Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Elbatli/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets
These accounts all follow the same pattern: brief spurts of low-quality rapid-fire AfD !votes punctuated by long periods of inactivity. The interaction tool finds quite a bit of overlap, such as Articles for deletion/Caylee Cowan(actress) (keeps from Nassimela, Elbatli, and ZanciD), Articles for deletion/Wired Productions (article created by Fabiobengario; keeps from Misasory, Ginbopewx, ZanciD, and Elbatli), and Articles for deletion/Vaibhav Vinay Maloo (keeps from Elbatli, ZanciD, Ginbopewz, and Yüsiacı), among others. All accounts use the source editor almost exclusively, and the timecards seem pretty similar. I can go into more detail if it'd be helpful, but these accounts are all clearly up to no good (probably UPE), and given the AfD overlap they're likely connected (either sock or meat). I'd be interested to see what CU can come up with. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 07:25, 11 October 2022 (UTC)

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * --Blablubbs (talk) 18:01, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Had to double-check with another CU. Here goes:
 * ZanciD, Yüsiacı, and Nassimela all look to be on proxy. Notwithstanding that, I'd call the original group . Additionally:
 * is (via Yüsiacı) and interested in Caylee Cowan
 * and are  (via Nassimela), and their xwiki edits (more Caylee Cowan stuff) make it clear that they are also part of this group.
 * Coupled with behaviour, I'm convinced. Will block. --Blablubbs (talk) 19:23, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
 * --Blablubbs (talk) 19:28, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Follows the same pattern of rapid-fire low-quality AfD !votes combined with minor edits with the source editor. Similarities in language include "promotional context" (compare with ), "significant coverages" (compare  with ), and "Delete Lack of significant coverage" (compare  and ). Requesting CU since it was useful last time. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 07:02, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * CU tells me that they're in the same country as the previous socks, but not a lot more than that. Behaviourally though, and taking timings into account, I'm blocking as suspected. I don't see any other accounts.  Girth Summit  (blether)  10:24, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
As before, we have 1) large numbers of edit-count-inflating minor edits with the source editor, 2) long periods of sleeper-esque inactivity, 3) the creation of dubious UPE-like articles (OpenSooq, Hayvi Bouzo, Arash Derambarsh, etc.), and 4) rapid-fire AfD !voting. There's overlap with the previously-blocked sock at Articles for deletion/Pratik Gauri, and note also the similarity between "The content of this article is based on that in its Persian equivalent." from Nasim3030 and "The content of this article is based on its Hebrew equivalent." from. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 21:15, 4 November 2022 (UTC)
 * One more thing just for the record: I've noticed a lot of overlap, language similarities, etc. between this group of socks and, who was blocked for UPE last year (happy to go into more detail if anyone would like). Usually I don't bother mentioning long-since-stale accounts, but since it looks like Fatzaof was blocked per a paid-en-wp report, it might be worth looking at it (OTRS Ticket#2021030910010632) just in case there's anything relevant there. Cheers, Extraordinary Writ (talk) 21:22, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

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 * , from a technical perspective - same geolocation again. Hard to AGF here, given the shared interest in AfD subjects - blocking as suspected.  Girth Summit  (blether)  21:51, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Alimovvarsu turned up to !vote keep at Articles for deletion/Pratik Gauri (2nd nomination), which was started because the first AfD had been tainted by other Elbatli socks; there's also overlap with previous socks at Articles for deletion/Wired Productions (six other socks!) and Articles for deletion/Hakki Akdeniz. Follows the same pattern of low-quality edit-count-inflating source-editor edits combined with rapid-fire AfD !voting. Similarities in language include: "does not meet any criteria for notability" vs. "does not satisfy any criteria for notability" and "sources provided by ″황83보″" (with the username oddly in quotation marks) vs. sources provided by "Ahmed"". Extraordinary Writ (talk) 06:49, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * . There is a very good chance that they are on proxy, but I can't be entirely certain. as suspected, closing.  --Blablubbs (talk) 11:01, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
This is a bit of an odd one, but there's clearly something fishy going on with AmirŞah (formerly known as Brayan ocaner). Most importantly, the language-related similarities to Elbatli socks are simply overwhelming: to take just a few examples, we have "provided by above voters" ( vs. ), which is unique; "passing a mention" ( vs. ); "demonstrate notability of subject" ( vs. ); "clearly doesn't meet any notability guideline" ( etc. vs. ); and the fairly uncommon typo "and ect." instead of "etc." ( vs. ). Those are pretty hard to explain away. AmirŞah also follows what I've previously described as a "pattern of low-quality edit-count-inflating source-editor edits combined with rapid-fire AfD !voting", and his column in the editor interaction tool shows a great deal of overlap, including on low-traffic articles about Iranian film. The odd thing here is that AmirŞah will often nominate a spammy page for deletion only for Elbatli socks to !vote keep en masse: see here (2+ socks), here (2+ socks), here (4 socks), here (2 socks), here (6+ socks), etc. I can't say I understand what that's all about (possibly either a way of gaming the NPP system or an Orangemoody-esque extortion racket), but regardless it's more evidence that these accounts are not acting legitimately. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 08:02, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

