Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Coast123/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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

I think we've found an undeclared paid editing sock farm. First up is User:Coast123 who has been creating obvious promotional adverts for ages, and I'm surprised they weren't blocked years ago. I think I go it in my decline of their unblock request, but this discovery by User:Jytdog seems to have nailed it - undeclared paid editing by Coast Digital.

Looking at articles edited by Coast123... That's all I have time for for now, but I'll come back to it. I know the above accounts are too stale for checkuser, but I wonder if a check on IPs used by Coast123 (which I suggest may well be from the company's IP) should be done to look for sleeper accounts. Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 15:43, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Momondo, originally created by single-purpose User:Mortenoa, who left it looking like this. Mortenoa has edited no other article. User:LeilaStocker is also another single-purpose editor who later made these changes and has never edited anything else. User:Jup66 and User:Omgruno have also only ever edited that article. Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 15:28, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Coffee Joulies, User:FrcnRANDY has only ever edited this one article, adding stuff like this. Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 15:38, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Just one more comment, please see this link from Jytdog's comment, where Coast Digital open state that they use Wikipedia for commercial SEO purposes... "For the kinds of brands we work with, the most common way to appear in the knowledge graph is through a Wikipedia article. Having a Wikipedia article about your brand is a win-win – it means you’re appearing on one of the biggest independent information resources in existence and it means you’re featured on one of those public sources Google uses to generate the Knowledge Graph. Now, Wikipedia isn’t quite the content free-for-all it used to be, so getting a page added might be more difficult than you’re expecting – but it’s an ordeal worth going through to claim that much organic real estate." Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 15:49, 25 July 2018 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
No other accounts seen when checking the listed master. Closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 15:49, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 15:49, 25 July 2018 (UTC)