blogger, which again is not a requirement and doesn't happen instantly.

Please only report blogs that are violating our terms of service. Reporting blogs for low activity simply delays our ability to act on legitimate threats, some of which require the involvement of law enforcement and child protective services (which would be really nice if we could get to quickly without digging through a sea of blogs reported just for having slim content).

The one thing they do get is lots and lots of email messages from wordpress.com, each of which comes with a valid DKIM signature. Maybe they're building a database of these to try to exploit hash collisions, or something.

Right, that could happen to any bulk-mailing service, but that type of exploit wouldn't be possible without direct access to our DNS system, which is never going to happen.

We're still trying to figure out a motive for these fake email subscribers so we can actually target the motive itself and put a stop to it. So far, we're running a bit short.

They have nothing to gain from reading your blog and nothing to gain from affecting totals. Unlike WordPress.com (non-email) followers, where you receive a notification email with links to their blog and Gravatar profile, there's really nothing for them to gain.

The one thing they do get is lots and lots of email messages from wordpress.com, each of which comes with a valid DKIM signature. Maybe they're building a database of these to try to exploit hash collisions, or something.

What is your criteria for identifying "followers that, judging by the content (or lack thereof) on their own websites, have no reason to follow [your] blog."

I just finished reporting seven of them, all of which showed up in the past 12 hours, so I can give you some very recent examples.
- blog has only one or two posts
- posts are just a photo plus a one or two word caption, and photos don't have anything to do with each other, or
- posts are reblogs from different sites, and reblogged posts don't have anything to do with each other
- majority of blog elements have not been changed from original template (e.g. subhead still says something like "just another WordPress.com site")

For what it's worth, the text in all the blogs I just finished reporting was in Indonesian. I realize that a blog not written in English is not a sign of spamming, but a good proportion of the "instant followers" I have seen in the past few weeks have been Indonesian-language blogs.

Here is the link for my own support thread
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/move-followers-from-wordpress-dot-com-to-wordpress-dot-org#post-1267676
Posted on May 17, 2013

Thanks.

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/?new=1

However, on the notifications page, it says 82 followers. It's always said one less, and I don't know which one is right. Is there any way to sync them?

Also, sometimes I will get an email notifying me of a new follower, but it will not come up as a notification, and my number of followers doesn't increase. It's incredibly frustrating.

What is your criteria for identifying "followers that, judging by the content (or lack thereof) on their own websites, have no reason to follow [your] blog."

Which brings back the point that if you're concerned over who is reading your blog, a public blog is probably not for you.

I am not concerned about who is reading my blog. I am concerned about the amount of time that I have had to spend every day for the past two months or so reporting commercial spam followers, and spam followers that, judging by the content (or lack thereof) on their own websites, have no reason to follow my blog.

As others have stated in this and other threads, WordPress allows us to approve comments before they appear on our blogs. It would be extremely helpful to be able to do the same with follows.