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 * - -- RoySmith (talk) 21:13, 13 November 2022 (UTC)
 * ❌. I know many (all?) of the previous investigations have some back with uncertain results.  This isn't that.  It's a distinctly different pattern.  I'm going to close this, which doesn't preclude an admin from taking action if there's other reasons to do so. -- RoySmith (talk) 21:42, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
All three of these accounts turned up to !vote keep at Articles for deletion/Pratik Gauri (2nd nomination), which was started because the previous AfD had been tainted by Elbatli socks. They all follow the same characteristic pattern of long periods of inactivity, rapid-fire edit-count-inflating source-editor edits, and rapid-fire AfD !voting. All of them are also now apparently copying AfD !votes nearly verbatim from more established users, likely to avoid the language-related giveaways that got previous socks blocked. For Antonyvlas, see ; for AndrewYuke, see ; for Yandeńo, see. Anthonyvlas is interested in Iran-related topics like previous socks, while the other two create UPE-ish articles (e.g. Jordi Koalitic and Melania Dalla Costa) similar to those created by previous socks. Clearly not legitimate accounts, and given the AfD overlap I think they're likely related (whether through sockpuppetry or meatpuppetry) to Elbatli et al. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 18:57, 18 November 2022 (UTC)

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 * - behaviour seems in line with previous accounts, please CU to confirm. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 20:53, 18 November 2022 (UTC)
 * or slightly better. Given behaviour and how prior results have turned out I’m inclined to block but will see if anyone else disagrees.  firefly  ( t · c ) 21:05, 18 November 2022 (UTC)
 * for what it's worth, I don't disagree. Spicy (talk) 21:14, 18 November 2022 (UTC)
 * That works - blocking and tagging as suspected. Closing.  firefly  ( t · c ) 21:19, 18 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Post-close comment - I have just blocked the following account as another suspected sock:
 * They were the account that originally nominated Pratik Gauri for deletion, before multiple sockpuppets arrived to !vote keep (a common UPE tactic). When the socks were blocked and I renominated the article, more socks arrived to !vote keep, and AmirŞah made a very dubious NAC to keep the article (which I have reverted). This made me suspicious, and on closer inspection I see them getting involved in other AfDs where Elbatli socks are active, e.g. relisting Articles for deletion/Levi C. Maaia, or closing Articles for deletion/Davide Ricci Bitti as keep. This seemed suspicious, so I ran a check - it's not conclusive, and I won't go into details, but technically they look very much like the socks listed above. Girth Summit  (blether)  12:06, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
 * - reopening this, there are more socks.  Girth Summit  (blether)  12:23, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
 * CU data is again inconclusive, but the following are all alike in the same ways the previous ones were. They are all overlapping on the same articles, some writing content and others manipulating deletion discussions. I don't know whether it's one person, or a bunch of UPE editors, but I am blocking all.
 * That's all I see at present, but I will be very surprised if more don't crop up. Reclosing. Girth Summit  (blether)  12:37, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
 * That's all I see at present, but I will be very surprised if more don't crop up. Reclosing. Girth Summit  (blether)  12:37, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
 * That's all I see at present, but I will be very surprised if more don't crop up. Reclosing. Girth Summit  (blether)  12:37, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
 * That's all I see at present, but I will be very surprised if more don't crop up. Reclosing. Girth Summit  (blether)  12:37, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
 * That's all I see at present, but I will be very surprised if more don't crop up. Reclosing. Girth Summit  (blether)  12:37, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
 * That's all I see at present, but I will be very surprised if more don't crop up. Reclosing. Girth Summit  (blether)  12:37, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
 * That's all I see at present, but I will be very surprised if more don't crop up. Reclosing. Girth Summit  (blether)  12:37, 19 November 2022 (UTC)