Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/James mccosker/Archive

02 March 2016

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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All edit promotionally around Precision Group (see also WP:COIN)

Victory Hotel was started by James mccosker with a draft from User:Phil1371/sandbox  created by Phil1371.

Galleries and infoboxes from User:Phil1371/sandbox were used by James mccosker, egs.

IP 220.233.10.158 edit was immediately cleaned by James mccosker

IP 220.233.10.158 has edited the sandboxes of both James mccosker and Phil1371, , ,. See this closely followed by the account 6:31 6:38.

144edward sole edit is to the sandbox of James mccosker

IP 119.15.76.154 sole edit is to the sandbox of James mccosker, creating a draft used by James mccosker. See the immediate followup 00:09 00:16.

Prancantral sole edits are to User:Phil1371/sandbox

Edit summaries ("alert tag")
 * IP 220.233.10.158 - "Extensive references added and alert tag removed, external hyperlinks updated to remove inappropriate links and information updated and reordered to reflect recent history of the centre and its makeup"
 * James mccosker - "Extensive updates including a list of references for content, removal of inappropriate copy and addition of internal linking. Subheadings reordered to bring history ahead of design. Alert tags were removed after the addition of referential material."
 * James mccosker - "Addressed issues raised in the alert tags by adding references for verification and removed them. Also enhanced content by updating building name in info box and included two new headings: "Key Features" and "Transport""

There is also corporate accounts on commons (User:Whitehorsehotel, User:144edward, User:Victoryhotel, User:Customshouseportadelaide User:Prancentral, User:Portcanal) uploading images which are very quickly placed into articles by James mccosker. duffbeerforme (talk) 07:58, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.'' The activity of the sockmaster in Group spanned July 2015 to the present.
 * with regard to the stale accounts:
 * User:Prancentral was active only on Aug 24 2015 and has an account name = to a building owned by Precision Group called Pran Central. Username violation and clear sign that of affiliation. This account's only edits were to the sandbox of a confirmed sock in Group 1.  Behaviorally that is enough, no?
 * User:144edward has an account name = to a building owned by Precision Group called 144 Edward Street, Brisbane. Username violation and clear sign that of affiliation. This account's only edits were to the sandbox of a confirmed sock in Group 1. Behaviorally that is enough, no? This account was active for 1 day in Oct 2015.
 * User:JohBD was active end of April - June 2015 and was a 100% WP:SPA for Shaun Bonétt, the CEO of Precision Group. Their first edit to that article was removing tags.  This seems to be high on the priority list as it was also the first edit to existing articles about Precision Group properties made by the socks in group 1: here and here of MacArthur Central and here and here.  This is very likely a predecessor account to Group 1.

These two are probably socks of each other and MEAT with Group 1.
 * with regard to Group 2:
 * User:Pk.kimemia was active briefly in Feb 2016.  Per their contribs they diddled around a bit, and then created 160 Ann Street, Brisbane  an article about a former Precision Group property.  Their sandbox went from nothing to something serious in 20 minutes, per this dif  The key thing for Precision in this article is a deal they with for the property that was "one of the largest property swap transactions in Australian history".
 * User:EditorJ16 was also active briefly in Feb 2016.  WP:SPA per contribs for Precision Group.  Like Pk.kimemia prepared extensive material in their sandbox, User:EditorJ16/sandbox for the article about the Precision Group per se. They use the same sources for the swap deal, formatted in just the same way, as  Pk.kimemia did, and very similar language to describe the deal.  The Precision Group article was created by Group 1, and if you look at the history, article history EditorJ61 appeared to be coordinating with them via edit notes.

In my view these are all socks/meat, and they all should be indeffed. Not to mention that they are all obviously paid editors violating WP:PROMO and the Terms of Use. I know some are not compelled by ToU violations but WP:PROMO is policy. I have been carefully reviewing all this stuff tonight and these folks did really cynical stuff like this, where a sock in Group 1 came and "reviewed" the work of another.

I also want to add that I reviewed the editing on Shaun_Bonétt and recorded what I found here: Talk:Shaun_Bonétt. There is a long string of likely paid editors going back to October 2014. The most recent is: Thanks! Jytdog (talk) 06:09, 5 March 2016 (UTC) and would appreciate a CU on them.
 * is probably stale but if your tools can see any connection with Group 1 I would not be surprised, as their edits followed in the footsteps of JohBD's, one of the stale accounts above. Postman followed right after.
 * is probably stale but if your tools can see any connection with Group 1 I would not be surprised, as their edits followed in the footsteps of JohBD's, one of the stale accounts above. Postman followed right after.

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * The following accounts are :
 * Group 1 – the following accounts are ✅ to each other:
 * Group 2 – the following accounts are to each other and ❌ to Group 1:
 * is ❌ to Groups 1 and 2.
 * I've blocked and tagged the accounts in Group 1. With respect to the other non-stale accounts, bear in mind that in cases of paid editing, editing by affiliation, or editing by coordination, the users will often be separate individuals. That doesn't make their behavior any more acceptable. However, the decision as to what to do about those accounts I leave to a clerk or an administrator familiar with the background.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:56, 3 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Blocking and tagging group 2, and closing.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  00:42, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Group 2 – the following accounts are to each other and ❌ to Group 1:
 * is ❌ to Groups 1 and 2.
 * I've blocked and tagged the accounts in Group 1. With respect to the other non-stale accounts, bear in mind that in cases of paid editing, editing by affiliation, or editing by coordination, the users will often be separate individuals. That doesn't make their behavior any more acceptable. However, the decision as to what to do about those accounts I leave to a clerk or an administrator familiar with the background.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:56, 3 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Blocking and tagging group 2, and closing.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  00:42, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
 * is ❌ to Groups 1 and 2.
 * I've blocked and tagged the accounts in Group 1. With respect to the other non-stale accounts, bear in mind that in cases of paid editing, editing by affiliation, or editing by coordination, the users will often be separate individuals. That doesn't make their behavior any more acceptable. However, the decision as to what to do about those accounts I leave to a clerk or an administrator familiar with the background.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:56, 3 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Blocking and tagging group 2, and closing.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  00:42, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Blocking and tagging group 2, and closing.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  00:42, 21 March 2016 (UTC)