Rarely, do I admit to failure and never publicly. However, this weekend despite not drinking the Kool-Aid and having no other defense, I CONFESS…I subscribed to a Twitter Follower Service, and thus far, it has proven to be a major scam. How could I have been so foolish!

It all started with a desire to expand my social networking base, so when I make major announcements related to my novels, or share information on a variety of topics as they relate to those novels, they reach a wider audience. I started with broadening my base of followers on Twitter. Let me back up…there are certain “social networking” rules I have set for myself, all of which I admittedly broke on Sunday:

Never trust at first blush; verify.

Nothing is as simple as it seems.

Limit your exposure to the unknown.

We’ll I paid $70 for 25,000 followers, subscribing to a company that appeared to be legit, calling themselves “The Followers.” That should have been my first clue. No, I didn’t meet Joe Carrol, but I swear I did come across some of his “followers.” I foolishly surmised that once I setup my account and paid the fee that I would be able to adjust my settings to target a specific audience. The joke was on me.

Easily, the majority of followers either solicited sex, gang related activities or some other perversion. The others, I’m not sure…I can’t read Arabic. And the number of young girls looking for love, or should I say sex, in all the wrong places was shocking and terribly disturbing on the heels of the Boko Haram kidnappings.

I immediately started to block the various followers establishing a new set of social networking rules:

All “Eggheads” (no photo) – BLOCKED

All with Photos, but no description – BLOCKED

All Photos with any hint of perversion or violence – BLOCKED

Frustratingly, the more I blocked, the more the followers came pouring in. So I’ve decided to let it run its course and then take on the challenge. Currently, I am at 20.1K and still counting…the last two followers were named “KingOfThePatch” and “MonicaTheQueen.” I can only imagine.

I have contacted “The Followers” at www.thefollowers.net twice to no avail. Now I have PayPal handling the dispute. Did I mention they promised a full refund if dissatisfied…no questions asked? So to be fair I will report back if they hold up their end of the bargain. However, in the meantime, I will spend countless hours trying to clean up my Twitter account and my time will cost me a lot more than $70.

This blog, of course, will also be transmitted to my other social networks including Twitter. So for you Eggheads receiving this blog, be warned, you are about to be BLOCKED.

BTW, I also broke one of my cardinal rules: Quality versus Quantity.

Be careful out there….