Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/EPANews/Archive

Report date September 23 2009, 11:53 (UTC)

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * Evidence submitted by CaliforniaAliBaba

IP edits are from a couple of weeks ago, both named accounts are new. Puppetmaster was blocked temporarily for repeated insertion of unsourced material or wild claims from self-published sources at Jaerock Lee. Compare the followingedits:
 * "Miraculous healing" of some lady in Peru: EPANews, Reporterjoseph
 * 300 people violently invading a television station was a "peaceful accident": EPANews, Reporterjoseph , 113.199.156.59


 * Comments by accused parties    See Defending yourself against claims.


 * Comments by other users


 * Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

User:Reporterjoseph indefinitely blocked, and sockmaster blocked for 3 days. MuZemike 18:56, 23 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Conclusions

Report date September 26 2009, 11:16 (UTC)

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * Evidence submitted by CaliforniaAliBaba

See history of Jaerock Lee article; closely interleaved edits from above two users. Similar editing habits as earlier sockpuppets:
 * Using Jaerock Lee's autobiography as a source for contentious claims (such as the 300-person invasion of a television station being a "peaceful accident"): Way3078, MMhns , earlier sockpuppets:
 * Attempts to claim http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/archives/result_contents.asp is a source: Way3078, Mmhns , earlier sockpuppets
 * Attempts to play down Prof. Tim Lee's statement comparing Jaerock Lee and Sun-Myung Moon: Mmhns, earlier sockpuppets:
 * Repeated insertion of the statement "His followers, he said are in the region on “prearranged trips” with the help of the Israeli government.": Way3078, Mmhns


 * Comments by accused parties    See Defending yourself against claims.


 * Comments by other users


 * CheckUser request

Despite the fact that this is clear, I'm requesting CheckUser to determine an underlying IP/range and to weed out any other sleepers. MuZemike 14:47, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

✅ =
 * Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

All accounts are blocked. J.delanoy gabs adds 16:22, 26 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Conclusions

Evidence submitted by CaliforniaAliBaba
Edits from these three accounts generally consist of inserting citations to Christian-oriented news-agencies on Jaerock Lee, where said citations do not actually support the content they are adding.


 * Mmhns7238: An earlier sockpuppet of EPANews was called User:Mmhns. In this edit, Mmhns7238 inserted a link to, an article which does not mention Jaerock Lee at all
 * Christine2077: Repeated the above-mentioned edit by Mmhns7238.
 * Yshoono: This edit of his is an exact duplicate of an earlier edit by Holy2073, except for using a different external link. The text added is a copyvio from Lee's autobiography or official profile, I believe.
 * Holy2073: Generally similar habits to above socks or previous sockpuppets, along with above-mentioned duplication of edit by Yshoono.
 * In this edit, he inserted a link to, which does not mention anything about "massive crusades in such countries as Uganda, India, Russia, Germany, Peru, Republic of Congo, and the U.S."
 * In this edit, he inserts a claim that Jaerock Lee founded the World Christian Doctors Network; the link does not support this claim, only that Lee is the president of the organisation. Similar to an earlier edit by EPANews (a different link, but the same claim).

Thanks, cab (talk) 01:31, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

Comments by accused parties
See Defending yourself against claims.

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
The four socks, and the master, have been indefinitely blocked and tagged. Jaerock Lee is semi protected for six months due to general vandalism and sockpuppetry. Courcelles (talk) 05:30, 3 July 2010 (UTC)

13 July 2011

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Similar POV edits to Jaerock Lee: adding unreliable references to suggest the importance of the person and his books, hagiographic language,. User:Zondervan07 is (IMO) another (now stale) sock, editing that article and Manmin Central Church, and I'll put the "suspected sock puppet" on their user page, just for the record. Note: I'm not good at reporting these things and I am using Twinkle now--please feel free to edit this to the appropriate format and tell me where I screwed up. Thanks. Drmies (talk) 18:30, 13 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Hagiographic edits to Manmin Central Church, inserting "testimony" on the church's effectiveness in saving people. Drmies (talk) 18:33, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * It looks pretty much like sockpuppetry to me, but a checkuser would be welcome to be sure, and also to look for sleepers. The original account(EPANews) is stale, but there are numerous more recent socks to check against, including several from earlier this month, so a check should be possible. JamesBWatson (talk) 19:56, 13 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I was wrong. I read "July 2010" as "July 2011". JamesBWatson (talk) 20:04, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
✅ the following are the same as each other:
 * appears to be an acquaintance/co-worker, but not the same person.
 * All of the accounts in the archive are . TN X Man  20:01, 13 July 2011 (UTC)
 * appears to be an acquaintance/co-worker, but not the same person.
 * All of the accounts in the archive are . TN X Man  20:01, 13 July 2011 (UTC)
 * All of the accounts in the archive are . TN X Man  20:01, 13 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Presidentofctai and Worldbecameflesh blocked. AnomiieBOT was already blocked. JamesBWatson (talk) 20:09, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

