Here's the Python program I made that tells me how many unread notifications I have for each of my accounts (two are secret!) using the Scratch API at https://api.scratch.mit.edu/users/{USER}/messages/count Aaaaand this is what happens when a bot decides to spam follow you.
A certain user did this. For Scratch Team (And Caterpillar): I was not involved in this, I simply commented "349 follows. 350th anyone?" on @griffpatch's profile, someone responded "Let me help you", then the follow spam started.