Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Beds16/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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Beds16 made this comment at Articles for deletion/PEARL Institute of Management and Information Technology. When I struck the "keep" as a duplicate, they deleted the comment and then two minutes later an identical comment was added by UWL2013. WP:DUCK. Cordless Larry (talk) 17:27, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - . Please block the master account for a week, and the sock indefinitely. Sir Sputnik (talk) 18:52, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * ✅. GABgab 02:51, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Tagging and closing. Sir Sputnik (talk) 02:59, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Master account created BLP on Shahmeer Amir which was deleted via AfD. Following the deletion, JSworks created draft Draft:Shahmeer Amir.. which is obvious sock of Jsworks1 was blocked for spamming and advertisement. --Saqib (talk) 09:13, 18 May 2018 (UTC)
 * A new account has been created. --Saqib (talk) 17:04, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - Given the disclosed paid editing by some these accounts, this might be separate people with the same employer. Please check to see who's connected to whom here. Sir Sputnik (talk) 15:31, 19 May 2018 (UTC)
 * ✅ to each other, only:,.
 * to the above:, , , . On the other hand, it's a fairly wide IP range.
 * is in a different country.
 * I'll block the confirmed ones. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 22:52, 19 May 2018 (UTC)
 * - Could an admin please compare the current version of Draft:Shahmeer Amir to the one deleted yesterday? Specifically, I'd like to know if any parts of the two versions are the same word for word (or almost). Sir Sputnik (talk) 23:54, 19 May 2018 (UTC)
 * the lede is quite similar, including "third-best bug bounty hunter in the world" and a list of 350 (instead of 400) organizations he has "helped" lists the same companies except one, and in a different order. It's also substantially similar to a version previously deleted in October 2016 which was created by an OfficialPankajPatidar sock. However, the two earlier versions are one-paragraph stubs with weak references to the subject's own website and hacker forums, while the new one is quite a bit longer and is obviously PR copy. OPP's involvement strongly indicates that the subject is hiring editing services, rather than being evidence of a connection to that case. Isk336 did make a proper paid editing disclosure prior to editing the article, but it's the same disclosure as Jsworks1 made on their user page. Jsworks' now-deleted user page advertised "Wikipedia writing services" at, and stated "we are here to create posts assigned to us by our clients." That profile claims to have been successfully publishing promotional Wikipedia articles for 4 years, so clearly this is not a new user, and the nature of their most recent creation suggests they're deliberately spamming, rather than running a good-faith editing service. I'm blocking Isk336 and removing their article, per WP:SCRUTINY and WP:SPAM, and let's throw in WP:G4 and WP:G11 for good measure.
 * Something I missed was that the draft had been deleted before, and that version was identical. Calling this proven. Jsworks is the oldest account unless something comes back from my query below. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 16:07, 21 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Also of note is Quetta87300's Draft:PEARL Institute of Management and Information Technology, a subject located in Quetta which was deleted in January, and which had an AfD stacked by sockpuppets (we decided was the master, but that's clearly a throwaway account). The draft is a copy of the deleted article's lede only, nearly verbatim. When it was rejected, Quetta87300 inquired of  how their article was different from three WikiWand articles, corresponding to our University of Balochistan, Command and Staff College, and Al-Hamd Islamic University, all articles edited by Beds16 and Wisal Ahmad. Basically, it's a spin cycle of overlapping cases here, or maybe it's students at an Indian university, I don't know. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 16:25, 21 May 2018 (UTC)
 * is there anything you can comment on as to a connection between OfficialPankajPatidar and Jsworks? OPP has been checked many, many times. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 15:49, 21 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Going by the checkuser log, the geolocation looks wrong for OfficialPankajPatidar. I'm not familiar with OPP, though.  If you wanted an informed opinion, you might ask someone else. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 20:57, 21 May 2018 (UTC)


 * I initially moved the case to Jsworks, rationalizing that I believe Isk336 and the two Quetta accounts are the same editor, or related closely enough to be considered sockpuppets. I then realized that not only is Quetta87300 older, they were created on the same day that Beds16 stopped editing. There are too many overlaps here to be coincidental; after I save this edit I am going to merge this into Beds16. I am very confident that Beds16 is not the master, but I have nothing to go on to investigate further at this time.
 * While this is a case of disclosed paid editing for the most part, I have reason to doubt that the disclosures are genuine, and I can come up with no reasonable justification for a legitimate Wikipedia article writing service to operate multiple accounts in this manner if they are not trying to evade scrutiny. I think that Noorzai (Noori) is not related, and I don't know what to make of Ikurazim but don't have enough evidence to block anyway.
 * Accounts are where necessary. Case closed. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 19:42, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Definitely the same user because created Draft:Shahmeer Amir with the same content. Saqib (talk) 08:04, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * , not necessary. Obvious sock, page deleted again, title regex salted. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 11:07, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
request to REFUND. At the very least, the two puppets are the same person. I suspect they are both Beds. UtherSRG (talk) 13:21, 13 December 2022 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - everything is, except for  Salvio 22:34, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
 * While Khilji1974 and Khilji74 are probably the same person, there's no time overlap, and nothing that would suggest illegit sockpuppetry. Given how much time has passed since the last report, and while this refund request could suggest some connection (COI maybe?), I think the evidence for sockpuppetry is somewhat weak. . Feel free to report again if there is new evidence. MarioGom (talk) 21:54, 16 December 2022 (UTC)