Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Exposed.factotum/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets
Took a while to unravel this but there's a definite pattern here. Exposed.factotum is probably not the first account created by this editor (see their advanced knowledge demonstrated immediately), but I couldn't find links to earlier accounts. This one made 11 edits across some random articles, then created the Shalkal Carty article after they were auto-confirmed. The Carty article is heavily promotional and subject's notability is scant, raising suspicions of paid editing. The Waqas4588 account was created 8 days ago and made 1 edit. Yesterday, that account made 10 edits and was auto-confirmed. They immediately went to work on a draft version of Akuma Divine Saningong, which was created by an IP in draftspace two weeks ago. They moved it to mainspace. A quick Google search on Saningong reveals only primary-source material, again raising suspicions of notability. That brings us to: Feerfox. This account was created 3 days ago and it made 9 edits that day, mostly to Draft:Winona Inc, another article with only primary-sourced material available online. Two hours after Waqas4588 made their last edit to Akuma Divine Saningong, an article which had existed in namespace for 4 hours at that point, Feerfox made a series of edits to that article. To bring it full circle, Feerfox voted, 4 hours ago, after having worked on only 2 articles, to "Keep" the Shalkal Carty article in its deletion discussion. I'm requesting a checkuser because I'm 100% sure there are more than these three accounts operating from the same paid-editing operation. Fred Zepelin (talk) 19:50, 31 January 2024 (UTC)

Comments by other users

 * Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.


 * Just to add to this, I must point out that the editing pattern on Akuma Divine Saningong is all but conclusive. The article only saw major contributions by Feerfox, now confirmed as a sock, and Waqas4588, who exclusively edited the Saningong article after their first 10 edits to become auto-confirmed. Fred Zepelin (talk) 01:39, 1 February 2024 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Feerfox is ✅ to and, who are blocked as part of WP:Sockpuppet investigations/Aniflower. I'll block them.
 * Waqas4588 is technically ❌ to Feerfox and I did not see any obvious signs of other accounts ( etc.)
 * Exposed.factotum is ❌ to both of the above. They share an IP with the following group:


 * Those three accounts are unambiguously ✅ to each other and behaviourally related . The relation of Exposed.factotum to this group is less clear. There is a technical difference that would be kind of odd if all four accounts are operated by the same person, but it's by no means impossible..
 * A technical result of "unrelated" does not rule out the possibility of UPE meatpuppetry. Spicy (talk) 22:48, 31 January 2024 (UTC)
 * For the remaining accounts, they are confirmed to each other but the behavior is difficult to explain as a violation of WP:SOCK. Also, they seem to be inactive for a few months now. I've left an AGF notice, if they start editing abusively there's no prejudice against re-filing. The Wordsmith Talk to me 20:20, 12 March 2024 (UTC)