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Being swarmed by Fake Followers

jfishkind
Posts regularly

@PinterestGabby - help!! It looks like I have some serious bots following my account. I am super concerned this is going to hurt my reach.

Every evening for about the past two weeks, I have gotten a sudden influx of fake/bot followers. These accounts have no profile picture, no pins, and no followers. The accounts often follow the same or similar lists of 40-60 people. It's too fast to block, and I am concerned that it will hurt my account's reach to have so many fake followers who will obviously not be engaging with my content.

Any suggestions or help here would be so appreciated! 

1 Kudo
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
abetterresume
Loves to help

First of all, your account isn't measured by the quality of your followers so you have no problems there.

Second of all, you are getting followers because Pinterest sees your account as a good account. When new person signs up, they are given a selection of accounts to follow. The reason why they all follow the same accounts is because you are part of an elite group, and when newbies are give a chance of accounts to follow, they often follow them all.

I looked at your account and your "bots". They a from different areas so that means they are not all run by the same person. In addition, they follow the same high profile accounts like yours so that does mean they are being given choices of elite accounts to follow right off. They all are given Betty Crocker and other great food and fashion sites. They also either have 10 or 20 accounts they are following (page 1 and page 2). If they followed each other, that would be reason for concern.

As new Pinterest members, they have no pictures, no pins and boards. You are not being spammed, you are actually getting followers that others are not getting. They are also very active and great to be potential customers.

The only reason fake accounts would follow you is to flood your group boards. If you are not running group boards, then no problem. If you do have group boards, make sure you can monitor who joins.

Let the accounts settle in and go back and message those that add profile pictures (indication they are active). You can invite them to repin your pins and ask questions. Newbies are loyal if you help them get started.

Your rush of new followers is a blessing, not a curse. Enjoy the new found opportunity.

View solution in original post

8 Kudos
13 Replies
abetterresume
Loves to help

First of all, your account isn't measured by the quality of your followers so you have no problems there.

Second of all, you are getting followers because Pinterest sees your account as a good account. When new person signs up, they are given a selection of accounts to follow. The reason why they all follow the same accounts is because you are part of an elite group, and when newbies are give a chance of accounts to follow, they often follow them all.

I looked at your account and your "bots". They a from different areas so that means they are not all run by the same person. In addition, they follow the same high profile accounts like yours so that does mean they are being given choices of elite accounts to follow right off. They all are given Betty Crocker and other great food and fashion sites. They also either have 10 or 20 accounts they are following (page 1 and page 2). If they followed each other, that would be reason for concern.

As new Pinterest members, they have no pictures, no pins and boards. You are not being spammed, you are actually getting followers that others are not getting. They are also very active and great to be potential customers.

The only reason fake accounts would follow you is to flood your group boards. If you are not running group boards, then no problem. If you do have group boards, make sure you can monitor who joins.

Let the accounts settle in and go back and message those that add profile pictures (indication they are active). You can invite them to repin your pins and ask questions. Newbies are loyal if you help them get started.

Your rush of new followers is a blessing, not a curse. Enjoy the new found opportunity.

8 Kudos
PinterestGabby
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi @jfishkind! Thanks for flagging, I've seen another report in the community similar to this and I've flagged with our internal team for investigation. I'll report back when I get more info. 🤞

1 Kudo
jfishkind
Posts regularly

Thank you so much! I sent something to support, but they kinda gave me a canned answer. I appreciate you escalating this! 

2 Kudos
foodiehomechef
Jack-of-all-trades

@abetterresumeJust learned a couple of things I didn't know before, thanks for sharing that!

3 Kudos
abetterresume
Loves to help

@PinterestGabby  @jfishkind 

As explained in my answer, the experience of @jfishkind is not nefarious and there is no reason to contact the internal team for investigation. What is happening is perfectly natural and within the TOS of Pinterest. Please read my response again.

https://community.pinterest.biz/t5/creator-chat/being-swarmed-by-fake-followers/m-p/9336/highlight/t...

0 Kudos
jfishkind
Posts regularly

Interesting, except I am having a huge increase of comments to buy "cheap solar lights" with links to those products. 

0 Kudos
foodiehomechef
Jack-of-all-trades

Mornin' @abetterresume in your response you wrote: "When new person signs up, they are given a selection of accounts to follow. The reason why they all follow the same accounts is because you are part of an elite group, and when newbies are give a chance of accounts to follow, they often follow them all."

Is there an easy way to see that "selection of accounts" given to newbies? Do you have to set up a new account to view those choices?

I'm just curious, because everyday I get at least 10 to 15 new followers & it seems like many are new, as they have 0 followers themselves & very few pins on their account.

0 Kudos
abetterresume
Loves to help

The two issues are unrelated. The spam comments you are getting are a campaign to promote a product on your pins. In looking at pins from multiple accounts, "cheap solar lights" are showing up every where. Also, check the account commenting and the comments are coming from one account, not the hundreds of new accounts that have been gifted to you. Not to mention, a person can comment on a pin who is not following you. So followers and comments are independently exclusive.

You do have the option of flagging spam comments on your pins.

The allocation of new users to your account is a compliment, not a curse.

0 Kudos
abetterresume
Loves to help

@foodiehomechefthe standard procedure when a new account is opened is to offer the new user accounts to follow. You could open a new account to see what accounts are being offered although as they are offered at random, I am not sure what you would see except a bunch of new sign ups.

1 Kudo