Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Billphil1/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Likely case of sock/meatpuppetry. User:Nadiya Popadyuk was blocked by User:MER-C earlier today, after which one of their articles (now at Draft:Fia Johansson (2)) was immediately moved to the draftspace. Less than 2 hours later, User:Billphil1 (an editor who has not edited since early 2017) recreated an almost identical version of the article—it even cites the same sources with the same access date attached. I am unsure if this is sock-puppetry or meat-puppetry, but this looks like a WP:DUCK case to me, as Billphil1 is clearly reinstating the edits of a blocked editor. SamHolt6 (talk) 22:45, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

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

 * —&thinsp;JJMC89&thinsp; (T·C) 01:49, 22 January 2020 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Likely case of sock/meat-puppetry. A new editor, User:MoonRiver777, is displaying a similar editing pattern to previous socks in this sockfarm. MoonRiver777 recently joined the project (several days after the previous SPI closed), making a series of random edits (enough to reach semi-confirmed status and bypass ACTRIAL) before creating Persian Medium in the mainspace. This raised a red flag as Perisan Medium is the professional name of Fia Johansson, the previous target of the Billphil1 sockfarm, and it is highly unsual for new editors to create stable versions of article (complete with images, infoboxes, etc) on their first try. Looking over the two drafts of Johansson's biography, both are incredibly similar; some text is copied outright while more is so similar (written in the same cadence and style) it hints that the same author wrote it. For example, compare the following sentences; "Fia moved to the US 10 years ago, where her 'powers' have been sought after from law enforcement agencies, the government – as well as individuals – ever since." Compared with: "Johansson moved to the US 10 years ago, where she works with law enforcement agencies, the government and individuals." The comparison is easy to see, and it should be noted that (in the case of both drafts) no footnotes or in-line sources are used, ruling out the idea that this is just a very similar interpretation of the same source. I asked MoonRiver if the text was their original work at User_talk:SamHolt6, but did not receive a clear answer. In addition to the similar drafts, it should be noted that MoonRiver777 has an image of Johansson to the WMC, a sign of possible conflict of interest/undisclosed paid editing - it should be noted that this sockfarm is credibly tied to an Los Angeles based PR agency promoting Johansson (see User:Nadiya Popadyuk's block).

To conclude, the new editor is - either directly or indirectly - re-instating content generated by the Billphil1 sockfarm, and other evidence indicates they have a connection to the subject. I am fairly convinced this is meatpuppetry at the very least, but have requested checkuser anyway. I have also added User:Ewarren2020 to this SPI, as they are another new editor that attempted to remove a maintenance template from Draft:Fia Johansson. SamHolt6 (talk) 14:30, 8 February 2020 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Billphil1 and Ewarren2020 are ✅. MoonRiver77 is editing from the same geographic area but using a different device. MoonRiver777 shares an IP with Nadiya Popadyuk, but Nadiya is using yet another device.
 * is ✅ from Ewarren2020 but has made only one edit to an unrelated article.
 * I've blocked and tagged Ewarren2020 and MoonRiver777. I'll leave it up to a clerk or a patrolling admin to decide what to do with TheStarWars.--Bbb23 (talk) 00:35, 9 February 2020 (UTC)
 * , I was trying to clean out some of the CU ran cases. I went ahead and blocked TheStarWars as a sleeper because of the ISP they're on and the timing of edits. Just wanted to give you a heads up since you didn't block yourself. Closing. TonyBallioni (talk) 15:24, 23 February 2020 (UTC)