Fake account likes?

[Marcia]

Ok, this is REALLY creeping me out. In the last 14 hours (since yesterday evening), I've gotten notifications that 18 different "people" have "liked" a specific invitation of mine. Yes, it's a moderately decent seller for me. But this seems weird. Their names are mostly generic, (akin to the names I put in my templates  lol) & they all have photos that either look like stock or AI. And some of the male photos have female names & visa versa.

Anyone else have this happen to them? Should I be concerned? This has never happened to me before. It's unnerving to say the least.

[DancingPelican]

I have many of these same types of likes in the last 24 hours. 28 of them. The profile photos look similar. A few use children’s photos that look like AI stock portraits. Most use adult photos and there are more men than women. Not sure what to make of this.

[Marcia]

Exactly! I also have some kid photos in the mix. Sorry this is happening to you as well but at least I'm not the only one. Thanks for responding.

[DancingPelican]

I cannot find a way to block these notification accounts or report them to Zazzle. Can a mod please advise how we should handle these fake notifications?

[Jadendreamer13]

My theory is that they “like” products or accounts whose work they want to copy. The likes make it easy for thieves to link back to products without having to remember the targeted shop/product names. Just a guess, though.

[Marcia]

@Jadendreamer13 I would agree it's something like that, but all 18 different personas liking the same product, 5 or 6 ea in the same amount of time? Somehow I feel it's more than that but can't figure it out.

[Sandra-]

Exactly the same here too! Various names with AI generated photos all liking the same item. Very strange!

[Sara_H]

@Marcia I've got a suspicious feeling they're bot accounts. They really need investigating if they're scrapers. I've lost count how many 'likes'. Am sure Zazzle will look into them

[CrazyMermaid]

There are a lot of youtube gurus who recommend automated programs that like products in the hopes of getting likes back. They say it is a way to rank your products higher. I personally think these gurus are just in it to make affiliate referral fees off of these programs. I have never used one, so I don't know what they actually look like when you use them. 

[Marcia]

@CrazyMermaid but even if I were to like them back (which I wouldn't), there's nothing to click on to get to their store. When I click on the notification it goes straight to the liked product with no other options. Hmmm...

[CrazyMermaid]

Who knows. Good to let Zazzle know so they can get rid of them if necessary. 

[Sara_H]

@Marcia if you want to check their stores - right click on their image (in the notifications) - open image in new tab then look for their profile ID in the URL. You can view their member page by adding it to the end of https://www.zazzle.com/mbr/

[Marcia]

@Sara_H Wow – who knew? (Not me!!!) And the name I tested this out with was not a male with a female photo at all – "person" who owns store is an entirely different name...what a surprise!

Any rate, thank you so much!

[PenguinPower]

One of my products got a bunch of them too.... not sure what the angle is.. 

[ievajen]

it could be that Zazzle uses "marketing agency" which does fake advertising, but takes money for real; on wedding photographers group was not that long ago thread on a expensive directory website that people are getting fake enquiries and no real bookings; so what that page does hire Filipinos or Vietnamese to do "customers" jobs - write enquiries so advertisers will get an illusion that page advertising is working, but those enquiries dont turn into bookings and in general those enquiry texts dont even make sense 

[Scott]

We're reviewing this situation now, but I'd like to remind everyone of something before we go any further: Please always treat others as you wish to be treated.

1. Avoid making fun of other people's names. There's really no reason for this at all. We have users from around the world, and it's entirely possible that another user will have a name that you can't pronounce properly, or can't spell, or whatever else. 

2. Do not call out other people by name. This includes posting screenshots that includes full names (I've removed these screenshots). If you have a question or concern that requires that you share full names or identifying information, then please do this privately. You can either email us directly, or mention that you have screenshots to share.

We definitely appreciate when people bring concerns like this to our attention, but things like this should be raised with care. I realize that it's tempting to discuss this in a discussion forum because someone else can chime in with their experiences, but it can also start going down the wrong path. What if the person that you're accusing of wrongdoing is reading the forums, and decides to post? No bueno.

Final note, not everyone with an avatar that is a stock image or AI is a bot/spammer/etc.

[Marcia]

@Scott Thank you for reviewing this situation. However, in my defense, I posted those screenshots to help Zazzle to be able to identify those "accounts". I sincerely feel those are not real names & I'm not just saying that because some of them sound like they're from someplace other than an English speaking country. I was not making fun of anyone's name in terms of ethnicities. I personally get sales from around the world. But wouldn't you find it strange if 25 completely different people "liked" your same design in a span of less than 24 hours? And if it's 1 truly innocent person, what reason would they "like" a single design with 25 different personas? I went in to a few of those names & their ids point to separate stores with different owners, with only a few products each. It really doesn't add up. Something seems not right.

I sincerely hope that Zazzle gets to the bottom of this. And keeps us all in the loop, whether it's legit or not.

[Connie]

Could it be on a landing page or something, where a lot of people would see it, and it isn't inconceivable that 25 of those people liked it? I'm just theorizing about the possibilities.

[Marcia]

Theoretically, but I've never had anything like that happen to me before in all the years I've had a store on Zazzle.