Anyone seeing people trying to connect with accounts that obviously aren’t real? Typical connect requests are from females with no real Strava activity background. (Females randomly trying to connect with guys is a red flag)

Does Strava try to stop this, and does Strava purge inactive accounts?

Yeah, I remember that happening to me a few weeks ago.  I got a follower named Mary Arlene and she had no activities on her profile... but her profile pic was shall we say... quite revealing(!)  Her profile disappeared a few hours later, so I assume Strava does have some kind of vetting process behind the scenes. 

I don’t believe Strava purges old, inactive accounts.  I personally know people who haven’t posted in years, and their profile and activities are still there.

There is no way for Strava to ascertain if people know each other and whether an account is fake or just new therefore we have to report such accounts if we encounter it.

​@Jane why not use AI to detect spam and fake accounts, if not already?

​@PushTheClimbs same with me and I can see a clear pattern amongst these accounts. As soon as a platform introduces messaging, these scammers would get an opportunity for something like "pig butchering" scam.

A friend of mine founded a startup that is focusing on eliminating bots/spam accounts and it seems to be going quite well for him.

​@sevenyorb I read articles telling about how these scammers are in countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar and doing this work under threat of physical punishment. They are increasingly infiltrating platforms like Strava and Next Door.

I’ve been getting a ton of spam follow requests lately, too, One idea: what if a new user couldn’t follow others until they posted their first activity? It seems that would take care of 90% of the spammers, at least until they figured out some sort of workaround. 

PushTheClimbs wrote:

I’ve noticed what I deem to be fake accounts. People join and start adding people that they don’t know. Currently I have this individual trying to add me. She’s not the 1st or the last. 

I’m thinking there should be a implementation way to screen for real people, even if the information is available to the rest of the community. I suppose the only tool we have at our disposal is just blocking/reporting.

Definitely open to any other ideas.

 

Any progress on this?  I’m getting multiple follows PER DAY on accounts that are obviously fake.  I’m constantly reporting (although the options for reporting are lacking as well) and blocking the bots.  It’s beyond annoying.  

I recommend just making it private, where people need to request to follow.