Title: ‘Phantom’ subscribers
Last modified: April 3, 2017

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# ‘Phantom’ subscribers

 *  [kevvyb](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kevvyb/)
 * (@kevvyb)
 * [9 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-subscribers-2/)
 * _[ Moderator note: [moved to Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/before-posting-in-everything-wordpress/?view=all).]_
 * Hi I am setting up a website for a client. Currently it has an under construction
   page showing publicly so nothing should be accessible publicly.
 * This morning I received a number of emails purporting to be subscribers to the
   site.
 * I don’t understand how this can have happened. None of them have any ‘real’ names
   just email addresses.
 * Can anyone help me with this? What should I do?
 * Thanks in advance.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [9 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-subscribers-2/#post-8988651)
 * In most cases, it’s just spam bots preemptively getting around WordPress’s “must
   be logged in and registered to comment” anti-spam option, which is also why that’s
   not a very effective anti-spam option. 😉
 * I wouldn’t be too worried about it. Unless further extended by a plugin, Subscribers
   can’t do anything but edit their own profiles and leave comments (and, despite
   the role’s name, WordPress doesn’t even send subscription content on its own).
 * [https://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities#Capability_vs._Role_Table](https://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities#Capability_vs._Role_Table)
 * If you don’t need registration, simply uncheck “Anyone can register” at Settings
   > General in your site’s Dashboard and just delete those “Subscribers” from the
   Users section of your site’s Dashboard.
 * If you do need registration, add this plugin: [https://wordpress.org/plugins/stop-spammer-registrations-plugin/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/stop-spammer-registrations-plugin/)

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘‘Phantom’ subscribers’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * Last activity: [9 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-subscribers-2/#post-8988651)
 * Status: not resolved

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