Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Boimurph/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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

Began with what appeared to be a simple first edit to change the unit nickname at United States Air Force Security Forces by new account "Boimurph", which was reverted (with a 'welcome' template and personal message on their tp explaining why). However, following that, 11 accounts made 12 more nearly identical edits (all to the very same infobox "nickname" parameter), a couple tried to restore variations of the improper edit, but most were just straight vandalism of the unit nickname. For the two WP accounts and 7 of the IP accounts, this was the first edit made, the other 3 IP accounts, only had 3 or 4 edits made by each (iow, none of the accounts had an established editing history). Page was PP for 7 days. Here are the diffs in chronological order; All these edits, and the reverts are consecutive. I don't know how practical it would be to block all these IPs for single edits (up to you guys), I made this report specifically to address the two registered accounts. Cheers - wolf  03:31, 8 February 2021 (UTC)
 * 1) -
 * 2) -
 * 3) -
 * 4) -
 * 5) -
 * 6) - ,
 * 7) -
 * 8) -
 * 9) -
 * 10) -
 * 11) -
 * 12) -

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

 * This is a disruption campaign, report to WP:AIV and WP:RFPP as needed. -- Amanda  (aka DQ) 15:27, 11 February 2021 (UTC)
 * but this is obvious socking, shouldn't at least the registered accounts be marked and blocked as such? Also, wouldn't this be stale foe AIV now? (And as noted, RFPP was already filed, at the time, and dealt with). - wolf  18:03, 11 February 2021 (UTC)
 * You can seek a general administrative block if you wish, but these aren't the same person. Your IPs geolocate to Cambridgeshire, UK, Florida, New Mexico, Colorado, Connecticut, California, Maryland, a different part of New Mexico, Indiana, and another city in Cambridgeshire, UK. Also, no, proxies are not involved. So this is not the same person and therefore not sockpuppetry. It's a coordinated attack. -- Amanda  (aka DQ) 18:10, 11 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Yes, I saw the locations when I tagged all the talk pages but, even if someone got on the phone (or equivalent) and called 11 differrent people, from completely disperate locations, (and time zones up to 9 hrs apart), and got them all to vandalize that very specific infobox parameter in the same way, that's still evidence of meat puppetry, no? Enough for you, an admin, to at least block the 2 WP accounts? I'm not clear on why this needs to be passed off to another administrative venue. Any additional info would be appreciated. - wolf  18:32, 11 February 2021 (UTC)
 * - I'm digging a bit deeper into this before it gets archived. -- RoySmith (talk) 16:20, 12 February 2021 (UTC)
 * I've blocked Biomurph and Acebush as WP:NOTHERE. I'll take Amanda's CU finding at face value, but it's clear there's some kind of close coordination here.  Acebush was created in 2014 and didn't make their first edit until now.  Seven years is a long time to warehouse a sleeper.  Makes me wonder if we should just pre-emptively block (I can already hear the howls of objection) any account which never edited in N years since it was created.  This looks like it was a one-time thing, so I'm not going to do anything about the IPs.   has already semi-protected United States Air Force Security Forces, but that's just got a couple more days to run.  If this picks up again after the protection expires, please ping me. -- RoySmith (talk) 17:18, 12 February 2021 (UTC)