15 July 2011

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

The user's latest two sockpuppets (Presidentofctai & Worldbecameflesh) were blocked on 13 July, following checkuser confirmation that they and AnomiieBOT (already blocked) are the same person. The account MaxJLucado was created on 15 July, and so far has edited only two articles, both of which have been the focus of editing from the various sockpuppets of this user. The editing is generally similar in character to that of past socks. JamesBWatson (talk) 15:30, 15 July 2011 (UTC) JamesBWatson (talk) 15:30, 15 July 2011 (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
✅, plus. too. TN X Man 15:49, 15 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Blocked and tagged. -- DQ  (t)   (e)  15:56, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

26 September 2011

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

More WP:SPAs who all showed up at the same time to add puffery and trying to downplay controversies about Jaerock Lee and Manmin Central Church. E.g.: Last two accounts created within a day of each other:
 * Curtisriskey: Created five days after the last sockpuppet MaxJLucado . Following edits cited to this source which does not verify it
 * Yonggicho: Created an article about a Jaerock Lee book My Life, My Faith
 * Arjayjjay: Editing on Christian Council of Korea, an organisation which Jaerock Lee doesn't like because it expelled him. One particular similarity between Arjayjay is that he cites Korean sources but gives only English translations and not the original title, e.g. . This is the same format which the previous sockpuppet Presidentofctai liked to use . cab (call) 02:34, 26 September 2011 (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

 * - Possible; endorsing for confirmation and sleepers (some were found last time.) —  Hello Annyong  (say whaaat?!) 03:07, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

✅ =



. J.delanoy gabs adds  04:29, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Courcelles blocked; I tagged. —  Hello Annyong  (say whaaat?!) 01:28, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

26 November 2011

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

I have blocked the above accounts, but I am wondering if there are any sleepers. They have all exhibited similar editing behavior and seem to be interested exclusively in the Jaerock Lee and Manmin Central Church articles. --Bongwarrior (talk) 08:46, 26 November 2011 (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
All of those accounts are ✅, as are the following: . WilliamH (talk) 10:06, 26 November 2011 (UTC)
 * All accounts blocked and tagged, I'd say we're done here. WilliamH (talk) 10:13, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

24 March 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

These accounts are, like previous socks, exclusively involved in promoting Jaerock Lee, mainly in the articles Jaerock Lee, Manmin Central Church, Urim Books, and various articles about Lee's books (most of them deleted or redirected after AfDs earlier this year). In the years since the latest SPI involving EPANews, the article Jaerock Lee had become a promotion piece for Lee with all criticism gradually removed; the same was true for Manmin Central Church. I have started to try to make the articles more balanced by adding sourced criticism, but it is uphill work. Other edits include adding promotion of Jaerock Lee or his books to unrelated articles, such as New Delhi World Book Fair (the reference advertises Lee's books); Demographics of Indonesia  (ditto) ; Sébastien Impeto Pengo  (quite an absurd claim there) ; 17 (number)  and ; 144000 (number)  (note similar phrasing to the previous diff) ; New Jerusalem  (ditto). Note also these two diffs: and. The Power of God is the title of a book by Lee.

It is of course possible that some of the accounts are meatpuppets rather than sockpuppets, but there are enough common elements to their edits that I think this SPI is warranted. I have been meaning to start it for some time but have been put off by the sheer number of potential socks, and I haven't included all possible socks in this report, because it is a wall of text as it is, and many older probable socks are most likely stale. I'm hoping that a CU can show something conclusive about the more recent accounts, at any rate.

Today, when I had added some sourced criticism of Jaerock Lee, I noticed these three edits with rather peculiar edit summaries:, ,. "Sandman Lilius" is the surname of an author who has written a book with the same title as my username, but there is no connection with their edits or the content of the article. Three different editors putting that in edit summaries just after my edits - hardly a coincidence (and to be honest I find it a little creepy).

