I've seen the same thing and I don't think that the "follows" are actually follows. I've noted that the vast majority of them are NOT writers/contributors, and like you my read count has stayed the same. A genuine follow has to include at least one read, and there's no way I am adding 80 or so genuine follows without the corresponding 80 or so reads. My hypothesis is that some algorithm is just tacking these on, from what source I couldn't say.