Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Heartmusic678/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets

 * ( original case name)




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

I see these users participating in this AFD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/LEAD_Technologies_(2nd_nomination). All three accounts are with very less edit counts and show a similar behavior pattern especially Techgirl49 and FiddleheadLady. I request a check for further help. Sanketio31 (talk) 05:52, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''

It looks like might be added to this list — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pipsally (talk • contribs) 19:11, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

I became suspicious of a connection when I spotted that four of the accounts that !voted delete on the AfD were participating in an AfD for the first time. It seemed more than coincidental. Looking more closely, Trusty route and MadMadder's editing pattern is characterised by their excessive gnoming, such as removing redlinks, tagging and expanding refs. This seems to fit with the Yoodaba sockfarm which WrightBro571 is part of. WrightBro571 has edited articles about LEAD Technologies and LEADTOOLS, and added links to them from other articles such as Comparison of raster graphics editors, Exif, List of PDF software over a sustained period (February, March, April until blocked). I think there's enough for a CU here. given your work on Yoodaba I thought you'd be interested in this case. Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 20:33, 6 July 2021 (UTC)


 * And another IP joins the fray! 75.164.80.135 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pipsally (talk • contribs) 14:16, 7 July 2021 (UTC)


 * If the CU does identify socking then Heartmusic678 is one of the accounts that selected this article to be their very first AfD !vote. While their account was created back in May 2015, it was inactive between August 2017 and March 2021. From 2015-2017 they contributed to articles about popular music, but when it returned its edits have been about companies/brands, with promo edits like, , and  amongst gnoming and other benign edits. For the promo edits, they respond to edit requests on COI articles. So I think they may be a skilful UPE. Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 13:50, 7 July 2021 (UTC)


 * All the identified accounts restrict their editing to Monday to Friday, 1030-2000 UTC which would be in keeping with the Yoodaba farm. If it is Yoodaba then the CU won't help as Yoodaba is characterised as a distributed, 'working from home' meatpuppet operation. Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 14:33, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

One of the other accounts that did the same is, since blocked as a sock. It seems like a safe corner of the encyclopaedia for a farm to go and create a bunch of throwaway accounts? Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 15:52, 11 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Looking further at MadMadder's edits, they gnomed at Skif (ATGM) and the history of that article shows some 19 other accounts which have made few or no other edits gnoming on it since being tagged with on 3 April until 17 May:


 * So I am not sure what this is? I found this from checking the AfD discussion to weigh in on the move to Draft. What do I need to do to respond to this? I have not been paid by anyone to edit Wikipedia. I just do it to pass the time at a boring job? FiddleheadLady (talk) 12:54, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia often attracts people who have a vested interest in promoting a topic, particularly in articles about people or companies. The terms of use that we all agree to when we edit here includes having to declare any connection we have to the articles we are writing about. There's a history on the Lead Technologies article of undeclared paid editing, and of people creating more than one user account for the purposes of circumventing the rules.
 * Can you say how you choose which articles to edit? Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 14:06, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Oh ok, well its a mix of things. I was editing/creating articles from a book I was reading, then the random article tool, then I found AfD when I was asking how to delete a page and was curious about it so I started doing some of those that seemed more obvious to me after reading about them, and sometimes I go to the community portal. Oh and the suggest bot thats on my talk page. I guess I don't really have one thing. I try to follow what I am curious about or just fill the time cleaning things up. Should I not do AfDs anymore? FiddleheadLady (talk) 15:09, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
 * All of those things are fine; please keep on doing them. Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 15:13, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Ok cool, thank you for letting me know I am doing ok! FiddleheadLady (talk) 16:36, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Comment As per below checkuser report by Oshwah, All these users are from same country and are using same common user agent. This seems like a firm operating undisclosed paid editing work from same country, hiring virtual employees within the country. I guess this should be enough to take an action for block. Sanketio31 (talk) 12:12, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * /. They're all located from the same country, but geolocate to different areas and territories. All of their ranges are different. The only thing in common that I could find is that they mostly all share the same common user agent. This is purely a finding based on technical evidence; blocks can certainty be made based off of behavioral evidence.  ~Oshwah~  (talk) (contribs)   00:39, 8 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Closing. GeneralNotability (talk) 12:16, 17 August 2021 (UTC)