Removing criticism against Lee or the church is a common theme. A particularly underhanded way of doing it has been by first sabotaging references for text that includes criticism, then removing the references because they are "dead", and finally removing the text itself as unsourced. Here is one example of such a sequence:, , , ,. I have just restored that particular information to the article. bonadea contributions talk 22:20, 24 March 2015 (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

 * - Evidence is enough for a CU check.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  22:55, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
 * The users, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and  are ✅. Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry (Message me) 23:28, 24 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Looks like everything has been taken care of here. Mike V • Talk 00:11, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

19 September 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

A couple of new accounts that were created, made ten null edits to random articles in order to be autoconfirmed, and then started adding promotional text to Jaerock Lee:,. The user name "GunillaSundström" is a Swedish name but the language errors in this edit are typically Korean - a few of the socks found in the March 2015 sweep used Swedish names as some kind of weird retaliation against me, apparently. Another typical thing that previous socks have done is adding sources which don't actually support the text, as in (the Korean source mentions that these politicians were invited to the church but says nothing about any endorsement).

Due to the large number of socks found in previous investigations, I'm requesting a CU. bonadea contributions talk 10:34, 19 September 2015 (UTC)

Comment to below: There has to be non-stale sockpuppets from previous investigations in order for a CU to work? I didn't realise that, but it's good to know. That presumably means there can never be a CU if it's been too long since the previous investigation. --bonadea contributions talk 16:53, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Adding ; same MO as previously, ten zero edits and then starting to edit Jaerock Lee. The name bizarreness continues with a quintessentially Swedish name (quite an unusual one as well). There is another aspect of the user name choices which I won't discuss here for WP:BEANS reasons but I'm happy to supply details in email if needed. --bonadea contributions talk 06:50, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

I'm 100% certain User:Lars Burman is another one but there is not enough behavioural evidence there - only one edit. --bonadea contributions talk 13:45, 30 September 2015 (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

 * I've denied the CU request. If a non-stale puppet can be identified, please post it here.--Bbb23 (talk) 11:54, 20 September 2015 (UTC)
 * We can compare those suspected socks to one another. Connection to the master can be determinated behaviorally. The evidence is enough to run a CU check.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  15:49, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

. This is taking longer than I thought it would. Patience.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:37, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
 * The following accounts are ✅ to each other:
 * I've blocked all the accounts. I'll leave the tagging and behavioral determination to the clerk.--Bbb23 (talk) 19:28, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Most of those accounts edited Christian Council of Korea, the article created and heavily edited by EPANews and his socks. If we add evidence presented by above, the behaviral link to the master can be established. I tagged all as socks of EPANews and I'm closing the case.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  08:59, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I've blocked all the accounts. I'll leave the tagging and behavioral determination to the clerk.--Bbb23 (talk) 19:28, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Most of those accounts edited Christian Council of Korea, the article created and heavily edited by EPANews and his socks. If we add evidence presented by above, the behaviral link to the master can be established. I tagged all as socks of EPANews and I'm closing the case.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  08:59, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I've blocked all the accounts. I'll leave the tagging and behavioral determination to the clerk.--Bbb23 (talk) 19:28, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Most of those accounts edited Christian Council of Korea, the article created and heavily edited by EPANews and his socks. If we add evidence presented by above, the behaviral link to the master can be established. I tagged all as socks of EPANews and I'm closing the case.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  08:59, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I've blocked all the accounts. I'll leave the tagging and behavioral determination to the clerk.--Bbb23 (talk) 19:28, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Most of those accounts edited Christian Council of Korea, the article created and heavily edited by EPANews and his socks. If we add evidence presented by above, the behaviral link to the master can be established. I tagged all as socks of EPANews and I'm closing the case.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  08:59, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I've blocked all the accounts. I'll leave the tagging and behavioral determination to the clerk.--Bbb23 (talk) 19:28, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Most of those accounts edited Christian Council of Korea, the article created and heavily edited by EPANews and his socks. If we add evidence presented by above, the behaviral link to the master can be established. I tagged all as socks of EPANews and I'm closing the case.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  08:59, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I've blocked all the accounts. I'll leave the tagging and behavioral determination to the clerk.--Bbb23 (talk) 19:28, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Most of those accounts edited Christian Council of Korea, the article created and heavily edited by EPANews and his socks. If we add evidence presented by above, the behaviral link to the master can be established. I tagged all as socks of EPANews and I'm closing the case.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  08:59, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Most of those accounts edited Christian Council of Korea, the article created and heavily edited by EPANews and his socks. If we add evidence presented by above, the behaviral link to the master can be established. I tagged all as socks of EPANews and I'm closing the case.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  08:59, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

02 April 2016

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

Over the past couple of weeks, Jaerock Lee and Manmin Central Church have yet again attracted newish editors (”newish”, since in a couple of cases the accounts have been stale for a couple of years, but none of the accounts has more than 25 non-userspace edits). It has been a recurring pattern over several years that a number of different accounts show up and make more or less minor edits to the article; all those accounts have always proven to be EPANews socks. Since the article is indefinitely semiprotected, it is also a recurring pattern that new socks make a bunch of null or very minor edits to other articles in order to be autoconfirmed.

