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Just a little notice as to why you can no longer pin my things…
So, today I noticed that the traffic to my website was lower than it normally is on a Sunday afternoon.   I normally have over 3,000 visitors by noon on any given day, but today that number was much lower.  I investigated the issue and found that my pins were marked as spam.

Someone on Pinterest (another pinner) has flagged my website as spam (it only takes one person to do this), which I am assuming is probably the same person that has been trying to break into/ hack my page for the past 6 months or so.

Yes, someone has been trying to hack into my site, with the intent of ruining it (sad, but true).  For a while there, they were trying over 100 times every few hours, attempting to hack in using different usernames & passwords.  Luckily, I have a VERY HARD password and I use BLUEHOST as my wordpress host (they are so helpful and told me what to do to stop this, plus they added extra security features to my site).  Thanks to Bluehost, this person has not had success breaking into my page.

So, back to someone marking my page as SPAM on Pinterest, reporting it as being inappropriate…

pinterest pins marked as spam

 

Here are the error notices that I received when I tried to pin an image to Pinterest and when I try to go to my page.
my pinterest links are marked as spamScreen Shot 2014-02-16 at 12.57.35 PM

If you have a blog, you know that Pinterest is HUGE for bloggers.  It is our way of sharing our posts with the world.  It is wonderful and has been amazing.

If this happens to you, you need to go to this page: https://help.pinterest.com/entries/21436306 and find the Email for Help part at the bottom e-mail them and follow the directions.
You will want to click Business- blocked site when it asks for the issue.   I just did that today, so now I am waiting for a response.

So, here I stand.  I am waiting on Pinterest to get back to me.    I will update this post when I find out what is going on.  I know that this happened to my friend, Alison.  (she was kicked off of Pinterest- I wrote about it here) She is thankfully back on Pinterest.

In the meantime, you can follow me on Pinterest. 😉 lol!

Here is the pin that I pinned that seems to have sparked it: How & Why to play with your kids

Hi there!

I’m Becky, a former elementary school teacher turned certified child development therapist and blogger. I work at home with my husband and together we are raising (and partially homeschooling) our four children in the Carolinas. I love diet coke, ice cream, and spending time with my family.

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29 Comments

  1. I tried following you on Pinterest but it told me that I exceeded the number for people to follow (I follow 198 and I haven’t clicked to follow anyone for over a month!!!). Hope this is sorted out soon. Checking from KBN.

  2. It’s such a shame that people can try to be so spiteful! I hope you get your Pinterest unblocked and up and running again very soon!

    1. Thanks- thats just it. I think it was done just to be ‘mean’. 🙁 sigh…
      Thanks, Anna!

  3. Becky that’s rough! Ugh. As my uncle says, “people, they’re the worst .” I hope this is minor blip for you. I enjoy your stuff!! Hang in there.

  4. Oh, Becky that is horrible. How could someone be like that? You have pointed out what a scary place cyberspace can be and most of us are rather innocent of the potential problems. Thanks for letting us know and keep us posted. I’m sure you’ll get this resolved soon. I just wish you didn’t have to.

  5. This happened to my blog too! Thanks for the tips, I have submitted my request to unblock my site. Thanks again!

    1. What ended up working is a very super-sweet note to them, but it took several days to hear back. Good luck!!!

  6. What ended up happening? My traffic completely dropped in the last few days and none of my pins are being repinned (which is not normal)…I contacted them but haven’t heard back. SO frustrating!

    1. After about a week they got back to me & fixed it. I emailed them about 4 emails that week.

      1. Hi Becky,

        I just got blocked by pinterest today. It hurts my blog traffic a lot. I’m so glad to see your post. A quick question, how is your pinterest board now? what does it take to ask Pinterest to unblock?

        Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

        Nicole

        1. its doing great now- it took about a week with several letters to Pinterest.

  7. Thank you for telling me how to contact Pinterest. I am having the same problem (it looks like we were blocked at the same time) and have been going crazy trying to figure out how to reach them. It is not clear and apparently all the emails I sent them yesterday were going to the wrong place. You are my hero right now! I hope we both get this resolved soon. They also have a Facebook page that I am going to next, if you want to give that a try.

    1. I had the same problem, I had 22 boards 32,000 followers, then deleted. Pinterest use zendesk for there so called customer support, you will get an auto reply back, then you can send an email back to that auto reply with your problem and they say one of their team with get back to you shortly, they only thing is, you get another auto copy and paste reply back. end of case, you keep going round in circles . I have emailed them many times and no human has had any compassion to even reply

  8. Its the contract help desk employed by pinterest. There name is Zendesk, they leave all the porn, illegal download links for books, doggy links that cause software to download and delete legitimate accounts if they see fit, its a joke that this company still has the contract. Me and a growing number of people are looking at ways to contact the real pinterest and go around this pathetic company to find some answers of why some business pinterest accounts are being deleted with no warnings what-so-ever, here one day gone the next.

  9. I’m dealing with this issue right now. I sent them a message I guess to the wrong place and got a pretty irrelevant reply. I tired your steps. I hope it works – I’m so frustrated.

  10. I’m dealing with this right now. I’m literally in tears. Why would someone report my wedding pins as spam. Plus I only have about 300 followers. What do they have to gain.

  11. Hi – thank you for your helpful article. I am dealing with this right now as well. When you were able to be un-blocked, were you still able to participate on your group boards? Or did you have to find new group boards?

    1. Once it was done, I was back to normal. One of my other sites is blocked right now (as of yesterday), so back to the grind. lol.

  12. Hi Becky.. sad to hear about you regarding your website pinterest ban.. pinterest did the same with us and we are still waiting for the reply.
    I hope your website gets out of the ban list soon
    keep up the good work

  13. Well, it just happened to me! I noticed a gigantic drop in traffic last night and went to bed worried. What could be the problem? It was too late in the evening to investigate. This morning, I checked my analytics and noticed that Pinterest traffic had completely dropped! I therefore went into my account and clicked on one of my pins. It said “Link Blocked”! I checked another pin. It, too, said “Link Blocked”! They’re all blocked! Aaargh! Panic! Stress! Fear! Concern! Worry! 😀 I am sure that I haven’t broken any rules whatsoever, so there’s definitely a mistake. I’ve just sent them a message and hope to hear back soon. My pins are actually quite helpful to the Pinterest community, as is my website. They make a positive contribution to the community, so I am optimistic that my website will be unblocked. Reading through this post, I’ve been comforted. I thank you all, especially Becky.

  14. I would suggest that you set your settings on your site to limit log in attempts. My website is set to capture the IP address of anyone who gets locked out of my website after failing to long in correctly twice. That can let you know where the person is located and can help you know it it’s just one person or multiple people.