diff --git a/bin/semantic-release.js b/bin/semantic-release.js
index 93a6ecf3..05521a6e 100755
--- a/bin/semantic-release.js
+++ b/bin/semantic-release.js
@@ -31,7 +31,14 @@ var npmArgv = process.env.npm_config_argv ?
 
 if (~argv._.indexOf('pre')) {
   // see src/restart.js
-  if (npmArgv['semantic-release-rerun']) process.exit(0)
+  if (npmArgv['semantic-release-rerun']) {
+    if (!/semantically-released/.test(process.env.npm_package_version)) process.exit(0)
+
+    console.log('There is something wrong with your setup, as a placeholder version is about to be released.')
+    console.log('Please verify that your setup is correct.')
+    console.log('If you think this is a problem with semantic-release please open an issue.')
+    process.exit(1)
+  }
   // the `prepublish` hook is also executed when the package is installed
   // in this case we abort the command and do nothing.
   if (
diff --git a/tests/scenarios/verify.js b/tests/scenarios/verify.js
index f9d5bbf5..ea251de1 100644
--- a/tests/scenarios/verify.js
+++ b/tests/scenarios/verify.js
@@ -4,16 +4,15 @@ var efh = require('error-first-handler')
 var nixt = require('nixt')
 
 module.exports = function (test, createModule) {
-  createModule({
-    repository: {},
-    scripts: {
-      prepublish: 'semantic-release pre --no-token'
-    }
-  }, efh()(function (name, cwd) {
-    test('verify', function (t) {
+  test('verify', function (t) {
+    createModule({
+      repository: {},
+      scripts: {
+        prepublish: 'semantic-release pre --no-token'
+      }
+    }, efh()(function (name, cwd) {
       t.test('verify package and options before publishing', function (t) {
         t.plan(1)
-
         nixt()
           .cwd(cwd)
           .env('CI', true)
@@ -29,6 +28,23 @@ module.exports = function (test, createModule) {
             t.error(err, 'nixt')
           })
       })
-    })
-  }))
+    }))
+
+    createModule({
+      version: '1.0.0-semantically-released'
+    }, efh()(function (name, cwd) {
+      t.test('not publishing placeholder versions', function (t) {
+        t.plan(1)
+
+        nixt()
+          .cwd(cwd)
+          .env('CI', true)
+          .run('npm publish --semantic-release-rerun')
+          .code(1)
+          .end(function (err) {
+            t.error(err, 'nixt')
+          })
+      })
+    }))
+  })
 }