diff --git a/include/Scrape.php b/include/Scrape.php
index 93d68be22b..5e26c461ae 100644
--- a/include/Scrape.php
+++ b/include/Scrape.php
@@ -652,9 +652,10 @@ function probe_url($url, $mode = PROBE_NORMAL, $level = 1) {
 			$feed->set_raw_data(($xml) ? $xml : '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?><xml></xml>');
 
 			$feed->init();
-			if($feed->error())
+			if($feed->error()) {
 				logger('probe_url: scrape_feed: Error parsing XML: ' . $feed->error());
-
+				$network = NETWORK_PHANTOM;
+			}
 
 			if(! x($vcard,'photo'))
 				$vcard['photo'] = $feed->get_image_url();
diff --git a/include/gprobe.php b/include/gprobe.php
index 03cdbd072b..84292f263a 100644
--- a/include/gprobe.php
+++ b/include/gprobe.php
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ function gprobe_run(&$argv, &$argc){
 		$result = Cache::get("gprobe:".$urlparts["host"]);
 		if (!is_null($result)) {
 			$result = unserialize($result);
-			if ($result["network"] == NETWORK_FEED) {
+			if (in_array($result["network"], array(NETWORK_FEED, NETWORK_PHANTOM))) {
 				logger("DDoS attempt detected for ".$urlparts["host"]." by ".$_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"].". server data: ".print_r($_SERVER, true), LOGGER_DEBUG);
 				return;
 			}
diff --git a/include/identity.php b/include/identity.php
index b4bc79e00f..6faddffd3c 100644
--- a/include/identity.php
+++ b/include/identity.php
@@ -710,7 +710,7 @@ function zrl_init(&$a) {
 		$result = Cache::get("gprobe:".$urlparts["host"]);
 		if (!is_null($result)) {
 			$result = unserialize($result);
-			if ($result["network"] == NETWORK_FEED) {
+			if (in_array($result["network"], array(NETWORK_FEED, NETWORK_PHANTOM))) {
 				logger("DDoS attempt detected for ".$urlparts["host"]." by ".$_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"].". server data: ".print_r($_SERVER, true), LOGGER_DEBUG);
 				return;
 			}
diff --git a/include/socgraph.php b/include/socgraph.php
index d380af4344..b0f0c8672f 100644
--- a/include/socgraph.php
+++ b/include/socgraph.php
@@ -570,7 +570,7 @@ function poco_last_updated($profile, $force = false) {
 		return false;
 	}
 
-	if (($data["poll"] == "") OR ($data["network"] == NETWORK_FEED)) {
+	if (($data["poll"] == "") OR (in_array($data["network"], array(NETWORK_FEED, NETWORK_PHANTOM)))) {
 		q("UPDATE `gcontact` SET `last_failure` = '%s' WHERE `nurl` = '%s'",
 			dbesc(datetime_convert()), dbesc(normalise_link($profile)));
 		return false;
diff --git a/mod/follow.php b/mod/follow.php
index bdcde77435..dd717aacd9 100755
--- a/mod/follow.php
+++ b/mod/follow.php
@@ -31,6 +31,12 @@ function follow_content(&$a) {
 
 	$ret = probe_url($url);
 
+	if ($ret["network"] == NETWORK_PHANTOM) {
+		notice( t("The network type couldn't be detected. Contact can't be added.") . EOL);
+		goaway($_SESSION['return_url']);
+		// NOTREACHED
+	}
+
 	if ($ret["network"] == NETWORK_MAIL)
 		$ret["url"] = $ret["addr"];