I’ve been here for over three years, so I’m quite familar with fake readers, robo-readers as Mamun aptly calls them. the good news is there are ways to combat them … you can refer them to Medium support (email yourfriends@medium.com), they are very responsive and will act on your referral. they have their own tools to sniff out fake accounts. you can also block such accounts, if you believe that their practices are detrimental to your read-time stats.

thanks Daniele for bringing to my attention the great essay by S M Mamunur!