English Wikipedia @ Freddythechick:Suspected sock puppets/200.0.176.17
- The following discussion is an archived debate of the case of suspected sockpuppetry. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page. All edits should go to the talk page of this case. If you are seeing this page as a result of an attempt to open a new case of sockpuppetry of the same user, read this for detailed instructions.
User:200.0.176.17
- Suspected sockpuppeteer
200.0.176.17 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
- Suspected sockpuppets
lvmtridas (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
lvmxavis (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
Ivanmorales (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log) His userpage was deleted on 8 April 2007 for violating WP:NOT#MYSPACE. This is further evidence of a spammer at work.) Shalom Hello 03:16, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
- Report submission by
Shalom Hello 03:04, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
- Evidence
A special thanks to User:Irishguy for starting a thread at WP:ANI#Possible spam. This IP and the three users listed above have all edited the same articles about the same quasi-notable people, and - more importantly - add a profusion of links to www.newmedia.cfm.edu. Most people have not heard of this website. It is extremely unlikely for someone without a conflict of interest to devote 50+ edits to link Wikipedia to a fringe website.
I am not merely concerned with the question of sockpuppetry as such. I also want to make sure that THE SPAM IS REMOVED. There's a lot of reverting to do, and I'd like you to share the burden if you have a minute. Check the contribution log of these articles (in some cases, you'll see all four usernames in the same history) and revert, ideally without obliterating valid edits from bots and legitimate users. Shalom Hello 03:04, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
- Comments
Wow. I only caught the one. Thanks go to Shalom for digging up the other two. As I noted in my initial AN/I report, I am not qualified to know if the links are valid or not as the ones I saw weren't in English...but the fact that there was at least one account dedicated to only adding that link is suspicious at the very least. IrishGuy talk 08:34, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
- Conclusions
Given the significant amount of damage and spamming, the spammer accounts have been blocked. Not going to block the IP as it appears to be the university's, but if it spams again in the future, just report it to WP:AIV. Still working on cleaning up the spam, and on articles converted into ads by the spammers. Seraphimblade Talk to me 05:02, 9 July 2007 (UTC)