As for the current bunch, GeorgeThomsen was created in September of 2012 but had no edits for more than three years, before showing up a couple of days ago to add another book to Lee’s growing list of publications in the article. GeorgeThomsen also created Dale M Yocum.

Lullynerfsy was created in January 2016 and they have mostly edited their own talk page, beginning by copying another editor’s talk page to their own, and gradually removing it. They have moved content between Jaerock Lee and Manmin Central Church and have also edited Dale M Yocum - the only editor other than GeorgeThomsen to edit that article to do more than housekeeping. They also linked to the Yocum article from another article.

Imauditmake was created in November 2015 but did not make any edits (that I can see, anyway) until March. Apart from edits to their userspace pages they have mostly edited Jaerock Lee, adding various details such as - this is also characteristic of how the socks have worked in the past, padding the descriptions a little bit at a time until they are rather bloated.

Yanksmarks claims on their user page to be a Canadian, which is interesting given that they have only edited South Korea related articles, and that their English contains language errors typical of non native speakers of English from e.g. Korea. In this edit, Yanksmarks adds text to the lede which used to be present in the body of the article (”As of September, 2014, Lee has written more than 90 titles”), albeit with a different reference which had also been previously cleaned out as it was not considered to be a reliable source (and it did not support the information anyway.) Like Lullynerfsy, Yanksmarks has been moving some content between the Manmin Central Church and Jaerock Lee articles, cf edit summaries  and, as well as  and.

WWalterAAltmann was created in 2013 and started by making ten null edits after which they edited Manmin Central Church, including which is a typical example of the socks’ attempts to remove or distort sourced criticism against Lee and his church. Also note that they added a Korean reference with a translated English title, which many of the previous socks have been doing.(copying a couple of diffs from a previous SPI:, ) That was back in 2013, though. They had a long break from editing, returning a few days ago with minor and userspace edits. Today they edited Jaerock Lee, adding yet another lengthy book description to the publications list.

Extremehapiness, finally, was created a few days ago, and they attempted to create a page about Manmin Church’s publishing company Urim Books. Urim Books is create protected after previous sockpuppetry, so they did it at the redirect page Urim books. The new page was not dissimilar to the most recent previous attempt to create the page, by a confirmed previous sock of EPANews - see this diff.

There are clear behavioural connections between some of these accounts, and between some of them and some previous socks, but I would like to see a CU given the number of sleepers that have been found in previous CUs. bonadea contributions talk 11:18, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * I was not aware of the above when earlier today I moved Urim books over Urim Books without leaving a redirect. – Fayenatic  L ondon 08:55, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
The following accounts are ✅ to each other:
 * - compare those accounts per provided evidence.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  20:37, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
 * not listed in suspected socks above
 * not listed in suspected socks above
 * not listed in suspected socks above
 * not listed in suspected socks above
 * not listed in suspected socks above
 * not listed in suspected socks above
 * not listed in suspected socks above
 * not listed in suspected socks above


 * Note they are all editing from the same city and ISP as, so you can call them all confirmed.-- Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots  20:50, 7 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Tagging and closing.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  21:15, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility


 * Already checked. Noting here for reference. Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots  16:35, 21 September 2016 (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

 * All accounts are ✅ save for which is a suspected sleeper. All blocked and tagged.-- Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots  16:35, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

I first noticed Wisesurer, who recreated the Urim Books article and did some other Manmin Church related edits, including spamming a link to one of Manmin's websites to an unrelated article here. When I searched for that link to see if it had been added elsewhere, I found United Holiness Church of Jesus Christ, a content fork of Manmin Central Church which had been created and then edited by the other two accounts. The tag teaming pattern is very typical indeed, as is the large number of affiliated/primary sources in that article. Several of the sources are ones I recognise from Jaerock Lee, since I have spent some time trying to turn that article into something other than a hagiography. The sockmaster has a history of creating entire drawerfuls, so a CU would be helpful. bonadea contributions talk 10:46, 22 September 2017 (UTC)

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

 * Survey says:


 * All blocked. There will likely be some clean up an deletion required, they've been at it awhile.-- Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots 19:45, 22 September 2017 (UTC)
 * I've done all of the clean-up, if someone would kindly tag the batch.-- Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots 20:00, 22 September 2017 (UTC)
 * ✅. GABgab 22:48, 25 September 2017 (UTC)