Getting frequent traffic from Ireland: Is it spam?

[NorbertDev]

Hi, from time to time I`m getting 20+ sessions from Ireland, one after another...and I want to know if anyone experiences the same thing? I think this is spam traffic or something, I`m not sure yet... But i can see those bullets on the map one next to each other...

What`s this? spam? 

[Cal]

Hey @NorbertDev!

Cal here from Shopify, thanks for reaching out to us. I assume from your post that you aren't actively marketing currently in the Ireland region, so I wonder if you have been in touch with Shopify Support recently for some issue? We have a large support team in Ireland, and this could be why you are seeing spikes in visits to your page. 

Let me know your thoughts! 

[NorbertDev]

Hi @Cal, I`m actively marketing in Ireland as well. However, this doesn`t look like good traffic to me...It was exploding of traffic, E.G 1, 2,3.....30 one after another... the same thing happened just today, but this time from the USA.

I haven`t contacted support as of yet 🙂 

[guiveloso]

Hi.

I'm having the same issue. It seems that this happens every time I set a new ad on Facebook, even if it's still scheduled to run later in the future.

[Cal]

I wonder if there are Facebook staff also based in Ireland, and you're seeing traffic from them? Because the numbers are not in the hundreds or thousands, it doesn't indicate bots. Likely, it could be Shopify staff, as we have a very large support team there, or something related to Facebook ads? 

[NorbertDev]

Hi @Cal, I`m not sure what to say, I took a screenshot to show you some* of the traffic  I get...and it increases drastically.

[NorbertDev]

I think stuff are a bit buggy

[Cal]

I'm curious if you also have Google Analytics installed on the store, tracking visits? What does the data within the Google Analytics dashboard suggest? The insight provided by GA may prove to be more accurate than our own Live View. 

Does this traffic continue, even when there are no marketing campaigns active? 

[naturabeautyeu]

Hi, Im experiencing the same thing. 

It looks like it's connected to the Facebook ads. because when I paused for one month my ads on FB, also traffic from Ireland and USA stopped. 

When I reactivated the campaigns on ads again suspicious traffic from Ireland and USA started again.

I dont have Google Analytics to check.

Please tell us what is it and why this is hapenning?

I dont think its a staff.

[deardigital_a]

Hi, I'm experiencing the same thing. 

Today we scheduled a campaign in Facebook ads and suddenly there was a huge peak in traffic. 

How can we filter out this traffic? In Google Analytics it is still linked to our campaign, even when it's off.

Could it be linked to the process of Facebook publishing the ads?

Thanks.

[Dotflakes]

Exactly same here. 

[stefanie_lynen]

I've been seeing the same thing, but have no pending Shopify support issues. Did you ever figure out where this comes from?

[dresteves]

I am getting a lot of traffic from Ireland too.

It doesn´t show on google analytics

and I don´t have Facebook ads.

[Jacquif]

Has anyone figured out the ireland spam traffic? I'm dealing with the same thing, first it was Chile and then Ireland.  Ireland seems to be relentless in bombarding my website its been going on for weeks now.

I was running FB ads then I stopped them, but I'm still getting spam.  Because I dont know whats going on I blocked the entire country from accessing my website.  Any feedback from Shopify techs or other folks with insight on the issue would be appreciated.

[SiteBuilder]

I just set up my first Facebook campaign yesterday for tomorrow, and today I see a big chunk of Ireland traffic that I never had and some USA traffic (so those FB ads are not running yet).

I am currently running a new Google ads campaign and thought my targeting was off but I do think this traffic is part of Facebook verification system.

Let's see if it keeps going for the next few days (when the FB ad is actually running)

[CartLOVE]

We've seen this happen before. It could be someone who actually found you from Ireland!... or it could be a scraping bot crawling your website. If you are not paying for the traffic, I would not look to far into it. 

[mywickerhomeuae]

Same thing happen today. I'm here in UAE and expecting UAE visitors but when I activated my facebook ads, visitors suddenly gone up specifically to Clonee, Ireland. I am not marketing Ireland, I want UAE viewers only.

Let us know why this happen?

[Jacquif]

Yea, it's from Facebook, I wasn't running FB ads at the time but I was running Instagram ads and it's all connected under FB.

Apparently FB has the right to scrape and crawl your website with their bots, even if you aren't running ads or selling on their platform(s). I know this because I have downloaded several apps in an effort to block them by country and even by IP and literally every single one was unable to prevent Facebook bots from crawling my website, they got this question so many times they put it in the app FAQ that they cannot stop Facebook or Google from crawling your website, so yea nothing you can do.

I don't run ads on FB or Instagram anymore, I never sold my products on FB and I don't even have a FB business page yet they keep emailing me telling me my products were rejected and won't be added to their site. Again, I'm not trying to integrate with FB in anyway, but they keep scraping my website then telling me why they aren't approving my products to be listed on FB. I got an email from them like 2 days ago about it. It's ridiculous and yes Shopify will not respond or even address it. FB is like Skynet at this point, no one can get away from them. 

[TamSan]

Same is happening with us. I’m seeing Clonee Ireland daily. Can’t be FB or Instagram ads since were not running any. We just opened up online last weekend. Please help Shopify.

[Glowfashion]

We have the same issue. It’s been happening for about a month now. Following along to see if anyone knows more info. We do not run any ads either so not sure why we have these crazy spikes in views from Clonee. Sometimes its 50-80+ views in the matter of minutes??

[Br_03]

I think i have figured it out. We also got many views from ireland and than with a little bit of research its most likely for me that this is becouse Google crawls the website. So therefore have a look at the Google Search console and click on the sitemap and look when was the last time when the crawlers got over youre site. This matches exactly for me 

[telmavilgo]

I’m having too from there, now I think it’s a spam 🤦🏼‍♀️

[Esref]

Hey everyone,

I've been struggling with the same issue for months: tons of traffic coming from Facebook servers in Ireland, Sweden, and the US. I see that there are several shops experiencing the same issue. I researched several forums, and cannot find a solution. Finally I figured out how to fix it, and it's all on the Facebook side, not Shopify.

Here's what I did:

1. Commerce Manager:

   • Go to your Facebook Business page.
   • Navigate to Commerce Manager - Settings.
   • Look for a setting "Customer Feedback" and disable "Sync from your website".

2. Shop Section:

   • In your Facebook Business page, go to the Shops section.
   • Click Edit Shop - Settings- Website content and find "Automatically update shop with content from your website."
   • Disable this setting.

After making these changes, the excessive traffic from Facebook stopped. It seems Facebook was automatically crawling my site for product info and reviews.

Hope this helps anyone else dealing with this frustrating issue!

[Shiv2021]

Hmm.. Awesome reply! Thank you for this. Interesting, I mean I am on FB side if they want to help my performance by retrieving data from my site since I sell on FB shop, Insta Shop as well and run ads. However from the looks of what others are saying... the crawling was relentless for long periods of time. I will be checking on this frequently and if continued I will try your method! Thanks.