Found 897 Fake Followers on DEV.to. Here's How I Proved It.
A user on DEV.to discovered 897 fake followers through a technical audit of their follower count. The audit revealed a coordinated follower inflation network utilizing inauthentic accounts. The findings included a detailed methodology for detecting such behavior, confirming that all audited accounts followed only one user: the author.
- ▪The author experienced a sudden increase in followers after publishing an article about a GitHub follow botnet.
- ▪An audit of 1,409 followers revealed that 897 matched a pattern of coordinated inauthentic behavior.
- ▪The fake accounts were linked to a commercial engagement marketplace and were created using specific username patterns.
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try { if(localStorage) { let currentUser = localStorage.getItem('current_user'); if (currentUser) { currentUser = JSON.parse(currentUser); if (currentUser.id === 2619990) { document.getElementById('article-show-container').classList.add('current-user-is-article-author'); } } } } catch (e) { console.error(e); } GnomeMan4201 Posted on May 25 Found 897 Fake Followers on DEV.to. Here's How I Proved It. #webdev #security #cybersecurity #python A full technical audit of a coordinated follower inflation network — methodology, findings, and a detection rule simple enough to run in one query. On May 19, 2026, I published "Found a Coordinated GitHub Follow Botnet" — a piece documenting a coordinated follower inflation network on GitHub. The next day, my DEV.to follower count started climbing. Fast.
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