[kwlug-disc] OT: wordpress.com email follower spam

[Ronald Barnes]

Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc wrote on 2018-04-12 11:42 AM:

> I help administrate a blog on wordpress.com . Over the past few weeks
> I have been seeing a lot of follows by (very likely bogus) outlook.com
> addresses:
> 
> "sautermssonyad at outlook.com just followed (blog name)"
> 
> Since these are probably spammers I should not take this cavalierly.
> But I am not sure I understand the business model here. What can
> spammers do once they have followed a blog? Following a blog does not
> influence their ability (or not) to leave comments.

I have a similar problem, maybe someone can help me understand the 
business model of the spammers.


I have some Drupal sites with "Contact Us" forms behind captchas.

I regularly get spam messages from those contact forms (one site in 
particular), often not even in English.


I've often wondered what is the point of solving a captcha to send the 
site admin spam?  It's not like they're posting comments - it's disallowed.


My current understanding is that they're using these forms to pollute 
email anti-spam measures.

Their garbage gets delivered because my site is considered legitimate by 
my provider's email servers; therefore their crap gets allowed, and the 
anti-spam services are conditioned to accept their spam as legitimate.


Does this sound plausible?


r b